Q: Backup on Main HD?

[Demco]

Hey guys,

I just made a fresh install of OSX 10.9.1 on my MBPRO "15 '08 and I just noticed when I open "About my Mac" and choose "Storage" almost 30GB of main HD is being used for "Backup"?

I don't understand this and since I have a 128GB SSD in this one, I cant really afford to waste any space.

I found this really odd since I have a TimeMachine HDD which I use on a daily basis.

Took a screenshot of the window. Take a look at the attached file.

Thanks in advance

demco

 

[GGJstudios]

For Time Machine users on notebooks running Lion or later, space may being consumed by Time Machine local snapshots, which can be disabled by entering the following command in Terminal: sudo tmutil disablelocal.

About Time Machine's "local snapshots" on portable Macs

 

[Demco]

Hey,

Okay, I see what you are saying - but close to 30GB of snapshots sound odd to me?


I don't know, but I will try the command. Does the command also delete the current snapshots stored?

thnx

 

[Weaselboy]

Hey,

Okay, I see what you are saying - but close to 30GB of snapshots sound odd to me?


I don't know, but I will try the command. Does the command also delete the current snapshots stored?

thnx

I would not run that command, as it turns off the local backups completely, and having the local backups there can be useful. I have had it come in handy a couple times when I wanted to restore something when away from my Time Machine backup.

But yes, that command will erase the local backups space. Or you can just turn Time Machine off then on again and it will erase the space.

You really don't need to worry about it though, as OS X manages the space. When your disk reaches 80% full, the OS will start to pare down that local backups storage on its own.

The way it works is anything you delete, even after you empty the trash, goes into that local backups space. I am guessing you deleted a bunch of files recently. You can test it yourself by turning Time Machine off then on to zero it then download a 100MB video or something and delete it then empty the trash and you will see that purple backups space grow by the same 100MB.