I have been having troubles with my external HD that I have set up with Time Machine. All of a sudden it won't back up because it says that there is not enough room. I did a disc verify and repair. I also deleted all the files off the TMHD but the trash won't empty. I also tried to erase by using disc utility, but I get an error.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Time Machine - External won't erase
- Thread starter Littleboo
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
From what I've read, you've already done a couple thing incorrectly. Before trying to delete info from the drive manually, did you turn off Time Machine in System Preferences? Also when clearing a Time Machine backup volume, it's better to format the drive in Disk Utility than to try to remove the Backups.backupdb folder and Empty Trash. Make certain Time Machine is OFF and then restart the computer before trying to format the drive.
I had this problem and no matter what I tried I could not get it work so I tried Carbon Copy. Guess what the same problem so I tried SuperDuper. I have had no problems ever since.
Finder>Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility.
Select the drive from the list on the left and click the Erase tab. Then you can choose any Security Options for the Erase procedure before starting.
Option+control+click on the Finder icon in your Dock and select Relaunch. If that doesn't work, restart the computer and try using Disk Utility again.