Starting time capsule over from scratch

[bluesTank]

Hey everyone,

I recently had to restore my entire system from an old backup on my time capsule. Now it has two copies of my entire system however, since it thinks I have a new computer and did a full backup again.

Is there some way to reset it and do a full backup from this point on, and completely delete what I had before today?

 

[DrZaius]

Hey everyone,

I recently had to restore my entire system from an old backup on my time capsule. Now it has two copies of my entire system however, since it thinks I have a new computer and did a full backup again.

Is there some way to reset it and do a full backup from this point on, and completely delete what I had before today?

In the Time Machine preferences change your disk to None, format the drive, then re-select it as your backup drive.

 

[JediMeister]

The easiest way to format the Time Capsule drive, after de-selecting it as the backup location is to use AirPort Utility. After clicking on the disk tab you can choose to erase the internal drive of the Time Capsule. The secure multipass erases are up to you, but personally I wouldn't see the need for it unless you're particularly security conscious.

 

[bluesTank]

I also use this hard drive for movies and other data. Is there any way to only remove the backup files, and not everything else that is on there?

 

[Mal]

Just delete them. The backups for your computer are stored in a .sparseimage on the Time Capsule drive, so you simply delete the older image and you'll be good to go.

jW

 

[bluesTank]

Just delete them. The backups for your computer are stored in a .sparseimage on the Time Capsule drive, so you simply delete the older image and you'll be good to go.

jW

Is that the ONLY component of the backups? Have you done this before yourself?

 

[bluesTank]

So can anyone confirm that the sparseimage will revert my time capsule back to new?