Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Can you have other files on the hard drive with Time Machine backups?

I

Imola Ghost

macrumors 65816
Original poster
I was just wondering if the big ol' hard drive that I use for Time Machine backups, if I can store other files on there also or can it only hold Time Machine backups?
 
Thanks, that's what I thought but I wanted to make sure! I'm new to Mac's [7-8 days] and have plenty of stupid question.

Thanks for not making fun of me!
 
That is exactly how I use mine. It works like a charm. You do have to watch the free space though. It fills up fast. I don't know if there is a way to delete portions of your backups files and just keep the most current ones. I just deleted all of them and started the backup process again. Pain in the tail, but it worked.

If anyone knows a better way, please let us know.
 
JCastro said:
That is exactly how I use mine. It works like a charm. You do have to watch the free space though. It fills up fast. I don't know if there is a way to delete portions of your backups files and just keep the most current ones. I just deleted all of them and started the backup process again. Pain in the tail, but it worked.

If anyone knows a better way, please let us know.
Click to expand...


I was just coming back here to ask this particular question. I'd like to know if/how you can just get rid of some of the older backups. If someone knows I'd love to know.

BTW, I love having a Mac and what I like the most about it is that things just seem to work without a lot of configuring.
 
Imola Ghost said:
I was just coming back here to ask this particular question. I'd like to know if/how you can just get rid of some of the older backups. If someone knows I'd love to know.

BTW, I love having a Mac and what I like the most about it is that things just seem to work without a lot of configuring.
Click to expand...

The first question is answered by the last sentence. 🙂 "It just works". 😉

Unless you need the extra space (which will eventually be used by Time Machine anyway), you should just let Time Machine handle removing old backups. It'll do it automatically when it runs out of space.

Otherwise, you can get rid of old or unwanted backups by launching Time Machine. Then, go back in time to where you want to remove the backup. Select the file/folder, then use the "tool" menu (the one with the "gear" on it) to either remove the selected backup or all backups of that item (past and future).

If there's something you never want backed up, go to System Preferences > Time Machine. Click on "options" and add the item to the "excluded" list. Time Machine will remove it from current backups, as well as never backing it up in the future.
 
Time machine automatically deletes some back-ups. The most recent ones are in hours, but the more you go back in time, the more time there's between back-ups.
 
partition the drive

If you partition the drive, TM will only be able to use the space you give it. After it reaches the limit it will start erasing old stuff. Meanwhile you will have the second partition available with the same amount of space always.
 
Yes, I ran into the same thing. For me, it was a desire to use the same drive for an Aperture vault backup. I ended up partitioning the drive to give 500GB to Time Machine and 200GB to use for the Aperture vault and other files. Works like a charm and no manual intervention will be needed. It is easily done from the disk utility, but it WILL delete your files when it repartitions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back