Helen Page1

Q: My back up drive has more data than my computer

How can I find and delete duplicates. 500g used on 1t hard drive, 80gs left on external hard drive used with Time machine. I want to transfer ext. drive to new computer but it will eat up the new hard drive. I need to delete duplicates. Thanks.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Mar 26, 2016 5:10 PM

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Q: My back up drive has more data than my computer

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  • by MrHoffman,

    MrHoffman MrHoffman Mar 28, 2016 4:32 PM in response to Helen Page1
    Level 6 (15,627 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 28, 2016 4:32 PM in response to Helen Page1

    You can certainly choose and use the subsets from the migration tool (linked earlier) but I'd tend to migrate it all in from the Time Machine backup.   Then you have what you had, as your starting point.   With the myriad of decisions involving computers and complex software and configurations, I find the simpler and the default sequences are usually the better choice, and are almost always the better-tested and more reliable choice.

  • by Helen Page1,

    Helen Page1 Helen Page1 Mar 28, 2016 4:38 PM in response to MrHoffman
    Level 1 (49 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 28, 2016 4:38 PM in response to MrHoffman

    Mr. Hoffman, I agree that simpler is always better and I appreciate your thoughtful response. My concern is that migrating everything over, given the almost 1 T of data on the back up drive, will eat up all the space on my new computer.

  • by MrHoffman,

    MrHoffman MrHoffman Mar 28, 2016 5:01 PM in response to Helen Page1
    Level 6 (15,627 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 28, 2016 5:01 PM in response to Helen Page1

    Helen Page1 wrote:

     

    Mr. Hoffman, I agree that simpler is always better and I appreciate your thoughtful response. My concern is that migrating everything over, given the almost 1 T of data on the back up drive, will eat up all the space on my new computer.

     

    Does your existing Mac have one terabyte of data on it?   Or less?   The Time Machine archive will restore what was present on the source Mac, and not the entire archive of data.   You are seemingly focused on the entire archive, all the delta copies, all the changes, all the files that have come and gone, everything you've done over the lifetime of that time machine.  That data will not get restored here.  You'll get the current contents of the source Mac.   Not the entire terabyte of historical data that's in the archive.   Assume that the source Mac currently requires 100 GB of storage (for the purposes of discssion), then the Time Machine restoration will restore that 100 GB of file data, and the target storage (hard disk, SSD, fusion drive, whatever) must be sized somewhat larger than that 100 GB of current usage.   But not the terabyte of historical data in the Time Machine archive.

     

    Assuming that the new Mac storage (again, hard disk, SSD, fusion drive, whatever) is sized somewhat larger than the current contents of the source Mac storage — humor me — migrate it, and see what happens.   See if it works.   That's the current contents of the storage on the Mac, and not the total capacity of the storage on the Mac, too. 

     

    Why do I mention "somewhat larger" here?   Because OS X itself and various of the included apps are bigger, this given there's also a software upgrade happening here.   Which means you'll need a little more storage on the new configuration.

     

    Now if the new Mac has total storage capacity less than the current contents of the source Mac, then you will have problems with the migration, and will have to subset and to reduce the amount of data you are trying to store on the new Mac.   But again, this reduction is not predicated on the terabyte of historical data in the Time Machine archive.

  • by Helen Page1,

    Helen Page1 Helen Page1 Mar 28, 2016 5:23 PM in response to MrHoffman
    Level 1 (49 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 28, 2016 5:23 PM in response to MrHoffman

    Thanks for your time here and I think you have answered my question. My new computer has 1 T of storage with the new OS X and updates and Office 2011 on it. My old computer has 500 gb of data so there is plenty of room. I have 500 gn of free space on the new hard drive on my old computer so between them 1 T  of storage and don't plan on adding many more photos. I did a lot of traveling in the past few years and really filled up the drives with raw photos.

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