'Starting again' Deleting TM Backup from Time Cap whilst maintaining other files

Morning Chaps and Chapesses,

I've had a little google and a search for my question but nothing specific came up so I thought I'd stick it in a thread quickly.

In anticipation for SL (just dispatched to me today!) I want to start afresh so intend to clear off the backup on my Time Capsule and once I'm up and running, set up Time Machine on my clean installed Macbook Pro. I really want to exclude some folders I don't require in backups from the outset, something I only twigged about following an entire HD backup intially.

So my question is two fold:

1. Is it 'OK' to find the sparsebundle file (currently at 37gb) and just delete it via finder? I use the TC to store other personal files, movies etc, so reformatting with Disc Utility isn't an option.

2. When setting up my MacBook Pro to use the TC with TM, it won't 'write over' or damage any of the files I've got stored on the TC will it? As I need to keep using the TC for both backups and personal storage.

Hope this makes sense!

Cheers all, 😀

Paul

rkdiddy said:

1. Yes -but if you have room on your TC, you could stick your sparse file(s) into another folder - until you're sure the new backup has completed with no errors. That way, heaven forbid, something goes wrong you still have your back-up.

2. Yes - it won't write over any files. It just creates a new sparse bundle. Again you could pull your old storage files into a new folder to ensure they stay away from each other.

Click to expand...

Cool, thanks for this. Just couldn't really be arsed to move over 60GB worth of photos back onto a MacBook then back onto the TC. Even over Ethernet the thing hardly flies.

Cheers for your help mate, much appreciated.

Paul