2 types of time machine backups ?

[stuartrozier]

Hello,

i was looking on my external was drive to delete some backups, (another issue for this - TM is asking for more room)

aside from this ... i came across the time machine backup file on the was drive pictured below as a 'sparse bundle'
i then looked at a second time machine backup i have on a external drive (always good to have more than one), and thats being saved in a normal folder ? pictured below ...

does anybody know why this might be ?

many thanks in advance
stuart

 

[Weaselboy]

When you backup with Time Machine to a local disk like a USB drive, it puts the backup inside a Backups.backupdb file.

When you backup with TM to a networked drive, it uses that same Backups.backupdb file, but puts it inside a sparse bundle file. That is what you are seeing in your screenshot. I assume you made that sparse bundle backup over the network.