What is the best Time Machine practice with new Snow Leopard upgrade?

[tivoboy]

So, I have a very good Leopard Time Machine backup. If I NEED to go back to Leopard, then I could always use this backup from either Time Machine or a Carbon Copy Cloner backup that I have.

My question is, now that I have upgrade to Snow Leopard, should I just let the Time Machine backup start doing it's thing (which will probably add a whole BUNCH of new data) or should I archive off the OLD Time Machine Backup, and then do a complete NEW Snow Leopard Time Machine Backup.

Everything SEEMS to be working fine now, a couple of quirks, but manageable at the moment.

 

[Richard1028]

I did the same thing when I upgraded - cloned my leopard setup and just kept the TM backup drive with 2 months of "older" leopard data intact.

After the upgrade to SL, I just plugged my TM back in and it resumed on schedule. I don't remember any massive changes.

I suppose you could also clone your TM drive on a separate partition where you kept your leopard backup... assuming you have the room.

The bottom line is I prepped and worried all for nothing. 35 minutes after I upgraded I was up and running again without a hitch.

 

[sgtbob]

Time Machine Backup Full

What happens when the backup isn't able to proceed? i.e., the system tells me that the backup is full and that I need to delete some older data. I tried that but the system doesn't appear to permit me to do so, it keeps coming back with a warning that it '...needs 138GB and only 38 GB are available...'. I'm using a 500 GB Lacie external HDD on my iMac and am at my wits end - or near to it! . When I look at the Backup drive, I do not see anything beyond yesterday backup anyway - so where did my other backups go to?

Surely I do not have to buy a new drive - why can't the external HDD be reformatted and start from zero? If so, how to do that?