Backup disc too small?

I recently purchased a new MacBook Pro and used a Time Machine backup to transfer all the files from my old MacBook Pro to the new one. Now, I am trying to set up Time Machine on the new laptop with the same external hard drive I was using a Time Machine backup disc with my old computer. The backup fails and tells me the backup disc is too small.
Now, the backup disc has 58.43 GB available out of 499.97. The data on my internal harddrive is 141 GB, with about 607 GB free.
So, yes, 141 is more than 58. But why doesn't it just overwrite the old data? It is supposed to delete the oldest backup and replace it with the newest one, right?
Do I need to reformat the backup disc? Do I need a backup disc that's larger than my internal HD even if I'm not using all that space?

sarahbuck wrote:
I recently purchased a new MacBook Pro and used a Time Machine backup to transfer all the files from my old MacBook Pro to the new one.
If you used Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant to do that, when the first backup started, you should have gotten the prompt in #B5 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting. If you selected "Reuse Backup," Time Machine shouldn't be doing a full backup.
If you used some other method, you won't get that message, and TM wants to do a full backup. But since it won't ever delete your last remaining backup, there isn't enough room.
Your best bet is to erase the TM drive and start over.
Do I need to reformat the backup disc? Do I need a backup disc that's larger than my internal HD even if I'm not using all that space?
The drive needs to be much larger than the amount of data it's backing-up. Usually 2-3 times is best, but it varies greatly depending on how you use your Mac.

Similar Messages

Backup Volume too Small

I am seeing the following message. Any hints as to what is going on?
The backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 1011.1 GB but only 466.2 GB are available. To select a larger volume, or make the backup smaller by excluding files, open System Preferences and choose Time Machine.
My Hard Drive that I want to backup is only a 500GB HD, so what in the world could this mean? The destination disk is also a 500GB HD. My Mac HD is only using about 300GB of the available disk.

I'm getting this error as well.
Here is how I got into that situation, maybe it will yield a clue.
I have a 750GB Time Machine volume and was backing up a 500GB disk of which 300GB were used`. That disk needed to be replaced and so I replaced it with a 750GB disk. I copied the 300GB from the 500GB disk to the 750GB. Then I marked the 500GB as not backed up in Time Machine preferences. Now Time Machine will not backup the 300GB that are on the new 750GB.
I think what is going wrong is that Time Machine thinks of the 300GB as a different 300GB and consequently is trying to preserve the old disk's version of the 300GB and refusing to backup the new version of the data on the new disk.
does anyone have any ideas how to get out of it.

Backup file too small?

I did a complete new backup onto a 1Tb TC I had previously used for backup (but deleted the old bakcup file). I have 214 GB on my HD, and TM said it was backing up about 214 GB, but it stopped at about 175 GB and said it was done! No further incremental backups add much of anything. I can't identify any particularly large folders or files that it missed, but I can't compare everything. a 35 GB difference is pretty big. Any thoughts about whether I should worry that the HD is not completely backed up, or how to remedy this?
I did have previous problems with a "read only" TC, and then "backup file too large..." (the latter which I solved by trashing the TM .plist preferences file right before I did this big backup.)
Macolyte

Olaf is right it must be compressed backup:
To check if the backup file is compressed or not
RESTORE HEADERONLY FROM DISK = 'Path to backup file';
Looks for column labelled "Compressed". 1 = compressed, 0 = not compressed.
If you are skeptical about backup file you can verfiy whether a SQL database backup can be read and restored:
RESTORE VERIFYONLY FROM DISK = 'Path to backup file'
If the backup is valid, the SQL Server Database Engine returns:
The backup set on file 1 is valid

Disc too small

I'm building a DVD in encore as i've done several times with all the transcoding setting at automatic. The dvd is about 2 hours long. after the transcoding an error pops up saying disc capacity to small. It looks like encore built a 6.5 gig file and it will not fit on my 4.7 gig DVD. In the past with the automatic transcode setting encore just fits whatever length your project is to the disc. I'm not sure what's changed. in the transcode settings under quality setting for some reason it defaults to blu-ray mpeg. when i change it to DVD mpeg and press okay and open the setting up again it's still set to blu-ray mpeg. any suggestions

Make sure you did not include a computer directory in the ROM content

Backup Drive too small...

I recently upgraded to a 24" iMac and have 2 500GB usb drives which were sufficient for my prior backup needs. Now I am having trouble backing up. I moved my iTunes library to the system drive (750GB) for speedier performance. Can anyone please explain how to connect 2 USB drives as a RAID so that I can have 1 effective 1TB drive and use it for time machine?

Hi Flooseman,
I hope I can clarify your issue about the OKR D: partition.
1. The D: One Key Recovery partition is not for your "normal" backups. The D: partition is already filled with the factory restore apps/drivers backup. There is no need to even touch that drive. Why do you think that "One Key Recovery is non-functional."? You would only need it, if your C: Windows system got somehow corrupted. Then you could reset your system, using the OKR function, to the factory installed OS. Unless you had backed up your user files to some other medium (external HD, CDs, or even the Cloud) using the OKR would delete those user files.
2. If the hard drive crashes, you would always need some other backup to an external source. That's the case in every computer with only 1 internal drive. OKR was not made for this failure, so it's really not a "issue"
3. For the last, oh I don't know, >5 years, most OEMs do not ship any "recovery CDs" in computers packaging. If you want a CD, you can make the factory restore by burning one yourself. However, in Win 8, creating the USB Recovery Drive is the new way to go.
http://mobilesupport.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/HT080887
To reiterate, the D: partition is not made for your backup. It already contains the factory image. Use the USB Recovery Drive for your OS. Backup your user files to an external HD, CDs, or the cloud.
Cheers
DragonRider
I'm DO'ing IT
Lenovo Y470 085525U 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM processor ( 2.00GHz 1333MHz 6MB )
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YOGA Tablet 2 Pro-1380F
X1 Carbon 2nd Gen (20A8) ThinkPad + T420

Time machine backup space too small

After installing OSX Lion - I had Lion restore my files from the Time Machine. All went well. Except now that I want to keep this machine backed up - Time Machine is attempting to back it up in the 100 gigs or so space that is left rather than overwriting or adding to the old files. Do I have to reformat the drive and do another complete backup or is there away around the problem.
Thank-you.
Barb

Reformat is necessary because the disk has changed and Time Machine doesn't know what to do about it, whether to trust it or not. So reformatting is necessary. The Disk Utility is located in the utilities folder. Thanks!!

HT201250 Hi, I hope this question won't seem too basic but if I want to use a new larger external drive for my time machine backups, will it do a new full backup the first time I plug it in and if so, do I really need all the old backups on my smaller ext

Hi, I hope this question won't seem too basic but if I want to use a new larger external drive for my time machine backups, will it do a new full backup the first time I plug it in and if so, do I really need all the old backups on my smaller external drive?

50maz wrote:
Hi, I hope this question won't seem too basic but if I want to use a new larger external drive for my time machine backups, will it do a new full backup the first time I plug it in
Yes, it will do a full backup.
and if so, do I really need all the old backups on my smaller external drive?
Only if you want to be able to go back in time to those previous Time Machine backups. When you plug in the new larger external drive, you will only be able to go back as far as the first day you plugged it in and ran the first Time Machine backup on it.

Too Small CD Stuck in Disc Drive!

I have a small CD disk in the slot for the optical disc drive. Probably too small, and it is non-conventional shape, straight-sided. Computer does not recognize that the disc is there, and none of the usual techniques to eject work. Is this now a mechanical repair job?
I have a MacBook Pro, 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, running 10.5.5.
Armando

I strongly recommend that you take the computer to an Apple repair shop. Depending on how far you've managed to get the disc inserted (and stuck) you may not have done any damage to the drive. However, given the nature of the slot loading drive, an amateur's attempts to dislodge it by mucking about with various instruments could result in a hefty repair fee.

This backup is too large...

Hi
My Time Machine won't backup my data. I receive this error:
"This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 255.27 GB but only 185.90 GB are available."
However, I have excluded more than 180 GB of data. Available disc space is 187 GB. Under Options the estimated full backup is 56 GB so I can't figure out what is going on.
Johan

johsve339 wrote:
Hi
My Time Machine won't backup my data. I receive this error:
"This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 255.27 GB but only 185.90 GB are available."
However, I have excluded more than 180 GB of data. Available disc space is 187 GB. Under Options the estimated full backup is 56 GB so I can't figure out what is going on.
It's possible the preferences file, where the exclusions are stored, is corrupt. Try a "full reset" per #A4 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
But that's only a temporary solution; it sounds like your TM drive is too small. It varies greatly, of course, but it usually needs 2-3 times the space of the data you're backing up. Apparently there's about 235 GB of data on your system; how large is your backup drive?

TIme Machine backup grows too large during backup process

I have been using Time Machine without a problem for several months, backing up my imac - 500GB drive with 350g used. Recently TM failed because the backups had finally filled the external drive - 500GB USB. Since I did not need the older backups, I reformatted the external drive to start from scratch. Now TM tries to do an initial full backup but the size keeps growing as it is backing up, eventually becoming too large for the external drive and TM fails. It will report, say, 200G to back up, then it reaches that point and the "Backing up XXXGB of XXXGB" just keeps getting larger. I have tried excluding more than 100GB of files to get the backup set very small, but it still grows during the backup process. I have deleted plist and cache files as some discussions have suggested, but the same issue occurs each time. What is going on???

Michael Birtel wrote:
Here is the log for the last failure. As you see it indicates there is enough room 345g needed, 464G available, but then it fails. I can watch the backup progress, it reaches 345G and then keeps growing till it give out of disk space error. I don't know what "Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD" implies, maybe this is a clue?
No. It's sort of a warning, indicating that TM isn't sure what's changed on your internal HD since the previous backup, usually as a result of an abnormal shutdown. But since you just erased your TM disk, it's perfectly normal.
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
2009-07-08 19:37:53.659 FindSystemFiles[254:713] Querying receipt database for system packages
2009-07-08 19:37:55.582 FindSystemFiles[254:713] Using system path cache.
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Backup content size: 309.5 GB excluded items size: 22.3 GB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 345.01 GB requested (including padding), 464.53 GB available
This is a completely normal start to a backup. Just after that last message is when the actual copying begins. Apparently whatever's happening, no messages are being sent to the log, so this may not be an easy one to figure out.
First, let's use Disk Utility to confirm that the disk really is set up properly.
First, select the second line for your internal HD (usually named "Macintosh HD"). Towards the bottom, the Format should be +Mac OS Extended (Journaled),+ although it might be +Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled).+
Next, select the line for your TM partition (indented, with the name). Towards the bottom, the Format must be the same as your internal HD (above). If it isn't, you must erase the partition (not necessarily the whole drive) and reformat it with Disk Utility.
Sometimes when TM formats a drive for you automatically, it sets it to +Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled).+ Do not use this unless your internal HD is also case-sensitive. All drives being backed-up, and your TM volume, should be the same. TM may do backups this way, but you could be in for major problems trying to restore to a mis-matched drive.
Last, select the top line of the TM drive (with the make and size). Towards the bottom, the *Partition Map Scheme* should be GUID (preferred) or +Apple Partition Map+ for an Intel Mac. It must be +Apple Partition Map+ for a PPC Mac.
If any of this is incorrect, that's likely the source of the problem. See item #5 of the Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum for instructions, then try again.
If it's all correct, perhaps there's something else in your logs.
Use the Console app (in your Applications/Utilities folder).
When it starts, click +Show Log List+ in the toolbar, then navigate in the sidebar that opens up to your system.log and select it. Navigate to the +Starting standard backup+ message that you noted above, then see what follows that might indicate some sort of error, failure, termination, exit, etc. (many of the messages there are info for developers, etc.). If in doubt post (a reasonable amount of) the log here.

I can't delete partition in disk utility, it keeps telling me that "the changes are too small"

I previously split my disk into two different disks, however I want to combine them together again, yet i was unable to delete the second partition. I can't delete partition in disk utility, it keeps telling me that "the changes are too small"
Plz help!!!!!!

Make at least two complete backups of all your data. Boot from another drive and partition this one as desired. Restore the data.

Install error : disk cannot be used to start up your computer [or] MediaKit reports partition (Map) too small

Greetings,
I am aware that this problem has been discussed, but in long and vague discussions that I had to sift deeply to find an answer. Therefore I am posting a clear message, as this problem can be very troublesome for someone who just received a Mac OS installation disk and cannot install it.
Situation : you cannot install/update your new system because the installer does not consider your volume.
Error message : this disk cannot be used to start up your computer.
Version française : Ce disque ne peut pas être configuré pour démarrer votre ordinateur.
Also discussed below error: "MediaKit reports partition (Map) too small"
Note : although this occurred with a Snow Leopard (10.6) install DVD, it can alo occur with Lion (10.7) according to discussions on Apple web site.
IF YOUR CONDITIONS ARE AS FOLLOWS :
- You are using an official Apple installation DVD of Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) [or 10.7 Lion] or an official download/upgrade of those systems.
- Your main Mac partition scheme is in GUID as it should be (check with Disk Utility). That partition contains a Mac system that can start-up.
- Your volume format is: Mac OS Extended (journaled) [the format should not be Case Sensitive.]
- You have the hardware requirements to install Mac OS 10.6 (Intel processor; internal or external DVD drive or a linked DVD drive; 1 GB of RAM; a screen controlled by your computer graphics card; at least 5 GB space on the hard disk or 7 GB if you install all components).
- Using Disk Utility, you of course tried the disk Repair Tool and the Repair Permissions tool.
- Your hard disk does not have a file called Backups.backupdb (if it does, this means Time Machine has once used this hard disk for its back-ups). Anyhow, if it were the case, the installation would give a different error message (with the word TimeMachine). This file may block the installation: Apple Support suggest to place it in the garbage, *without* deleting it, and placing it back on the disk later. Mind you, if you do not use this hard disk as such to save your Time Machine back-ups, you can simply delete this file.
HOW TO FIX :
1. Boot with the 10.6 install DVD (Tip: you can either select Mac 10.6 as the boot DVD in your Start-up Preferences or simply press down c during the start-up).
2. Above the install screen, you have a Utilities tab from where you can run Disk Utility. Select your hard disk and select the Partition tab. Resize the primary Mac partition (don't add a new one) by decreasing it by about 5 GB.
It will look like this http://i.imgur.com/jHTbr.jpg
( That image shows only one partition, but the same principle applies even if you have two or more partitions on your disk.)
Also see the official Apple how to: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3926
Version française: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3926?viewlocale=fr_FR
3. Commit the change by hitting "Apply"
3.b. If you get the error "MediaKit reports partition (Map) too small", this is a rare error where the partition that follows (for example Bootcamp) is slightly overlapping your main Mac partition. You will need to reduce that other following partition. Once you have reduced the other partition, you will probably need to return to step 2 and 3 and try again.
[ For example, in my case, I had resized my Bootcamp with CampTune software and it would seem that the file system ended-up somehow larger than the actual partition container. I simply asked CampTune to reduce the partition a bit (barely 2 GB) and that fixed it.]
4. Reboot, again into the 10.6 install DVD.
5. You can then install 10.6.
6. Once 10.6 is installed, use the Disk Utility on the desktop (you can boot into the primary HD at this point) to resize the primary partition back to its original or maximum size.
SOURCE (main fix): http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=774410 [and] http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3926
SOURCE (explaination for MediaKit error): some Apple discussion post.
nb: in my case, it was on a MacBook Pro (late 2008).

GasMan4932 wrote:
When I click on the icon for this drive, the warning message below states "Mac OS X cannot be installed on 'iMac HD', because this disk cannot be used to start up your computer." Obviously that's not true, since that's where the OS is installed.
How did you partition this drive, if you did that? Does it contain start up or utility partitions for any other OS (for instance Linux)? There have been reports that the "cannot be used to start up your computer" message will appear if a third party utility was used to create a 'triple boot' system or such, apparently because SL is picky about the format GUID partition scheme table info & how partitions are allocated space on the drive by other formatting/partition methods.
For some users with these partitions, the fix has been as simple as "tickling" (slightly changing) the partition size of some partition with Disk Utility, which apparently updates the GUID partition scheme table info so that the SL installer accepts it as safe to use with SL.( In this sense, the message may be trying to say the installer thinks the disk can't be used to reliably start up your computer with SL, not in general.)
See the discussions topic Cannot install Snow Leopard over 10.5.8 for more about this.

Backup is too large - Impossible!

I've used Time Machine to backup my entire hard drive many times in the past, but when I attempted to backup today (for the first time in a while) I just kept getting the same error message "This backup is too large for the backup volume".
I have a small hard drive - 150GB - and the space I've reserved for this backup, on a partitioned external hard drive, is 162.34 GB. The Time Machine error message claims the backup requires 171.4 GB! Where is the extra 21GB coming from?
I've excluded the usual things in Time Machine preferences but this makes no difference.
Please look at the following screen grab:
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/7122/timecapsulegrab.png
You will notice in the Macintosh HD info window (left) that there is 142.84 GB of used space. In the Time Machine Error window it claims the backup requires 171.4 GB. In the Time Machine preferences window (right) it claims the total included space n the backup is 142.8 GB, which equals the used space.
I've tried reseting Time Machine by deleting the relevant document from the library but this had no effect.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Time Machine adds 20% to the estimated size of each backup, for temporary workspace on the destination.
You are not using Time Machine in the way it's designed; it keeps copies of things you've changed or deleted so requires more space than the data it's backing-up. How much varies widely, of course, depending on how you use your Mac, but a rule of thumb is, it needs 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing-up, so it can keep a reasonable "depth" of backups. It's just not going to work without much more space.
If all you want is to back up the current contents, you'll be much better off making a "bootable clone." [CarbonCopyCloner|http://www.bombich.com> is donationware; [SuperDuper|http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html] has a free version, but you need the paid one (about $30) to do updates instead of full replacements, or scheduling.
And/or, see Kappy's post on Basic Backup.

My time Machine keeps saying, "Time Machine could not complete the backup. This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 345.74 GB but only 289.80 are available." I have already excluded files. I have a 1tb external drive. HELP!!!

For over two weeks now I have been frustated and not having my TIme Machine back up to my 1tb external drive. I dont understand why now its a problem. It keeps saying
"This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 345.74GB but only 289.80GB are avialable. Time Machine needs work space on the bakup disk, in addition to the space required to store backups. Open Time Machine preferences to select a large backup disk or make the bakup smaller by excluding files." So I have already excluded almost all of my files, and even deleted the backup disk yet, that quote still keeps popping up. I am truly at a wall with this. I have a Mac OS X version 10.7.5. CAN SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE????

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Error: "This backup is too large for the backup volume."

Well TM is acting up. I get an error that reads:
"This backup is too large for the backup volume."
Both the internal boot disk and the external baclup drive are 1TB. The internal one has a two partitions, the OSX one that is 900GBs and a 32GB NTFS one for Boot Camp.
The external drive is a single OSX Extended part. that is 932GBs.
Both the Time Machine disk, and the Boot Camp disk are excluded from the backup along with a "Crap" folder for temporary large files as well as the EyeTV temp folder.
Time Machine says it needs 938GBs to backup only the OSX disk, which has 806GBs in use with the rest free. WTFFF? The TM pane says that "only" 782GBs are going to be backed up. Where did the 938GBs figure come from?
This happened after moving a large folder (128GB in total) from the root of the OSX disk over to my Home Folder.
I have reformated the Time Machine drive and have no backups at all of my data and it refuses to backup!!
Why would it need 938GBs of space to backup if the disk has "only" 806 GBs in use??? Is there anyway to reset Time Machine completely???
Some screenshots:
http://www.xcapepr.com/images/tm2.png
http://www.xcapepr.com/images/tm1.png
http://www.xcapepr.com/images/tm4.png

xcapepr wrote:
Time Machine says it needs 938GBs to backup only the OSX disk, which has 806GBs in use with the rest free. WTFFF? The TM pane says that "only" 782GBs are going to be backed up. Where did the 938GBs figure come from?
Why would it need 938GBs of space to backup if the disk has "only" 806 GBs in use??? Is there anyway to reset Time Machine completely???
TM makes an initial "estimate" of how much space it needs, "including padding", that is often quite high. Why that is, and Just exactly what it means by "padding" are rather mysterious. But it does also need work space on any drive, including your TM drive.
But beyond that, your TM disk really is too small for what you're backing-up. The general "rule of thumb" is it should be 2-3 times the size of what it's backing-up, but it really depends on how you use your Mac. If you frequently update lots of large files, even 3 times may not be enough. If you're a light user, you might get by with 1.5 times. But that's about the lower limit.
Note that although it does skip a few system caches, work files, etc., by default it backs up everything else, and does not do any compression.
All this is because TM is designed to manage it's backups and space for you. Once it's initial, full backup is done, it will by default then back-up any changes hourly. It only keeps those hourly backups for 24 hours, but converts the first of the day to a "daily" backup, which it keeps for a month. After a month, it converts one per week into a "weekly" backup that it will keep for as long as it has room
What you're up against is, room for those 30 dailies and up to 24 hourlies.
You might be able to get it to work, sort of, temporarily, by excluding something large, like your home folder, until that first full backup completes, then remove the exclusion for the next run. But pretty soon, it will begin to fail again, and you'll have to delete backups manually (from the TM interface, not via the Finder).
Longer term, you need a bigger disk; or exclude some large items (back-them up to a portable external or even DVD/RWs first); or a different strategy.
You might want to investigate CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper!, and other apps that can be used to make bootable "clones". Their advantage, beyond needing less room, is when your HD fails, you can immediately boot and run from the clone, rather than waiting to restore from TM to your repaired or replaced HD.
Their disadvantages are, you don't have the previous versions of changed or deleted files, and because of the way they work, their "incremental" backups of changed items take much longer and far more CPU.
Many of us use both a "clone" (I use CCC) and TM. On my small (roughly 30 gb) system, the difference is dramatic: I rarely notice TM's hourly backups -- they usually run under 30 seconds; CCC takes at least 15 minutes and most of my CPU.

Backup disc too small?

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