Hello. I moved to a new machine and wanted to know if I go back and use the same TM (HDD) on the old machine if it will erase the back ups since they are not on the original machine anymore.
MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)
No. Time Machine will simply create a new backup folder for the new machine on the Time Machine drive.
No. Time Machine will simply create a new backup folder for the new machine on the Time Machine drive.
Sorry, but this is very confusing.
I moved to a new machine
I think here when you say "machine", that you probably mean to say that you have a new Mac, correct?
and wanted to know if I go back and use the same TM (HDD) on the old machine
I think here when you say old "machine" that you might be asking about a Time Capsule that was used to store backups from your "old" Mac, correct?
if it will erase the back ups since they are not on the original machine anymore.
I think when you say original "machine", you might be asking about the old Mac that you don't have anymore, correct?
Since we may have guessed wrong on every quote above, things would be a lot more clear if you would not use the word "machine" at all, and instead tell us what the actual product is.
Once we understand things more clearly, we can probably give you a better answer.
Sorry, not meant to be confusing.
If moved to a new machine (iMac) and wanted to know if I go back and use the same TM (HDD) on the old machine (MBP) if it will erase the back ups (that were on the MBP) since they are not on the original machine (MBP) anymore. The MBP had a optical drive (HDD is place of the CD drive) and external storage (HDD). Started fresh with iMac.
Using new fresh HDD (TM) on iMac.
Nothing will be erased from the Time Capsule hard drive unless you deliberately delete the backup file for the old Mac. If you don't need to keep the backups for the old Mac on the Time Capsule hard drive, then you might think about deleting the backup file for the old Mac when you need more space on the Time Capsule hard drive.
I am curious. If I stopped a back up because the disk was getting full (TM on the MBP) and the oldest back up shows in the TM finder but not in the TM interface does that mean when I plug it back in the oldest will be deleted (or recovered back in the TM interface) if I have cleared out some of the old files I didn't need anymore in order to save some others. Recently came to the understanding that TM is not for archiving.
Sorry, you have lost me on this one.
The Time Machine interface will indicate the oldest backup on the "timeline" on the right hand side of the Time Machine window. If you stopped a recent backup, then the date for that backup will not appear in the Time Machine window.......the most recent backup will appear.
When the Time Capsule disk is full, Time Machine will automatically start to delete the oldest backups to make room for the "Incremental" backups. "Incremental" backups occur every hour as long as the Mac is active.
But.......and this is a big BUT......if the Time Capsule drive is full, and you add a significant amount of new data to the Mac......like photos, movies, and other files with a lot of new data......then you will get a message from Time Machine saying that there is not enough room for the new backup.
If you want to keep the backup files that you already have, then you will need to add another Time Capsule and start backups going there....or.....add a USB drive to the current Time Capsule and start backups going to the USB drive.
Alternately, if you don't need all the old backups from an old Mac, you can delete all of the backups for that Mac to clear significant space on the Time Capsule drive.
Maybe if you tell us what you are trying to accomplish, or what you want to do, we could advise on whether or not that is possible.....and if not, advise on an alternate plan.
By example I can view in the finder a backup with a date of 2014-12-31, but when I "enter time machine," it doesn't show up. Jan 14 is the last one that shows up.
I had extensive permission issues (El Capitan) with random locked folders and files. No one at Apple could figure it out. Even moved TM to a fresh HDD and still have locked folders and files (another trip to the genius bar maybe).
My current full back up on new iMac says 602 GB. MBP TM is just over 3TB.
I would like to use the 4T HDD that I have my old TM on. Thought maybe I could trim it down to 1TB and move to a smaller drive. And then use the 4T and make a RAID 5 with it.
I had two external drives with unfortunately some duplicate files. I have been able to delete some off of the current TM since I can verify I have them on new iMac. I didn't move anything over due to permission issues and wanted to start fresh. I use my computers mostly for Light Room and moved my stuff over through Lightroom for the most part.
Some files will delete when I enter time machine others will not even when nothing shows locked and full permissions.
Hope that makes sense and thank you for your help.
Using the Finder to get into Time Machine backups is not recommended, since it can very easily create corrupted links and other issues.
Sorry, but I'm not going to be able to help if you want to get into Time Machine using the Finder.
Alright Bob, no worries. I have only been deleting files though the "enter time machine" GUI.
I have found it best to not try to manually delete files from Time Machine at all. Even working through the Time Machine GUI, it takes forever to delete files, and after a few hours of work, you find that that very little if any space has been regained due to the way that a sparsebundle file behaves.
If you don't want to erase all the old backups for a Mac, you can always add a new Time Capsule or USB drive and start backups going there.
The simpler that you keep things with Time Machine, the better the chance of avoiding catastrophes.....like this message:
I am making a copy of it then will plug it back in and let it do its thing. Its a new 4T HDD and would like to maybe use it for something else instead of sitting and storing old files and many duplicates, especially since I have started a new system. But also don't want to delete the files just yet. I am mostly wanting to recover the very first date. I did loose all my time machine history once. Thankfully have learned to make several copies. Have learned that TM is not a storage or archival system.
I had read about the sparse bundles, they are interesting.
I could virtually copy the TM to my raid 8T and set both my TM and CCC to disregard it so it doesn't grow my system. Just to ensure I have a copy for safe keeping until ready to erase it. That could work.
Would anyone know why I have this? Storage and Storage 1?
Time Machine
