Time Machine Backup does not fit on HDD

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Time Machine Backup does not fit on HDD

Hi,

I have a very odd problem. I do have a 750GB hdd in my macbook pro. My external time machine backup drive is 1TB. After haveing some issues with my system I had to reinstall OSX. Now I want to recover my system from the external drive. When I run through the recovery process formatting the 750GB drive the drive utiliity tool tells my that I have 748GB available. When I get to to the point to chose the target for my recovery partition of the 748GB only 697GB are left. Now, of course) the recovery tool tells that there is not enough space to recovery the system from the external drive.

My old system was quite full. I only had 2 GB free space left. So the size of the time machine backup should be close to the 750GB. But 697GB is just not enough. What happened to the 50GB between formatting the drive and wanting to recover from the external HDD?

Thanks for your help.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Aug 21, 2013 2:07 PM

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Answer 1

Erbsenroller Author

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Aug 21, 2013 2:09 PM in response to Erbsenroller

One more detail is that apperntly there is a recovery hd partition on my drive even after the formatting process that the system gives me as an option if i want to make a fresh installation of OSX. Maybe this is what is taking up the needed space. There is a OSX Base Installation visible in the disk utility but I cannot erase it because the option is greyed out.

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Answer 2

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Aug 22, 2013 9:51 AM in response to Erbsenroller

Erbsenroller wrote:

. . .

When I run through the recovery process formatting the 750GB drive the drive utiliity tool

Do you mean Disk Utility? If so, that's not how you restore Time Machine backups.

After erasing the HD, quit Disk Utility and select the Restore From Time Machine Backup option.

See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14 for the gory details.

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Answer 3

Erbsenroller Author

Level 1

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Aug 24, 2013 6:38 AM in response to Pondini

Yes. Sorry. That's what I meant. Disk Utility. But I did only use it to get rid of the Recovery partition to free enough space for my Time Machine Backup. Unsuccesful unfortunatly. In the end my solution was somewhat different. I chose the option make a new installation of OSX. After the fresh install I was presented the option to recover my user and data files from my time machine drive which I did. Suddenly there was enough room for the data again.

It sill doesn't explain what happened but I've got a running system again.

Thanks for the help.

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