time machine is full

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Level 1

12 points

time machine is full

Mac OS X version 10.6.8

Time Machine backs up to an external hard drive (500GB) created in 2008. TM performed back up until 2012 when I got the message that there was no more space to back up. This was not a problem since I was retiring the business and using the computer for personal instead of business. So now I want to back up a few pictures and correspondence. Just a few things as I am retired and just want to tidy-up stuff.

Can I delete some of the oldest TM back up and go forward with the same hard drive?

Start with a new external hard drive for manual back up?

Learn about the cloud and save a new way?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Apr 19, 2016 9:18 AM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

685,293 points

Apr 20, 2016 8:30 AM in response to iccostumes

You shouldn't delete Time Machine backups because it can corrupt the backups. Time Machine should delete the oldest backup itself. Is it not doing that? You can get a larger hard drive and transfer the old backup to it. Try using Disk Utility/Restore to copy the backup to a new location. Please note that this will reformat the destination partition.

Start with C4 in the 1st linked article.

Time Machine Troubleshooting

Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

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