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.

Similar Messages

  • Volume too Small for Versions?

    Anyone else see this message yet:
    The document “mydocument.numbers” is on a volume that is too small to support permanent version storage.
    The volume in question is a 100MB disk image with 93MB free space remaining. My Numbers file is 200KB.  Seems to me there is plenty of space. I could store nearly 500 full versions in that amount of space.

    I had the same problem re disc image size and previous versions.After lots of experimentation, I found that if you create the disk image( sparse or otherwise,encrypted or otherwise) with a size of 600MB or bigger then this problem seems to go away.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • Back volume too small after permissions repair

    Obviously 220 Gigs of data have been modified, only 75 are free on my external h.d.
    Can I avoid deleting all older backups and start again from the scratch?
    Thank you!
    Peter

    The list of files or folders you can exclude depends upon how you do backups.
    Are you depending on Time Machine as your only backup? If so, then the list is pretty short. The downloads folder comes to mind, and any folder you are using to store files temporarily for sorting. I've got a couple of folders for DVD's that I'm working on. I don't let them get copied to TM. If you are running Parallels you should probably exclude the VM folders from TM because they will get added as new copies everytime you use Windows.

  • 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 )
    IdeaCentre A520 Intel® Core™ i5-3230M processor ( 2.60GHz 2600MHz 3MB )
    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!!

  • 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 is too large for the backup volume" error

    I've been backing up with TM for a while now, and finally it seems as though the hard drive is full, since I'm down to 4.2GB available of 114.4GB.
    Whenever TM tries to do a backup, it gives me the error "This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 10.8 GB but only 4.2GB are available. To select a larger volume, or make the backup smaller by excluding files, open System Preferences and choose Time Machine."
    I understand that I have those two options, but why can't TM just erase the oldest backup and use that free space to make the new backup? I know a 120GB drive is pretty small, but if I have to just keep accumulating backups infinitely, I'm afraid I'll end up with 10 years of backups and a 890-zettabyte drive taking up my garage. I'm hoping there's a more practical solution.

    John,
    Please review the following article as it might explain what you are encountering.
    *_“This Backup is Too Large for the Backup Volume”_*
    First, much depends on the size of your Mac’s internal hard disk, the quantity of data it contains, and the size of the hard disk designated for Time Machine backups. It is recommended that any hard disk designated for Time Machine backups be +at least+ twice as large as the hard disk it is backing up from. You see, the more space it has to grow, the greater the history it can preserve.
    *Disk Management*
    Time Machine is designed to use the space it is given as economically as possible. When backups reach the limit of expansion, Time Machine will begin to delete old backups to make way for newer data. The less space you provide for backups the sooner older data will be discarded. [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15137.html]
    However, Time Machine will only delete what it considers “expired”. Within the Console Logs this process is referred to as “thinning”. It appears that many of these “expired” backups are deleted when hourly backups are consolidated into daily backups and daily backups are consolidated into weekly backups. This consolidation takes place once hourly backups reach 24 hours old and daily backups reach about 30 days old. Weekly backups will only be deleted, or ‘thinned’, once the backup drive nears full capacity.
    One thing seems for sure, though; If a new incremental backup happens to be larger than what Time Machine currently considers “expired” then you will get the message “This backup is too large for the backup volume.” In other words, Time Machine believes it would have to sacrifice to much to accommodate the latest incremental backup. This is probably why Time Machine always overestimates incremental backups by 2 to 10 times the actual size of the data currently being backed up. Within the Console logs this is referred to as “padding”. This is so that backup files never actually reach the physically limits of the backup disk itself.
    *Recovering Backup Space*
    If you have discovered that large unwanted files have been backed up, you can use the Time Machine “time travel” interface to recovered some of that space. Do NOT, however, delete files from a Time Machine backup disk by manually mounting the disk and dragging files to the trash. You can damage or destroy your original backups by this means.
    Additionally, deleting files you no longer wish to keep on your Mac does not immediately remove such files from Time Machine backups. Once data has been removed from your Macs' hard disk it will remain in backups for some time until Time Machine determines that it has "expired". That's one of its’ benefits - it retains data you may have unintentionally deleted. But eventually that data is expunged. If, however, you need to remove backed up files immediately, do this:
    Launch Time Machine from the Dock icon.
    Initially, you are presented with a window labeled “Today (Now)”. This window represents the state of your Mac as it exists now. +DO NOT+ delete or make changes to files while you see “Today (Now)” at the bottom of the screen. Otherwise, you will be deleting files that exist "today" - not yesterday or last week.
    Click on the window just behind “Today (Now)”. This represents the last successful backup and should display the date and time of this backup at the bottom of the screen.
    Now, navigate to where the unwanted file resides. If it has been some time since you deleted the file from your Mac, you may need to go farther back in time to see the unwanted file. In that case, use the time scale on the right to choose a date prior to when you actually deleted the file from your Mac.
    Highlight the file and click the Actions menu (Gear icon) from the toolbar.
    Select “Delete all backups of <this file>”.
    *Full Backup After Restore*
    If you are running out of disk space sooner than expected it may be that Time Machine is ignoring previous backups and is trying to perform another full backup of your system? This will happen if you have reinstalled the System Software (Mac OS), or replaced your computer with a new one, or hard significant repair work done on your exisitng Mac. Time Machine will perform a new full backup. This is normal. [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338]
    You have several options if Time Machine is unable to perform the new full backup:
    A. Delete the old backups, and let Time Machine begin a fresh.
    B. Attach another external hard disk and begin backups there, while keeping this current hard disk. After you are satisfied with the new backup set, you can later reformat the old hard disk and use it for other storage.
    C. Ctrl-Click the Time Machine Dock icon and select "Browse Other Time Machine disks...". Then select the old backup set. Navigate to files/folders you don't really need backups of and go up to the Action menu ("Gear" icon) and select "Delete all backups of this file." If you delete enough useless stuff, you may be able to free up enough space for the new backup to take place. However, this method is not assured as it may not free up enough "contiguous space" for the new backup to take place.
    *Outgrown Your Backup Disk?*
    On the other hand, your computers drive contents may very well have outgrown the capacity of the Time Machine backup disk. It may be time to purchase a larger capacity hard drive for Time Machine backups. Alternatively, you can begin using the Time Machine Preferences exclusion list to prevent Time Machine from backing up unneeded files/folders.
    Consider as well: Do you really need ALL that data on your primary hard disk? It sounds like you might need to Archive to a different hard disk anything that's is not of immediate importance. You see, Time Machine is not designed for archiving purposes, just as a backup of your local drive(s). In the event of disaster, it can get your system back to its' current state without having to reinstall everything. But if you need LONG TERM storage, then you need another drive that is removed from your normal everyday working environment.
    This KB article discusses this scenario with some suggestions including Archiving the old backups and starting fresh [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15137.html]
    Let us know if this clarifies things.
    Cheers!

  • Time Machine falsely says my disk volume is too small

    I have several Fusion VMs which I am excluding from TM backup. But when I select "Change Disk..." in TM, it tells me that the disk I wish to use is too small. When, in fact, it is about 4 times larger than the data I wish to back up. It seems to be using the entire contents of my main volume (including the excluded Fusion VMs) when calculating the required size of the new TM target disk. Is this a TM bug? Is there a work around?

    This thread might be of interest:
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8002977&#8002977

  • Too large for the backup volume?

    Hi everyone,
    A strange problem when I went to do my daily backup this morning. I always backup:
    My internal mac HD (250GB)
    My external drive 1 (250GB)
    My external drive 2 (500GB)
    ...to my 1TB external Time machine drive, normally with no problems at all. However this morning I got a message saying
    "Time Machine Error. This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 61.0GB but only 8.2 are available. To select a larger volume or make the backup smaller by excluding files, open System preferences and choose Time Machine"
    This doesn't make any sense to me; Time Machine should write the new files over the oldest ones so why is it saying it needs more space?
    Does anyone heave any ideas?

    Ultrapix wrote:
    Thanks for your help; is there anything I can in the meantime?
    Backup what you can to separate external drives and either get a larger TM drive or consider a different backup solution. I use TM and also use CCC, not wishing to put all my eggs in a single basket, so to speak.
    A RAID TM drive of 5 GB or more would probably work, but separate backups are probably a better solution since TM is primarily designed for backing up a computer with a single large HD, but not several as you have.
    CCC works quite will for me, and not includes differential, scheduled backups, as does TM, so it is very similar in that respect, but does not have the TM limitations. Of course, TM is a *pseudo-archival backup system, whilst CCC and SuperDuper! are not.
    *Pseudo-archival in that TM will not delete old backups until absolutely necessary, so many old files are still on the TM drive whilst with CCC they are not.

  • TIME MACHINE Error: This backupup is too large for the backup volume ...

    Hi Folks !
    I have also my first problems with TM. It was running, the first time nicht&day to make the first backup and now seems the device to be full! This TimeMachineError was displayed:
    This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 127.5 GB but only 46.5 are available. To select a larger volume, or make the backup smaller by excluding files, open System Preferences and choose Time Machine.
    END OF ERROR Message
    First thing > if I choose SystemPrefs/TM there is no chance to exclude file or folders the only dialog is for Volumes
    Any Idea ?
    Are the TM Preferences corrupted or why I cannot choose to define my backup ?
    Ciao
    Massimo

    When my Time Machine disk had only 50GB left, I got the message that it couldn't back up because it required 118GB to do so. Because there was, for some reason, only one day backed up, I deleted the backup files to start fresh. Now I am getting the message:
    "This backup too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 1056.6 GB but only 929.4 GB are available."
    Well, the backup only require 118GB a little while ago, and the initial full backup that I deleted was 880 GB. Nothing has been added to the startup disk, and a 400GB disk has been excluded to try to make this work, so this message can't be right.
    How do I make this work? Do I have to keep reinstalling Time Machine every time I want to backup?

  • Problem: backup is too large for the backup volume

    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 711.1 MB but only 20.2 GB are available.
    To select a larger volume, or make the backup smaller by excluding files, open System Preferences and choose Time Machine.

    I fixed it. I think.
    Recipe:
    1. Logged in an an administrator (usually my work accounts are Standard)
    2. Ran Onyx utility (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/onyx.html)
    3. Noted that under "Scripts", the weekly and monthly scripts had not been run since before the problem began
    4. Ran weekly and monthly scripts
    5. Restarted Time Machine
    6. TM now correctly deleted my old backups, freeing about 30GB. It now correctly reports that my oldest backup is Feb 3 2008, previously it said Dec 27 2007.
    7. TM ran perfectly
    So it appears that there was some bad juju in the old caches cleared by the scripts. If this pops up again, I will report it here.

  • This backup is too large for the backup volume - ridiculous backup size

    I have had big problems with Time Machine today. I have been successfully using it for 2 months now. I have about 30Gb spare on my iMac hard drive (out of 233Gb) and my Time Machine uses 195Gb out of 466Gb available.
    However, today I have lost all my Time Machine history except for one backup made this morning, and I am now getting an error message saying:
    "Time Machine Error
    This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 161061280.0 GB but only 270.4 GB are available.
    To select a larger volume, or make backup smaller by excluding files, open System Preferences and choose Time Machine"
    Clearly the required backup volume is wrong - that's 161,000.0TB!!!
    The same message has come up 3 times now.
    Can anyone help/advise on what to do next?

    Thanks Peggy,
    I re-indexed Spotlight and ran Time Machine again, but got exactly the same error message and the same massive storage required.
    I've opened Console as you suggested and these are a set of the messages from one back-up attempt yesterday (Console doesn' show anything earlier than 17.32 yesterday - but the problem started earlier than that I believe):
    "16/01/2008 17:32:52 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[326] Backup requested by automatic scheduler
    16/01/2008 17:32:52 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[326] Starting standard backup
    16/01/2008 17:32:52 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[326] Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    16/01/2008 17:32:53 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[326] Event store UUIDs don't match for volume iMac Hard Drive
    16/01/2008 17:32:53 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[326] Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|kFSEDBEventFlagReasonEventDBUntrustable|
    16/01/2008 17:44:48 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[326] Starting pre-backup thinning: 157286.40 TB requested (including padding), 270.35 GB available
    16/01/2008 17:44:48 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[326] No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    16/01/2008 17:44:48 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[326] Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
    16/01/2008 17:44:48 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[326] Backup Failed: unable to free 157286.40 TB needed space
    16/01/2008 17:44:49 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[326] Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume."

  • 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.

Maybe you are looking for