Time Machine backup sizes not accurate?

[vjaaan]

When I use Finder to Get Info so I can see the folder sizes of each separate backup on my external drive (1T), each one reads to be about 450 GB, and there are about 30 of them. So that is impossible.

How can I determine how much space each date's backup folder really holds?

I want to delete many of them to make room for some folders of videos I want to store there.

Thanks.

 

[asriznet]

When I use Finder to Get Info so I can see the folder sizes of each separate backup on my external drive (1T), each one reads to be about 450 GB, and there are about 30 of them. So that is impossible.

How can I determine how much space each date's backup folder really holds?

I want to delete many of them to make room for some folders of videos I want to store there.

Thanks.

Well you are right on that! Because time machine does not make copies of the same files, it indexes them all of them are linked to a single file.

how much space each date's backup folder really holds? you've answered that question yourself, about 450GB. however if you delete 1 of the backup dates, the file may still exist in your time machine and therefore will not make much difference.

Unless the file only exists in the backup date that you are deleting and nowhere else.

The proper to delete all copies of a particular file is explained in the following article - OS X Mountain Lion: Remove a backed-up item from your backup disk