Time Machine Problem. Please Assist

[biggy52]

Hello All,

Ok, i have a WD 1TB External Drive, and i have been using half of it for time machine backups.

Suddenly yesterday i saw a message saying my Time machine backup failed, due to lack of disk space. It never happened in the past 9 months. I mean ive allowed it to delete old backups once space is full. I retried and failed.

So i decided to format my time machine disk, and start fresh. I formatted it, and i started backing up, again it chews up all my 500GB and then says no space.

The problem is, my full backup of my iMac is only 200 GB worth, i still have 300 GB spare , what am i doing wrong? and why is Time Machine being a B!@#h

 

[dissolve]

In Time Machine preferences, if you select "Options..." how much does it say the estimated size of backup will be?

 

[biggy52]

216.4 gb.

 

[dissolve]

Hmm okay. You're reformatting the external drive in Mac OS Extended, right? Is the disk actually full when TM says backup failed? It doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong, but something is definitely strange.

 

[DeeGee48]

Another Time Machine Question

I too have media on an external drive. Time Machine backs it up (iTunes). Now here is my specific situation:

1) iTunes library is on an external disk;
2) have an internal disk with two partitions: Tiger and OS 9;
3) my OS 10.5.8 system disk (Leopard) and TM disk are separate internals.

Now, I know TM only runs when running Leopard/Snow Leopard. So how do I RESTORE from the backups of Tiger and OS 9 and of course, my external iTunes disk? It BACKS UP all these disks (and my Leopard system disk).

And, as a general question, can I restore just one item like, say, a song?

 

[dissolve]

I too have media on an external drive. Time Machine backs it up (iTunes). Now here is my specific situation:

1) iTunes library is on an external disk;
2) have an internal disk with two partitions: Tiger and OS 9;
3) my OS 10.5.8 system disk (Leopard) and TM disk are separate internals.

Now, I know TM only runs when running Leopard/Snow Leopard. So how do I RESTORE from the backups of Tiger and OS 9 and of course, my external iTunes disk? It BACKS UP all these disks (and my Leopard system disk).

And, as a general question, can I restore just one item like, say, a song?

You can easily restore one item in a few different ways. If you're running an OS that supports TM, just search for it in the TM interface. If you're on OS 9 or something similarly unsupported, just find the file on the external drive without going into TM. All of you're files are there as copies, not too much is fancy about TM except that it provides a nice interface and automated backups.

 

[biggy52]

Hmm okay. You're reformatting the external drive in Mac OS Extended, right? Is the disk actually full when TM says backup failed? It doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong, but something is definitely strange.

Yes i WAS formatting from mac. Whenever it was backing up, i would look inside the disk and inside the time machine backup, i would just find the single Temp file changing size from 0-500GB. No folders.

The reason i say i WAS is because i got so bugged by the issue, i just backed up everything manually and re-installed SL , and started everything fresh, and now it works like a charm. So i dont know what happened, .... But i would like the solution if it ever happens to me or anyone else.

Cheerz

 

[dissolve]

Yes i WAS formatting from mac. Whenever it was backing up, i would look inside the disk and inside the time machine backup, i would just find the single Temp file changing size from 0-500GB. No folders.

The reason i say i WAS is because i got so bugged by the issue, i just backed up everything manually and re-installed SL , and started everything fresh, and now it works like a charm. So i dont know what happened, .... But i would like the solution if it ever happens to me or anyone else.

Cheerz

I could be wrong, but I think that's how TM backups: creates a temp file that is broken into the folder structure. But I thought that happened right after the Processing phase. Perhaps yours never got out of that for some reason. I've had some issue with first backups before as well, but never this bad. Sorry we couldn't figure it out without requiring a reinstall. Hopefully someone else has some insight into what went wrong. Good luck from here on

 

[biggy52]

Thanks, its all well now, i love formatting computers and re installing everything anyways. I just shifted to mac from a 15 yr Windows life. So im used to all this. Just hoping i can find an answer for this so others can benefit.

Cheerz and thanks for the help!