Move time machine from Bigger to smaller Harddrive, how?

[hmartine]

I have snow leopard. I have a 1TB time machine set up. After all I just realize that it is too big for what I actually need. I think half of that would be more than enough. I have another 500GB hard drive. I was wondering how can I move my time machine files from a Bigger hard drive to a smaller hard drive. All discussions, post and forums explain how to do it from smaller to a bigger hard drive using Disk utility. But that did not work for me, there is a error saying that the source is bigger than the destination. Does anybody know how can do this? basically using the apple computer and trying to avoid 3rd party software....thanks a lot

PS, The back-up file inside the 1 TB hard drive is much less than 500 GB.

 

[Le Big Mac]

I have snow leopard. I have a 1TB time machine set up. After all I just realize that it is too big for what I actually need. I think half of that would be more than enough. I have another 500GB hard drive. I was wondering how can I move my time machine files from a Bigger hard drive to a smaller hard drive. All discussions, post and forums explain how to do it from smaller to a bigger hard drive using Disk utility. But that did not work for me, there is a error saying that the source is bigger than the destination. Does anybody know how can do this? basically using the apple computer and trying to avoid 3rd party software....thanks a lot

Is the sparsebundle file larger than the destination? You may have to reduce the backup size first.

Another question: Why not just start over with the backup? Keep the old one for a couple of weeks before reformating the 1TB drive just in case. But unless you need to be able to go back to how things were months ago, I personally see little use for having a year-old backup. I really want just the most recent (or perhaps the few most recent).

 

[hmartine]

Is the sparsebundle file larger than the destination? You may have to reduce the backup size first.

Another question: Why not just start over with the backup? Keep the old one for a couple of weeks before reformating the 1TB drive just in case. But unless you need to be able to go back to how things were months ago, I personally see little use for having a year-old backup. I really want just the most recent (or perhaps the few most recent).

The back-up file inside the 1 TB hard drive is much less than 500 GB. But when I use Disk utility to "clone" the hard drive is when the error appears. am I doing something wrong, or it is simply not the right method?
Thanks