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Time Machine - Disk Full
- Thread starter ///alpinepower
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I'm still a little confused... How do you know that when deleting an old backup, that you are not deleting the file that a hard link refers to in a more recent backup. For example, let's say I wrote the doc file X on January 1 and still have it January 31. If I delete the January 1 backup, will file X still exist if I restore January 31?
Well, isn't it obvious? I am an idiot. I did not even know of the existence of Time Machine when I popped in my Leopard install disk. Your omniscience is impressive, TheSpaz, but your attitude is a bit insulting. I'm over it.
The reason I had to read through all of those posts is because there is no easily accessible and obvious documentation from Apple. So as soon as you start roaming around, searching for answers, you find a lot of conflicting and WRONG information. If you don't hit the right article or post, you could be in for a real headache...as has obviously been the case with a LARGE NUMBER of users. A lot of people have no idea how this really works and are promoting the most screwed up workarounds. Otherwise, we would not be discussing it now. I am moving on. Good luck to all with your time travels.
Well, isn't it obvious? I am an idiot. I did not even know of the existence of Time Machine when I popped in my Leopard install disk. Your omniscience is impressive, TheSpaz, but your attitude is a bit insulting. I'm over it.
The reason I had to read through all of those posts is because there is no easily accessible and obvious documentation from Apple. So as soon as you start roaming around, searching for answers, you find a lot of conflicting and WRONG information. If you don't hit the right article or post, you could be in for a real headache...as has obviously been the case with a LARGE NUMBER of users. A lot of people have no idea how this really works and are promoting the most screwed up workarounds. Otherwise, we would not be discussing it now. I am moving on. Good luck to all with your time travels.
Amazingly, I clicked the "Help" menu in the Finder and typed in Time Machine. I see a wealth of information that is available about Time Machine right on your HARD DRIVE. No need for looking up internet articles. It has suggestions on what to do when it fills up... it tells you how it works... it tells you how to configure it... and it basically tells you everything you need to know about Time Machines... so I don't agree with you about how it's undocumented... it is VERY well documented. I'm glad you're over it though.
You're over thinking it (I think it's what a lot of people do w/TM).
Just think of the backup that's on January 1st as what your Mac "looked like" on that day. Literally, if you went back in time.
So, following that logic, if you delete the Jan 1 backup, all you are deleting is that "copy" of your files. You still have everything that exists on your Mac today, and you still have all the historical views of your Mac from Jan 2 onward (assuming you didn't delete those backups).
Just don't over think it. It's just maintaing historical "snapshots" of the contents of your computer. Obviously, it will do that until it runs out of space, then it will start deleting old backups automatically...
Well, it should be...some of us seem to be having problems where it stops deleting old backups automatically for some reason.
I started using TM in October of 07. My oldest backup now is Jan of 08 (since it's been automatically deleting historical backups). Today, I'm getting that message that there's not enough disks space to back up the current backup, even though the size of the backup that it wants to put onto time machine is less than what's available on time machine (says it needs 250MB, but only 850MB are available on Time machine) Go figure that one. Looks like someone got their "less than" and "greater than" signs mixed up somewhere in the code.
Today, this same exact thing happened again. What the hell? Why does it just start over for no reason with no explanation? The only thing I can think of that I changed was I added something to the exclude list and took something off the exclude list in the Time Machine preferences.
Is Time Machine supposed to start over for no reason every once in a while? I didn't see that in the documentation. I mean, it's been working fine... deleting only the oldest backups... but, only a couple of times now, it has randomly deleted all my backups and I don't know why it would do that.
Don't Do it
Dankeschon,
I do not reccommend time capsule or any of apple's other wireless networking products.
There seem to be many issues that remain unresolved for which apple has no fix for (otherwise none of us would be here looking for answers).
Every time I run into any problem with the time machine/capsule backups the only solution I have found is to delete the sparse bundle and start over from scratch. No permanent fix seems to exist for any issues with the time capsule and Apple's only solution for a full time capsule is to give their company more money by purchasing a second one.
Dankeschon,
I do not reccommend time capsule or any of apple's other wireless networking products.
There seem to be many issues that remain unresolved for which apple has no fix for (otherwise none of us would be here looking for answers).
Every time I run into any problem with the time machine/capsule backups the only solution I have found is to delete the sparse bundle and start over from scratch. No permanent fix seems to exist for any issues with the time capsule and Apple's only solution for a full time capsule is to give their company more money by purchasing a second one.
Sorry to resurrect but this seems to still not have been resolved.
[EDIT] The strange thing is that her backup only goes to September. The only place we store large files (DVD to iPhone conversion) is on the desktop and there is no backup of that. Strange indeed.
[EDIT 2] Okay, I figured out that I had stored some of the MacTheRipper DVD rips (yes, we own the discs) in the movies folder. I just deleted them and am now attempting to backup again (I told TM to delete all old backups of the files).
[EDIT 3] It now backups properly. So something is causing TM to give the "Backup Drive Full" warning when very large files (~1GB) are attempting to be backed up if the TM drive is already at capacity (ie. full). Apparently it refuses to delete the old backups to make room for the new ones in this case. Sounds like Apple has some fixing to do.
It's suppose to work that way but it stops doing that for some reason.
That's exactly what the OP's post was about. My wife's MB TM backup just started giving her the "TM backup drive is full" warning even though I just backed up my PB fine on the same partition of the same backup drive.
[EDIT] The strange thing is that her backup only goes to September. The only place we store large files (DVD to iPhone conversion) is on the desktop and there is no backup of that. Strange indeed.
[EDIT 2] Okay, I figured out that I had stored some of the MacTheRipper DVD rips (yes, we own the discs) in the movies folder. I just deleted them and am now attempting to backup again (I told TM to delete all old backups of the files).
[EDIT 3] It now backups properly. So something is causing TM to give the "Backup Drive Full" warning when very large files (~1GB) are attempting to be backed up if the TM drive is already at capacity (ie. full). Apparently it refuses to delete the old backups to make room for the new ones in this case. Sounds like Apple has some fixing to do.
100% Agree - Also if you use VMWare Fusion and run other OS on your mac this will cause it to fill up. I had a 74GB Vista file and left it open at work as i needed to use windows from time to time. Every hour TM was backing up this 74GB file!!!!! My 500gb drive was full in two days!!! I moved it onto the TM drive so it runs from there and its helped a lot!
However when it was full it gave the error that it was full.
The reason I think might be when the new backup is larger then the first ever backup and there is not room even if the first back is deleted.
Just my two pence worth.
N
However when it was full it gave the error that it was full.
The reason I think might be when the new backup is larger then the first ever backup and there is not room even if the first back is deleted.
Just my two pence worth.
N
1. If you try to backup say 500 GB of data on a 250 GB backup hard drive, that will obviously not work.
2. Time Machine will save weekly backups forever until the backup drive runs out of space. Might happen in ten years time if you bought a 2TB hard drive, but it will happen eventually. When that happens, it will give you the warning that the backup drive is full, but it will also delete older backups until it has enough space to backup your current hard drive. Deleting older backups can take a long time. Just let it run. "Drive is full" is just to inform you that some old data that you deleted ages ago will now disappear. Your current data will be backed up, eventually.
2. Time Machine will save weekly backups forever until the backup drive runs out of space. Might happen in ten years time if you bought a 2TB hard drive, but it will happen eventually. When that happens, it will give you the warning that the backup drive is full, but it will also delete older backups until it has enough space to backup your current hard drive. Deleting older backups can take a long time. Just let it run. "Drive is full" is just to inform you that some old data that you deleted ages ago will now disappear. Your current data will be backed up, eventually.
Regarding point 2: When my TM gives me the "Backup disk is full" message, TM says that the backup has failed. This seems to conflict with your premise that "your current data will be backed up eventually" if TM is telling me the backup has failed.
How long is eventually?
What about what we don't know we don't know about ?
All good stuff.
I accept the need to take responsibility for my own actions. I take especial care with precious documents (especially the oscar winning screenplay), garage band masterpieces and stunning photographic images.
After all my External HD is just as likely to fail as my mac HD right? So extremely precious stuff gets backedup to DVD separately. Or have 2 otr more HDs. Whatever
That said, Time Machine is good for me for now. As I get to understand the OS better I can get more confident re deciding which files/apps etc to exclude from backups.
However, would anyone care to suggest a backup strategy for those files we not-yet-super-geek types do not know are precious. System files, that sort of thing. Files you are really going to miss when they are gone.
i.e If TM did not exist...
1. What files would you back up routinely ?
2. How?
Hope this makes sense. Be brutal if this is idiotic.
Cheers, S
All good stuff.
I accept the need to take responsibility for my own actions. I take especial care with precious documents (especially the oscar winning screenplay), garage band masterpieces and stunning photographic images.
After all my External HD is just as likely to fail as my mac HD right? So extremely precious stuff gets backedup to DVD separately. Or have 2 otr more HDs. Whatever
That said, Time Machine is good for me for now. As I get to understand the OS better I can get more confident re deciding which files/apps etc to exclude from backups.
However, would anyone care to suggest a backup strategy for those files we not-yet-super-geek types do not know are precious. System files, that sort of thing. Files you are really going to miss when they are gone.
i.e If TM did not exist...
1. What files would you back up routinely ?
2. How?
Hope this makes sense. Be brutal if this is idiotic.
Cheers, S
Problem...
My Time Machine just said that it can't backup because it needs like 3.5GB of space and only 2.6 are available... The message keeps popping up day after day. I have 2 500GB drives and one of them is for Time machine only...
I looked at the files and it seems like they are just copies of my folders. I also see that it backed up a drive that I didn't mean for it to do... It's a big 700GB drive and I want to remove it to free up some space.
Now, I did just put it in the exclude from backup dialog, but how can I get rid of the backups already on time machine?
Thanks!
My Time Machine just said that it can't backup because it needs like 3.5GB of space and only 2.6 are available... The message keeps popping up day after day. I have 2 500GB drives and one of them is for Time machine only...
I looked at the files and it seems like they are just copies of my folders. I also see that it backed up a drive that I didn't mean for it to do... It's a big 700GB drive and I want to remove it to free up some space.
Now, I did just put it in the exclude from backup dialog, but how can I get rid of the backups already on time machine?
Thanks!
i'm running into the same problem.
time machine really has to work as advertised. first, it should allow the user to choose when and how often it backs up; second, they should allow for the option of deletion of older files once the drive is full. there's little point in "worry-free" backup when it hasn't backed up for months and all you get are files of every damn hour a month ago.
get your act together apple.
time machine really has to work as advertised. first, it should allow the user to choose when and how often it backs up; second, they should allow for the option of deletion of older files once the drive is full. there's little point in "worry-free" backup when it hasn't backed up for months and all you get are files of every damn hour a month ago.
get your act together apple.
buy as large an external back-up drive as the one you're using. download carbon copy cloner and CLONE the entire contents of your drive to the external drive. don't do ANYTHING whilst it clones. let it do its thing.
carbon copy cloner will make a bootable drive such that you can boot from the external drive when **** hits the fan.
sensible alternative to time machine
itou,
thank you thank you !
Carbon copy cloner looks like exactly what I need. It puts me back in control and I will only have myself to blame for incremental back-up decisions.
Time machine was geeting so irritiating I was backing up nothing.
And I can clone the entire HD too...
Cheers
itou,
thank you thank you !
Carbon copy cloner looks like exactly what I need. It puts me back in control and I will only have myself to blame for incremental back-up decisions.
Time machine was geeting so irritiating I was backing up nothing.
And I can clone the entire HD too...
Cheers
you're most welcome.i ran into the same problem and just ignored the fancy bits.
a backup plan must be robust, and clearly, time machine isn't.
just remember to "re-clone" the main HDD every month or so, and have a habit of placing documents and other files in a separate drive. that way, even if **** happens, you'll at least be able to boot. i have a mac pro, so i have the luxury of hiding all the external bits inside, if you do too, that's wonderful. if not, just buy whatever appeals to you and copy.
If you want to prevent Time Machine from getting full before it shows you that message, just go into Finder and manually remove the older backups from the "Backups.backupdb" folder on your Hard-drive. It works fine.
By deleting an earlier backup in Time Machine you aren't going to ruin any other backups that are more recent. (Common misconception people have about TM) Here's an article on MurphyMac to describe how Time Machine's backup feature works:
http://murphymac.com/time-machine-some-details/
Thanks,
Mason
By deleting an earlier backup in Time Machine you aren't going to ruin any other backups that are more recent. (Common misconception people have about TM) Here's an article on MurphyMac to describe how Time Machine's backup feature works:
http://murphymac.com/time-machine-some-details/
Thanks,
Mason
For those still wondering on this issue, as I recently was surfing around and came across this older unresolved thread, this is not a "bug" if you will, but simply an unintended use of time machine. You cannot continue using the same time machine files you previously had if you:
format your machine
transfer to a new machine
replace your hard drive
or any other system level wipes.
You must start fresh backup with any new system configuration. You cannot restore from a time machine, then continue using that same time machine. It must all be wiped and start with a clean initial backup of everything. After which, it should continue working normally, where the oldest backups get deleted as you run out of space.
format your machine
transfer to a new machine
replace your hard drive
or any other system level wipes.
You must start fresh backup with any new system configuration. You cannot restore from a time machine, then continue using that same time machine. It must all be wiped and start with a clean initial backup of everything. After which, it should continue working normally, where the oldest backups get deleted as you run out of space.