Unable To Delete Time Machine Data

[Bazza01]

I have a 3TB Time Machine and it's at full capacity so I thought I would delete some of the back-ups.

When I entered the Time Machine it would not let me go back any further than the current day (my Mac internal HD is also at full capacity so assume there is only one backup)

I selected to delete all backups as I have made provision to move some of my Mac data elsewhere. However, my TM is still showing that it's full and a file called something like sparsebundle accounts for 2.99TB of space.

If I delete this file will my TM resume as per normal and commence backing up the data I have left on my Mac?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Weaselboy]

a file called something like sparsebundle accounts for 2.99TB of space.

That is odd. Is this drive locally attached like a USB drive? That spare bundle format is used by Time Machine for backups over the network like to a Time Capsule.

If the drive is a local drive, you can just use Disk Utility to erase the whole drive and start a new TM backup if you like. If it is a networked drive, then yes, just delete the sparse bundle.

 

[Bazza01]

That is odd. Is this drive locally attached like a USB drive? That spare bundle format is used by Time Machine for backups over the network like to a Time Capsule.

If the drive is a local drive, you can just use Disk Utility to erase the whole drive and start a new TM backup if you like. If it is a networked drive, then yes, just delete the sparse bundle.

Just to be clear I referred to a 3TB Time Machine, I meant Time Capsule.

It's connected to my Mac via a port so, yes, networked.

I'll go ahead and delete the sparse bundle as there is nothing within that I need.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[Weaselboy]

Just to be clear I referred to a 3TB Time Machine, I meant Time Capsule.

Ahhh... gotcha. That explains it.

Yep... just delete the sparse bundle and you will be good to go. It can take a few minutes or so for it to delete. You could also just reformat the drive from Airport Utility if you want.

 

[Bazza01]

Ahhh... gotcha. That explains it.

Yep... just delete the sparse bundle and you will be good to go. It can take a few minutes or so for it to delete. You could also just reformat the drive from Airport Utility if you want.

Sorry about that! Thanks for your help (for the 2nd time in as many days!)