why is the sparse bundle so much smaller than the backed up computer...can I be confident all files are backed up?

marten berkman wrote:

. . .

When i open up time machine, an earlier version of my imac is there, but the external drive is kind of greyed and i cannot access it.

Correct. The drive hasn't been fully backed-up yet, so you can't access any backups of it. You cannot see a partial backup.

When I check the sparse bundle size, it is under 200 gb, when my imac is around 600 gb, 900 with the external drive.

Why is the sparse bundle so small relative to the imac? are there hidden data files outside of the sparse bundle? when checking the preferences, it states total included is 921 gb...yet that is not reflected in the sparse bundle size.

That means the backup only got to 200 GB, so it's only 😟part of one of the drives.

The 921 GB is an estimate of the size of a full backup -- once it's complete.

I want to be sure iphoto is actually backed up before deleting it from my imac.

No, it has not been backed-up.

Are you backing-up wirelessly? If so, 200 GB in 20 hours is not too bad a speed. Connect via Ethernet, and it should go at least 2-3 times faster. Once the first backup is complete, others can be done wirelessly.

However, you may want to exclude the copy of iPhoto on your Mac's internal HD from being backed-up, per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #10. Sounds like that will save about 300 GB from being backed-up twice!

marten berkman wrote:

. . .

I am wondering whether the "processing" progress bar was due to the time capsule freeing up space for the additional data on the new external drive. When I cancelled it, available space on the tc incresed from 200 to 500 gb.

Yes, quite possibly. Especially on Leopard and Snow Leopard, that process on network backups is excruciatingly repetitive and slow. 😢 It's improved greatly in Lion and later, but still isn't exactly quick.

The backup complete, i checked the contents of the backed up version of the external drive, and the iphoto folder was the same size as original, so I have confidence that iphoto is backed up. Now I could delete the iphoto from the imac, freeing up tons of space.

Yay! 🙂

Still curious why the imac sparsebundle is only 160gb, while my macbook pro sparsebundle is about 700 gb...as though they are inversely named from the computers they back up.

Oh, I didn't realize you had two Macs backing-up to the TC. Which one is the external HD connected to?

Unless you've specifically excluded things, after the initial backup, the sparse bundle should be nearly the size of the data it's backing-up (TM does exclude some things like system work files, most caches and logs, and trash, so the backups are a few GBs smaller). As you do more backups, of course, it will grow.

So please clarify how much data is on each drive, Mac, and sparse bundle.

Also, the 2tb time capsule has 258 gb of 1.8 tb available....am I to suppose that there is hidden backup data not in the sparse bundles?

Sparse bundles are odd critters. They don't automatically shrink when things are deleted from them. Instead, the vacated space is used for new files until it's full, then it begins to grow again. Time Machine will "compact" them when necessary, to reclaim the empty space, but doesn't take the time to do it unless it's out of room.

You can do that manually if you want, per the pink box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #12.

Message was edited by: Pondini

Yeah, that can't be right. The missing 828 sounds more like it, espcially if the iPhoto library on the internal HD was backed-up before it was deleted.

The MacBook's sparse bundle could well be right, if you've been backing it up for a while.

Try dragging the iMac's sparse bundle into Disk Utility's sidebar; see how large that says it is (towards the bottom).

If it still shows the 170 GB or so, you might want to Verify it, by holding Alt/Option while clicking the TM icon in the iMac's menubar and selecting Verify Backup. That will take quite a while, of course, so do it when you have some time.

There should be two separate sparsebundles, named for each Mac, something like this (Finder in Column View):

When you double-click one (or drag it into Disk Utility's sidebar and click it), that should mount the disk image inside it, as circled in green:

Effective with Snow Leopard, they're both named "Time Machine Backups," so you have to be careful to keep track of which one is which. If I'm going to look at two, I look at one, then eject it before mounting the other, just to be sure.