Time Machine and running out of space

[FortWorthMac]

Hello,

I have a 500gb external HD that I am using for the Time Machine backup.

Needless to say, it's become full after about 3 weeks of having it hooked up. Can I safely simply just "start over" by deleting all the data on it?

Thanks
David

 

[bananabar]

What's the point in doing that?! You'll be deleting all your back-ups.

TM will automatically delete older stuff to make way for newer back-ups.

 

[FortWorthMac]

What's the point in doing that?! You'll be deleting all your back-ups.

TM will automatically delete older stuff to make way for newer back-ups.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Every day or so I getting a message that I'm out of space and that "the oldest backup is now xxxxx".

Does that simply mean I go only "go back in time" to that date?

Thanks again,
David

 

[bananabar]

Yes, it does. You'll need a larger drive if you want to go back further - how much of your Mac's HDD is taken? And have you partitioned the TM disk or does it have the full 500GB?

 

[gnasher729]

Every day or so I getting a message that I'm out of space and that "the oldest backup is now xxxxx".

Does that simply mean I go only "go back in time" to that date?

That's exactly what it means. So if you are only concerned about restoring after a crash, you are absolutely fine. If you are concerned about files that you deleted five months ago and want back, that won't work.

There are some strategies to reduce the amount of space that is needed for incremental backups. For example, if you are editing videos, you probably create huge temporary files that you don't want to backup at all. You could tell Time Machine to ignore the folder containing those temporary files. Another big one is Parallels or Fusion: If you use them, your _complete_ Windows environment, usually many GB, will be backed up every time you make any change, so that _may_ be worth excluding.

 

[ChrisA]

Hello,

I have a 500gb external HD that I am using for the Time Machine backup.

Needless to say, it's become full after about 3 weeks of having it hooked up. Can I safely simply just "start over" by deleting all the data on it?

Thanks
David

That is the way it is designed to work. It will completely fill the disk and then it starts to automatically delete the oldest data to make room for the new. Open Time machine Preferences panel and read it. It has the best and shortest description of this process. Also in the panel you hav the option is turn off the warning message.

 

[FortWorthMac]

Thanks all for the help.

Regards,
David