Deleting Entire Time Machine Backup.

Discussion in 'macOS' started by ltcol266845, Jan 28, 2008.

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  1. ltcol266845, Jan 28, 2008

    ltcol266845 macrumors regular

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2006
    Location:
    Elgin, IL
    #1
    Hey all.

    A long ways back when I first got Leopard, I activated Time Machine. Perhaps a neat backup solution, it sucks (IMO) for laptops. So I deactivated Time Machine and removed my External drive from the Time Machine setup.

    Thing is, there is 230GB of used space on my external drive that I need freed up (never though I would run out of space on a 500GB drive, its a brave new world!). I have tried simply using the Finder, it goes through the process of deleting everything, but nothing actually gets deleted. Fun.

    Then I got knowledgeable and used the Terminal, doing a little cd /Volumes/External action with a little sudo rm -rf Backup.backupdb (of course then entering my little admin password)

    Immediately every file returns with a File location string and a fun little : Operation not permitted. message.

    Any suggestions? I don't have the ability to copy the files I want to keep and reformat the drive, I don't have any hard drives big enough to back up too.

    Thanks all...
    KS
     
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  2. Jiddick ExRex, Jan 29, 2008

    Jiddick ExRex macrumors 65816

    Jiddick ExRex

    Joined:
    May 14, 2006
    Location:
    Roskilde, DK
    #2
    It's most likely because the files are being flagged as in use and as a system file which makes it impossible for you to delete them.

    I think you need to actually deactivate Time Machine using that drive as a backup drive, since TM automatically uses it when booted.

    When trying to delete through Finder, does it delete it and remove the files while no space is actually being freed, or do the files just stay there?
     
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  3. DukeofAnkh, Jan 29, 2008

    DukeofAnkh macrumors regular

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2007
    Location:
    Melbourne
    #3
    Is there other stuff on that drive/partition? If not, boot from your Leopard DVD and just format it. Or if there is stuff, see if you can dump it somewhere else, format it, then put it back on.
     
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