My Macbook Pro is using 320GB on "Backups" and Time Machine is using 640GB. It just seems ridiculous, considering I everything else only takes up 77GB combined. How to I get rid of a good chunk of it from Macbook HD and also how can I reduce the Time Machine parameters, maybe so it starts deleting back up data sooner?
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), Mac OS X (10.7.5), Running Mac OS X 10.8.3
If you run TM you don't really need local snapshots so if you need the disk space you can disable them in Terminal by copying & p;asting this command at the prompt
sudo tmutil disablelocal
Press return. You will be prompted for your password, it will be invisible.
To undo this, rerun it with "enablelocal" instead of "disablelocal".
In TM preferences you can choose to exclude items to the backup.
EDIT: See these helpful hints from Pondini.
What kind of things would I exclude though? I mean 640GB is alot to back up only 77GB of Data
Time Machine keeps a history of your files, not just a single copy, that is how it manages to go back in time.
Do you use windows with parallels or something similar? That virtual disk can become backed up repeatedly as things change in the windows environment, which can quickly take up room on a backup.
Like Csound1 points out, it does keep a history of files.
chaotic_arts wrote:
What kind of things would I exclude though? I mean 640GB is alot to back up only 77GB of Data
You would exclude any additional partitions you may have on your Macbook Pro and any external drives like USB drives that are attached via the USB ports or Firewire or Thunderbolt ports.
For example, I have Macintosh HD, Lion HD and Test HD partitions on my rMBP. I exclude the Lion HD and Test HD in Time Machine so only the Macintosh HD gets backed up.
How do I reduce the 'Backups' Data on my Macbook HD and how to reduce the parameters of Time Machine?
