No longer able to backup with Time Machine

Question

No longer able to backup with Time Machine

I have backed up my 2.93 GHz 640 GB iMac with 4 GB of memory for years to a 1TB external drive via Time Machine. I'm using OS X version 10.7.5. I've started to run out of space on the iMac so I got a 2TB external drive to move my photos to. Before I did anything, I made sure I had multiple backups on both Time Machine and my cloud storage (Back Blaze). I had backups going back over a year. I moved my photos via Lightroom and have been able to create one successful backup but now I get an error message that there's not enough space on the 1TB to backup and only the one backup exists in Time Machine. I've run a Disk Utility on the external backup drive and there are no issues. I'm not understanding how all of a sudden I can no longer back up when I have the same amount of data, actually less since I deleted some duplicate files. And all the old backups have disappeared. I'm concerned that I only have one backup from last night. It's as though that one backup is huge. When I try to click on the folder to check the folder size, the drive keeps churning and never returns the file size. Is this a sign of a corrupted or damaged drive? Any other options or troubleshooting?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Apr 16, 2015 10:16 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 16, 2015 10:47 PM in response to Linda Claudette

What is the name of the one backup file that you see?

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Answer 2

poikkeus1

Level 4

2,454 points

Apr 16, 2015 10:55 PM in response to Linda Claudette

Let's try to make this less confusing:

You have a 2TB external drive for storing photos. That drive is working fine.

You have a 1TB external drive for your TM backup. That's the drive with the error message that there's insufficient space on the drive.

Now, after deleting some duplicate files, the old backups have disappeared.

I understand that you have multiple backups of your data.

If you've made multiple copies, and have the data backed up on the Cloud, wouldn't you be able to copy the Cloud copy onto your 1TB external?

Is it possible that a prior TM backup has the data you need? Are there any error messages on the 1TB external? Is the drive new? (As you probably know, drives either go bad early, or last for years.)

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Answer 3

Apr 17, 2015 4:39 AM in response to SimchaMordechai

Backups.backupdb What's really weird is that I let it sit overnight to see if it would come up with the folder size and it's 1.41TB which is impossible because the drive itself is only 1TB. Doesn't make any sense.

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Answer 4

Apr 17, 2015 4:49 AM in response to poikkeus1

Your understanding of the lay of the land is correct. You're right, I should be able to copy the Cloud data to the 1TB external drive. I haven't tried that yet. The error message that I'm getting is that the backup requires 189.3 GB and there's only 46.61 GB free. The only other thing I can think of is that I initially copied the photo directories over to the new 2TB drive and then did some homework and realized I should move them in Lightroom. I deleted the copied folders, moved them in Lightroom and then emptied the Trash folder so in total, I should still have less than 640 GB in total of data. The 1TB drive is several years old so it's very possible it's now bad. Just the most unfortunate time for that to happen in the midst of moving all these files. Thanks for your help!

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Answer 5

Apr 17, 2015 11:11 PM in response to Linda Claudette

backups.backupdb is where all of your backups are located. Open that folder and you will see a Macintosh HD folder. Open that Folder and it will show your user accounts. Open your user folder and you will see many folders with different dates and times, those are all of your backups.

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Answer 6

Apr 18, 2015 4:56 AM in response to SimchaMordechai

I've done that. Only one backup. Before I moved all the photos I had multiple backups, now just one. It makes no sense especially since the folder says is 1.4TB and the drive is only 1TB.

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