Time Machine not backing 2TB hard drive to 2 TB External Drive

[safetybelts]

I have an
iMac 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo w/ 4GB RAM.

The internal HD is 2 TB. I have a LaCie d2 2TB external hard drive. Recently Time Machine has stopped backing up leaving the error message :

The backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 159.13/GB but only 16.88 are available.

Help!

 

[DAPWNER]

Try reformatting the external disk and emptying the trash on your iMac.

 

[safetybelts]

will that affect the data on the external disk?

 

[Stolz25]

will that affect the data on the external disk?

Srsly?

 

[DAPWNER]

Well if there is only that much space left on the external disk, you can't back up to it.

 

[FrankHahn]

I had this problem with my Mac mini with MS Windows XP installed. When I excluded the Windows part from the automatic backup of the Time Machine, the problem was solved.

 

[safetybelts]

Stolz25

I know it will erase the data if I re format the External. But then I will eventually just run into the same problem.

I probably need to get a 3TB for Time Machine right?

 

[DAPWNER]

If you format the external, it will erase all of the data on that disk, making it so you won't get the error message saying there is lack of space for your ~150GB backup. Correct me if I'm wrong anyone? :S

 

[karl878]

Time Machine - Troubleshooting
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

See Section C4, pink block, for some ideas.

I like to run Backup Loupe, mentioned in Section A2, to see which backup (and which files in that backup) is taking up large amounts of space. Based on that information, I then may decide if there are things that should not be backed up.
If there are, I go to System Preferences, Time Machine, Options and add them to the "Exclude these items from backups:" list.

 

[safetybelts]

I'm gonna try that Dawpner. Let you know how it goes.

And thanks karl878. I did exclude all my largest/unimportant files from backup. i.e. movies.

Still having the problem. I will check out that link, thanks

 

[NatefromRI]

Everything I've read seems to indicate that your Time Machine drive should be larger than the drive you want to back up. Have you considered trading up for a 3 or 4TB drive?

 

[safetybelts]

Problem solved! Thanks everyone. Here's what I did:

Rebooted from OSX Snow Leopard DVD.

>Ran Disk Utility "verify" on External 2 TB HD. It was okay.

Restart.

Ran Disk Utility "verify" on Internal 2 TB HD. IT had some problems. Journals and libraries were doubled and mixed up. Ran "Repair Disk". Disk Repair was succesful. Restarted.

Then I erased/re-formatted the External HD completely. One Pass. Restarted. Emptied the trash.

Then ran Time Machine. The backup took about an 45 min and it was fine! ...with 567GB of 2TB Available! As of 11am today it's still working.

Thanks everyone for the tips. And saving me $250 for a 3TB LaCie.

Cheers

----------

Oh and I still exclude one folder in Time Machine preferences. A Movie folder with .VTS, .AVIs, .mP4s, etc. Anything not shot by me.

 

[DAPWNER]

Glad to hear everything worked out well!