Want to "re do" my Time Machine

[theanimala]

I have been using Time Machine to backup my iMac since Dec 07. My iMac just had a hard drive failure this week which was replaced under my Apple Care warranty. Time Machine worked perfectly and restored 99% of my system. I do not run TM every day because I download some very large technical Podcasts that I have transferred to iTunes so I can listen on my ipod. They are renewed every day and I delete them every two weeks or so. That being said, each one is about 500MB and I would fill up my TM if I backed up every day.

I now only have 40GB free of my 500GB drive. Since my system is up and running as I would like, I was thinking I could just reformat the TM drive and make TM start over, making it's first initial backup and move forward from there. Does that make any sense? Or should I just let it keep backing up until I run out of space and let it delete the older backups. Curious what the best practice is.

 

[miles01110]

Honestly that's so little space I don't see the point of wiping it and starting over.

 

[jsw]

First, as you might know, you can exclude folders from Time Machine, so that might make it easier to run TM as needed - just exclude the particular iTunes folder where those podcasts are kept.

That said, it's your choice to start over again or not. TM should run just fine, deleting old items as needed. However, if you got though and exclude some folders and want to start fresh, there shouldn't be an issue. You might not ever back up some large files, and therefore might be able to keep more smaller files backed up for longer.

One minor concern: if you start fresh, you're vulnerable until the first backup finishes.

 

[theanimala]

Honestly that's so little space I don't see the point of wiping it and starting over.

500GB is not that little of space. I only have 40GB free, that is why I was thinking of wiping the drive free and starting over again with the full 500GB.

JSW, thank you for your post. I knew I could exclude drives from a backup, but not individual folders. I always thought that if I wanted to stop backing up that podcast that I couldn't back up my entire itunes folder. I now have excluded that particular folder (and a few others) so now I should be much better. Since I have tons of unneeded garbage that has been backed up over the last year, I wonder if I just wipe the time machine drive and start fresh... risking the few hours until the first backup is complete...

 

[GimmeSlack12]

I do as Apple says and have setup TM and just forget about it. I have a 500Gb drive too and have my Movie's folder ignored by TM.
Otherwise just format the drive and re-do it. Do whatever you want.

 

[ChrisA]

So you want to delete everything from your TM drive and then let TM copy it all back? Kind of a lot of work for zero net gain. It isn't like the bits get old and get to be refreshed. Just let TM do it's thing. If it needs space it will delete the oldest data for you.

One other thing. If you do not want TM to backup those podcasts you can specify a folder to be not backed up. See if your podcasts are not going into a folder. They likey are. Just add the folder to TM's list of exclusions.

If you have data you care about you really need an additional backup to go along side of TM

 

[miles01110]

500GB is not that little of space. I only have 40GB free, that is why I was thinking of wiping the drive free and starting over again with the full 500GB.

Err... I think I was not clear. 40 GB of space is not a lot- why not just let TM fill it? Reformatting will just leave you in the same situation down the line.