Deleting old Time Machine Back ups, locked files wont delete?

Will unlocking them help-if so how do you unlock? I can open with Text edit but due to years of caution when not knowing what I'm doing causes more problems I ask before doing things-grin (Suppose it shouldn't matter since all I want to do is trash them????)
The file in particular is the boot file boot.efi. Trash basket is still full presumable until I can delete. 

See > Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions 12. Should I delete old backups? If so, How?
of the > Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions

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  • How do you delete old time machine back ups?

    I have a 2009 iMac (currently on Snow Leopard) that has been using Time Machine (TM) to back up to a 2009 Time Capsule (TC) since new.  I have a 2011 Macbook Pro (currently on Snow Leopard soon to be Lion) that I would like to begin backing up using TM to the TC as well.  The problem is that I recently did one back up of the MBP to the TC and it used almost all of the remaining space on the TC.  Going forward the iMac has continued to back up to the TC creating space by deleting it's oldest back ups.  The MBP however says there is not enough space to back it up.  I am guessing that the TM for the MBP is unable to delete old back ups of the iMac to create space and since there is only 1 back up of the MBP it cannot delete that.
    So... long story short is it okay for me to go into the TC to delete old back ups of the iMac manually and if it is how do I do that?
    Thanks for your help in advance
    djbrown

    Is this more what you mean?
    Re: Can not delete sparsebundle backup 
    Nov 17, 2009 8:30 PM (in response to Ricardo Blach)
    +What I really need is to delete the old sparsebundle from the TC. How can I do that?+ 
    Open your Hard Drive and look for the Time Capsule icon under the SHARED heading. Click the TC icon and a folder will appear to the right. Double click this folder. 
    You should now see a xxxxx.sparsebundle file for each of the computers that have been backing up. The file contains the name of the computer and the MAC address so you should be able to easily identify the xxxxx.sparsebundle file that you want to delete. 
    Click the xxxxx.sparsebundle file to highlight it and then click the gear shaped icon just above and select Move to Trash. 
    Be very careful since you will not be able to retrieve the file if you make a mistake and delete the wrong file.
    That comes from https://discussions.apple.com/message/10595875#10595875
    ...and no, I don't think I'm related to that Dave Bean.
    david

  • Deleting Old Time Machine Back ups

    I regularly back up my system ( every couple of weeks! ) and data to an external 2TB drive however I only really need a copy of recent state of system and data. Will it be good practice to enter time machine and go back to the old back ups and delete so that only recent backs up are maintained on drive. This would also free up space on my external drive? I just want to ensure deleting old back ups does not harm the integrity of the data.
    Also i wanted to ascertain if it is possible to use time machine drive in another mac and simply drag and drop files from the latest back up onto this other computer?

    DO NOT manually adjust Time Machine Backups. That can cause you to lose the integrity of the Backup database.
    Time Machine deletes portions of older backups when space starts to get scarce. It carefully computes what files must continue to be saved and ensures it has a copy of those files, never deleting the last copy as long as the original is still present.
    If you would like to understand better how it does this, there is an excellent Multi-page description or how it works written by the late James Pond on his site:
    How Time Machine Works its Magic
    NB> When you have read the first page, click the Next link at the bottom of the page for more -- the detailed description continues on several more pages.
    It is inadvisable to keep other files on a Time Machine drive. If you want to maintain your Backups manually, I strongly recommend you use a different Backup method. Buy yourself an additional drive -- they are cheap.
    The BIG advantage to Time Machine is that it is the Backup that actually happens, automatically and in the Background without interfering with your work. Other Backup schemes can be MUCH more clever, but they have the tragic flaw that you need to remember to do them.

  • Can I safely delete old Time Machine back ups?

    I use a 1TB external drive for Time Machine but it's nearly full. There are 43 different back ups on the drive, can I safely delete all but the most recent one or two? I realize I would not be able to restore my system from a deleted back up but I can't think of a reson I'd want to. Would greatly appreciate any insight on this, thanks!
    p.s. Why does Time Machine keep so many back ups in the first place? I can't find anything in preferences to limit the number of stored back ups. Is there a way to limit the number?

    Hello:
    I use a 1TB external drive for Time Machine but it's nearly full. There are 43 different back ups on the drive, can I safely delete all but the most recent one or two? I realize I would not be able to restore my system from a deleted back up but I can't think of a reson I'd want to.
    It makes no sense to delete old backups.  Time Machine automatically deletes backups if it needs space.  If you start deleting backups, you will do it ONE at a time.
    Why does Time Machine keep so many back ups in the first place?
    It is designed that way.
    Is there a way to limit the number?
    No.
    Why are you having a problem with the design of Time Machine?  Do you need, for some reason, extra space on the external drive?  If that is the case, you should have partitioned the external.
    Barry

  • HT3275 how do i delete old time machine back ups?

    I just switched to a new MBP, and my external drive does not recognize it.  How do I delete old backups in order to make room on the external for the new computer's backups?
    Thank you.

    You could click on the time capsule in the SHARED panel in Finder, then enter your data folder and delete the sparsebundles, but that will take some hours for the delete to finish with the millions of nodes.
    You could also use the airport utility and click on the DISK tab, then do a quick erase.

  • How can I remove old Time Machine back-ups for a Mac I no longer have??

    So, i am trying to back-up a brand new MBPro to my Time Machine but it says there's not enough room. Only 13.5 GB avail and need 284 GB. Is there a way to go into Time Machine and delete all the old back-ups from my former MBPro? (I've already migrated all the files and data to the new MBP from my iMac, also on the same Time Machine.) If I could wipe out the old MBP back-ups that should create enough room.

    Delete the backups.
    Q12 here. http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

  • Removing old Time Machine back ups from Time Capsule

    I have just purchased a new iMac (2.7GHz Intel Core i5 running LION) that I am using to replace both my wife's old iMac (2GHz Intel Core Duo running Snow Leopard) and my 17" MBP Intel Core Duo - we've both made the switch to iPads for lap browsing. I migrated my user accounts from both the MBP and old iMac to the new iMac and I want use TimeCapsule as my back up disk. However, I cannot back up my new machine because the older back ups that I no longer need take up most of the TCs disk space.
    How can I remove the older, no longer needed backups from TimeCapsule to make room to run back ups of my new iMac? I've tried deleting the sparsebundle, but that did not seem to work.
    If anyone can help, please be as detailed as possible in how to remove the back ups. Thanks in advance.
    - Ryan

    Thanks for the tip.
    You did forget to mention that it is necessary to click on the "MANUAL SETUP" button located at lower left part of the Airport Utility window to get to the Disk.
    I went through the more generic/standard setup windows a couple of times because I was not seeing the disk and thought I was missing something. After I had an "ah-ha" moment and clicked the manual setup key, everything was there and erasing the disk was easy.
    Thanks again,
    RT

  • I cant restore old time machine back ups.?

    Hi , so i went to restore my old itunes from time machine, but i can no longer access te old back up, its just clear line in time machine down the side.
    Yesterday it was fine an i was looking through to see when i want to go back to to restore it.
    I can see the old backed up files all dated?
    CAn anyone please help
    regards
    Ricky

    time machine with a 1tb hardrive, if i go into the hardrive i can see the back ups, but i cant get to them by selecting it from the side

  • Old Time Machine Back-Ups on new iMac

    Hey Everyone..
    So I got myself a new iMac today and I'm really pleased with it. I went for the 3.1GHz i5 in place of my old 2.8GHz i7.
    Anyways - I restored the new machine from the most recent back up of my old iMac which has worked great and looks just like my previous computer. However..when I enter Time Machine it only goes back as far as today and when I try to do a back up it says there is not enough room. I would have hoped that my new iMac would recognise the back up as it's own and reinstate it as normal..but this doesn't seem to be the case.
    If someone could give me some guidance on this I would appreciate it.
    Many thanks..
    Ricky

    Time Machine will always treat a new computer's data as a completely new backup and start it from scratch. You can either get a larger backup drive or erase the current one.
    About TM "Backup Drive is Full"
    Alert TM only deletes older files if they have been deleted from the source and when TM needs space on the backup drive for a new incremental backup. Time Machine "thins" it's backups; hourly backups over 24 hours old, except the first of the day; those "daily" backups over 30 days old, except the first of the week. The weeklies are kept as long as there's room.
    So, how long a backup file remains depends on how long it was on your Mac before being deleted, assuming you do at least one backup per day. If it was there for at least 24 hours, it will be kept for at least a month. If it was there for at least a week, it will be kept as long as there's room.
    Note, that on a Time Capsule the sparsebundle grows in size as needed, but doesn't shrink. Thus, from the user's view of the TC it appears that no space has been freed, although there may be space in the sparsebundle.
    Once TM has found it cannot free up enough space for a new backup it reports the disk is full. You can either erase the backup drive and start your backups anew or replace the drive with a larger drive.

  • Time Machine back-ups of files in an external HD drive connected to the Mac?

    I usually use Time Machine for automatic back-ups of all the content in my Mac, into a Time Capsule device.
    I intend now to transfer my heavier files (domestic video files for example) to a new external Hard Drive, in order to release storage espace in the Mac itself. But I want to keep the automatic back-up feature that I have already for my Mac content, also for the files that will be transferred to the external drive. I do not want to take the risk of loss of these external files without having a back-support for recovering in case of damages.
    The question is: How can I configure the Time Machine to make automatically the back-up of the external drive content into the Time Capsule, in the same automatic way than the rest of files in the Mac? Is that possible for such an external drive?
    Thanks in advance for your support and best regards,
    Alejandro

    External drives are automatically added to the TM exclusion list. To back them up, all you have to do is remove them from that list in the TM preference pane. Click Options.

  • Using old time machine back ups for new mac

    I have upgraded to a new intel macbook pro from a g4 powerbook. I was able to move my files and apps to the macbook pro. How do I get time machine to use the old back up data on my new laptop. I have selected the hard drive that has the back up data from my powerbook but the macbook does not pull up the info.

    First a couple of things you're posting in the iMac forum not the MacBook Pro forum. In addition there is a Time Machine Forum. I'd recommend reading the Time Machine FAQ's there. You can find the TM forum at:
    http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1342
    and the MacBook Forum is at:
    http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=190
    Roger

  • I can't empty trash. I get error code 8003. I am trying to delete some time machine back ups to make more room on my external hard drive.

    My trash has files from time machine/Drobo, my external hard drive. It refuses to empty and prevents me from emptying other files from my iMac.

    Please look at the More Like This link to your right. Any with a green check mark indicated the question has been answered with a solution.

  • Merge 2 time machine back ups on 1 back up drive?

    I was running low on space on the USB drive I use to back up my Air, OS 10.6.5 with TIme Machine, and I had a new USB drive handy, so I just used the new drive.  Now I have 2 USB drives and each has a time machine back up file, "Backups.backupdb"
    I'd like to free up the first USB drive, and have the use of all of those old TIme Machine backups on the new drive.
    It's clean up time, trying to reorganize my back ups and drives... is there any way to save the old Time Machine back ups from the old drive in usable format?
    Thank you for any help
    (btw, I do not want to upgrade to the latest versions of Mac OS's)

    Funny you should mention... it was Pondini's TM FAQs that sent me here
    If they answered this question, I missed it.
    I have also read up on http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5096
    But neither could tell me how to manage the back up files when I had already started another external drive as backup disk.
    I am currently copying all the files from the original back up drive to the new drive under another folder, it's taken  about 10 hours so far, estimates 6 hours more to go.
    And on the apple bulletin, it said I should uncheck "ignore ownership on this volume", which I failed to note.
    Thanks for the link though, its a great one.  If I missed it there, (and I checked Troubleshooting too) please let me know?

  • I can't access my files on my old Time Machine back up on my newer iMac

    Okay, so I’m in a bit of a mess here.
    I did have an old Macbook running on Snow Leopard 10.6.8 which died on me.
    Luckily I managed to get a few Time Machine Back Ups  before I passed away . These back ups are
    saved on a non-Apple external HD.
    I recently inherited an iMac ( from 2009) which was also
    running on Snow Leopard 10.6.8. I got very excited and hastily up graded the OS
    to Yosemite.
    This iMac belonged to a friend, and I did not have the Snow
    Leopard disc to perform a factory restore so I decided to simple delete their
    account (System Admin account) from the iMac and keep the account they made for
    me with the intentions of making that the main account.
    After upgrading to Yosemite and deleting the System Admin account and making
    myself the main account holder on the iMac I tried to access my files on my
    external HD to manually move them onto the new iMac ( such as my photos,
    videos, music, logic files, documents etc).
    This is where I encountered my problem. I can no longer
    access my folders on my external HD. It tells me I do not have permission to do
    so, with a little red stop sign on front of all of these folders and files.
    Is there any way I can fix this without having to buy a Snow Leopard disc? AND
    IF I do perform a factory restore will my files in my HD still be locked?
    Thank you in advance.

    I managed to get a few Time Machine Back Ups  before I passed away
    I'm not sure whether a ghost can do this, but if you were still alive, you could do as follows.
    First make sure you have read & write access to the folder you're trying to restore to. You should be able to see its contents in the Finder, and to move files in and out of it.
    This is an exception to the rule that you should never make any changes to backup data. I've tested this procedure in OS X 10.8 only. It should work with later versions, but I don't know whether it works in earlier versions. Use it only for files that were backed up from your home folder, or a folder on another volume created by you, and would normally be writable by you. Do not touch backups of system or application files.
    In the Finder (not in the time-travel view), navigate to the backup volume, then to the folder named "Backups.backupdb", and then to the snapshot you want to restore from. The snapshots are folders labeled with the date when they were created. Inside each of those folders is a file hierarchy like the one on the volume that was backed up. Descend through the hierarchy until you come to a folder named "Users," and inside that, a folder with your user name. The procedure will be different if you're trying to restore files on another volume.
    Select the folder and open the Info dialog (command-I). Click the padlock icon in the lower right corner of the window and authenticate. In the Sharing & Permissions section, give your account Read & Write access. You may have to close the dialog and repeat this step in order for the change to show up. Then click the gear icon and select
              Apply to Enclosed Items
    from the popup menu.
    Try the restore operation again, in the time-travel interface.

  • I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down eliminate

    I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down menu with the gear box symbol to eliminate

    I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
    You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots.  Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
    See Pondini's page for more explanation:   What are Local Snapshots?   http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
    I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
    You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.  
    The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library.  Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

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