Why is my time machine backing up so much?

[Jas0n]

Recently my Time Machine has been backing up insane amounts of data, and every time it's been backing up it's been going up, I have no idea why :/

It's backing up at the moment and it's currently on 21GB. Not only that but when it finishes backing up it's been getting stuck on "Finishing Backup..." and the process coreservicesd has been using 90%+ of my CPU, causing my fans to go insane.

Any help please? :/

 

[r.j.s]

Make sure you are excluding any virtual machines, since it will backup the entire install every time it changes.

 

[mstrze]

Have you been ripping DVD content? I have been this weekend so the hourly updates have been unusually large for me with the addition of the disk image of the DVDs added to my hard drive.

If you haven't been adding 21GB to your HD recently, you might have an issue. My hourly backups have been as high as 15GB with the ripping.

 

[Jas0n]

I don't have any virtual machines and I don't remember using up 21GB recently, the only thing I've done that would use up some hard-drive space has been downloading a lot of music, but that's only 1GB worth :/

 

[FSMBP]

I don't have any virtual machines and I don't remember using up 21GB recently, the only thing I've done that would use up some hard-drive space has been downloading a lot of music, but that's only 1GB worth :/

By default, Time Machine backs up your ENTIRE Mac. All the system files, user files, apps etc. Generally that's about 10-15GBs.

If use apps that alter system files, like icons/mods, it will have to backup all the system files again.

But your not even using 21GB of data on your harddrive, than no way should it be backing up that much. Therefore, you might want to start-over again with a fresh new time machine back up.