delete items from time machine back up

[Fooj]

Hi

Is there a way of deleting specific items from a time machine back up?

I want to delete my parallels windows folder from previous backups as its not needed.

I know that I can exclude it from back ups, but these backups are already there and i dont need them any more

 

[Xander562]

Wait for them to be deleted when you run out of space on your external drive. Or delete everything off the drive and start new.

 

[Fooj]

Wait for them to be deleted when you run out of space on your external drive. Or delete everything off the drive and start new.

Ok, so there is no way of deleting the specific items, or even certain week backups?

 

[Xander562]

Ok, so there is no way of deleting the specific items, or even certain week backups?

Not that i know of, but you could poke around the files TM created on your external HDD if you want. Perhaps you could find it.

 

[Fooj]

Just looked in time machine and you can delete all previous backups of an item, if you locate it in time machine and then in the cog icon drop down menu (dont know what it is called) there is an option to delete all previous back ups

 

[dukebound85]

Just looked in time machine and you can delete all previous backups of an item, if you locate it in time machine and then in the cog icon drop down menu (dont know what it is called) there is an option to delete all previous back ups

yup that was what i was going to suggest

you can delete all backup of certain files or just instances

 

[HLdan]

Just looked in time machine and you can delete all previous backups of an item, if you locate it in time machine and then in the cog icon drop down menu (dont know what it is called) there is an option to delete all previous back ups

Not sure what a "COG ICON" is but I think you mean the Action button. Sorry but I can help chuckling a bit, you started a thread asking for help, then solved your own problem and helped the guy who was helping you.

 

[Fooj]

Not sure what a "COG ICON" is but I think you mean the Action button. Sorry but I can help chuckling a bit, you started a thread asking for help, then solved your own problem and helped the guy who was helping you.

I am still pretty new to OS X, and sometimes forget that things are that simple in OS X.

Thanks for peoples help anyway

 

[irishandy]

Hi - I've got a sort of related question.

I want to restore a full system from a TM backup - but the original system was on an amply endowed macbook, and my new system is a not so big (80GB) Mac Mini.

When I ran the restore procedure, it failed (wouldn't even start) because the backup image is bigger than the space available. I've got a load of music, movies, and big applications like CS5, Office for Mac etc on there...

So, is there a way to delete some of the files from the TM backup (e.g. a load of movies or music) in order to bring the image down? When I tried to go straight into the TM backup folders through Finder and delete files, the computer says no.

I don't really want to have to go out and buy a new, larger HDD and then go through the faff of upgrading the mini.

Thanks!!

 

[irishandy]

Answer my own question

OK - just answered my own question, but I'll post it up here in case anyone else is curious!

I went into TM and navigated to my target backup folder on the backup disc. Then selected the file/folder and deleted it from the backup volume, not from the root "master" volume.