Deleting Sparse Disk Image Bundle from Time Capsule

Howdy. Thanks in advance for help on this issue to anyone kind enough to spend time answering it.
I've got a 1TB Time Capsule which I use primarily for external file storage - it's currently got just about 120GB of files on it which I have manually copied there. I only sporadically use Time Machine to do automated backups, but since I've had the Time Capsule for a good long while, there have been many backups, and relatively little space left on it. As I am not interested in files that are 8 months old, I have gone into Time Machine and deleted all the old backups I don't want, then done a fresh backup so there's a current copy of everything on my laptop. It's my understanding that deleting backups from within Time Machine clears space off the Time Capsule, and when I did those deletions, saw that the available space on my Time Capsule did in fact increase, but not nearly as much as I would have expected.
Now, there's a file sitting on my Time Capsule called a "Sparse Disk Image Bundle.dmg", which has a filesize of 564GB - so there's where all the "free" space on my Time Capsule is accounted for.
My question is, if I know that I don't want the contents of all the old backups, but I DO want a copy of the files I have manually copied onto my Time Capsule, is it safe to delete the 564GB .dmg file? I use my Time Capsule more than anything else as the repository for my iTunes library, and it'd be a huge bummer if I wiped out my entire music collection by deleting that file.
So far as I can tell, the contents of my Time Capsule and that .dmg file are separate, but I don't know enough to know whether that's really the case.
Any advice is well appreciated!

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Yes, network backups are in an odd container called a +sparse bundle.+ It should be named with your Computer name plus a string of 12 numbers and letters (the hardware address of your Mac).
Do you see your "other" files separate from it? They shouldn't be inside it, unless you specifically copied them into it.
As long as they're shown separately, yes, you can safely delete the sparse bundle. That will delete all your backups, though, and take quite a while. If it seems to be taking forever, see the blue box in #12 of [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
There is an alternative, however. You can limit the +maximum size+ of the sparse bundle, per #A8 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). As noted there, however, if you update to Snow Leopard, 10.6.3 or later, it will be automatically re-sized to the size of the TC's internal HD.
If it's already too large, you may need to delete some more backups and/or "compact" it first. See the pink box in #12 of the FAQ.

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How can I use my previous Sparse Disk Image Bundle?

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How can I get Time Machine to use the old backup file and not create a new one?
TM

That would have happened automatically if you had transferred your data from the backup of the old machine in Setup Assistant.
To make it happen now is difficult. You can try the instructions on this page:
"Reconnecting" to your backups

My Macbook pro Early 2008 is randomly slow at starting up and when I am backing up to my time capsule I am receiving the following message 'Time machine could not complete the backup. '' ''The backup disk image ''/Volumes/name time capsule/ my name MacBoo

My Macbook pro Early 2008 is randomly slow at starting up and when I am backing up to my time capsule I am receiving the following message 'Time machine could not complete the backup. '' ''The backup disk image ''/Volumes/name time capsule/ my name MacBook Pro (4).sparsebundle'' could not be accessed (error-1).
Problem started after deleting parrell desktop and window7 ?
Please help?

Look at the more like this column on the right.. this is the most frequently asked question in this discussion area.
Reboot the TC.. restart the whole network if the simple reboot did not work.. start in order. modem.. router/TC.. clients. 2min gap.
Read C12 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

HT3275 What if my error message is the following: The backup disk image "/Volumes/********'s Time Capsul/****'s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use. (I have redacted the name of the computer with asterixes)

What if my error message is the following: The backup disk image “/Volumes/********'s Time Capsul/****’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use. (I have redacted the name of the computer with asterixes)

This is a complex procedure.
Pull the power cord from the back of the Time Capsule
Wait a minute or two
Plug the power cord back in to the back of the Time Capsule
This will fix the issue 98% of the time. If you are in the unlucky 2% category, more help is here from Pondini, the Time Machine guru:
The Backup disk image ... sparsebundle ... is already in use.

Password-protected Sparse Disk Image Bundle remembered after eject

I use password-protected Sparse Disk Image Bundles to protect some files. Every now and then, when I open the image, it doesn't ask me for the password and opens immediately.
At first, I thought I may have inadvertantly agreed to save the password in Keychains. But that is not the case. After running some tests, I noticed it may take up to 3 ejects before it asks me for the password again. It seems to happen more when I modify files in the disk image, but not when I simply read files. I suspect it is not completely unmounting the image.
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You may have successfully increased the sparsebundle's potential capacity while failing to resize the contained partition. That seems to be what happened when I tried this myself. A resized sparsebundle containing the same files would not occupy much more space on disk than it did before.
*Provided you have a backup*, you could try the following:
Remount the image, then run Disk Utility and select the .sparsebundle (non-indented icon) in the left pane. Click on the Partition tab, and then see if you can pull down the lower right corner of the disk image partition to increase its size. If you can, then drag it to the bottom and click Apply.
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Time Machine could not complete the backup "Time Capsule". Unable to access disk image backup "/ Volumes / Time Capsule / iMac.sparsebundle" (error 112). How can I repair it?

Time Machine could not complete the backup "Time Capsule". Unable to access disk image backup "/ Volumes / Time Capsule / iMac.sparsebundle" (error 112).
How can I fix it?

You might want to take a look at Pondini's excellent support document......Time Machine Troubleshooting
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
See # C17

Can Time Machine write to a Disk Image on a Time Capsule?

I just inherited a Gen 1 Time Machine (500gb). I have three Macs on my network. In my current set up I have an external 500gb drive split into three equal partitions, one for each Mac.
I know I cannot partition the TC HD, but I also know I can create one or more Disk Images.
Question: Can Time Machine write to a Disk Image on a Time Capsule?
Thanks.
MotionMan

I know the backups will not mix.
One of the Macs is a MacBook that only hooks up to the network every couple weeks. Before I partitioned my existing TM backup disk, the TM backups of the other two Macs were filling the disk. When the MacBook then tried to make a backup, the oldest backups of the MacBook would drop off.
So, the other two Macs had backps for months, but the MacBook ended up with much less. That is what lead me to the 3 partitions, so each Mac had an equal space for their backups.
Odd that there there is no good solution for this.
MotionMan

Time Capsule and Time Machine (Sparse Disk Image Bundle)

I just changed the HD that I use to backup TM for Time Capsule. I do not know why it is taking so long (more than 45 min) to calculate size... I took a look at TC and I found "Backups.backupdb" with no item (in TC) and a disk image called "Mac Pro’s Mac Pro.sparsebundle" right beside another dm called Mario.sparsebundle (my MacMini). Did it change from before, it used to be a folder called Backups.backupdb and inside her, folders with your computer's name? Is there something wrong? Should I stop TM?
Mario Lordeiro

You may have successfully increased the sparsebundle's potential capacity while failing to resize the contained partition. That seems to be what happened when I tried this myself. A resized sparsebundle containing the same files would not occupy much more space on disk than it did before.
*Provided you have a backup*, you could try the following:
Remount the image, then run Disk Utility and select the .sparsebundle (non-indented icon) in the left pane. Click on the Partition tab, and then see if you can pull down the lower right corner of the disk image partition to increase its size. If you can, then drag it to the bottom and click Apply.
Again don't try this without a backup. It may not be worth doing in any event - it's easy enough just to make a new, bigger sparsebundle and copy your stuff over.

Disk Image Setup on Time Capsule

I currently use my 2TB Time Capsule as a backup for one laptop and for my iTunes media files (which I periodically back up to an external hard drive manually). I'm planning on adding my wife's laptop's backups to the mix and would like to reserve room for the growing folder of music plus other data files. After some research, it appears that the best way to keep Time Machine from filling all available space with backups from our computers would be to use disk images. I'm considering two different tactics:
1. Create a disk image with a capacity of, say, 1TB to which I'd move the library (I'm assuming that Time Machine will respect the capacity even if the image isn't full, right?). The issue I have with this is that I don't want it to affect how iTunes accesses the files wirelessly. Is there a particular way I should create the disk image so that iTunes simply access the files as it does now (i.e., no encryptions, passwords, turning into sparsebundle files, etc.), but also maintains the capacity in such a way that the backups won't encroach?
2. Keep the library in its existing folder on the Time Capsule, but create a bunch of empty disk images that will keep the sparsebundle backups from encroaching. I could then delete the empty disk images as the need for room increases in the library.
Any thoughts on the best way to do this, or on showstoppers I haven't thought of? Assuming either approach works, I'm also looking for advice on format, partition, and image format specifications for setting up the disk image(s) in Disk Utility. I'm assuming I can avoid the encryption/password problems by simply leaving encryption marked "none."

daveb74 wrote:
if I were going to use one of these drives as my primary iTunes media location, I'd either have to leave it plugged into the TC all the time or manually attach it every time I wanted to access those files. The former seems like a bad idea
Not really. Running constantly is one of the least-stressful things that a disk drive can do, much easier on it than regular starting and stopping.
Do you know of any reason why the disk image idea wouldn't work, specifically?
I wouldn't put your iTunes files into a disk image unless you were sure you were only going to mount that disk image from one Mac at a time. I'd expect the mounting of a read-write disk image on multiple Macs to cause trouble.
Putting empty disk image files on the Time Capsule disk would accomplish what you're trying to do (reserve space so that Time Machine doesn't consume it all), but that requires a fair amount of management on your part to monitor the space usage.
If you decide to go with disk images, be sure that you don't use a "sparse" variety. You want the type that initially reserves the entire amount of requested disk space.

Cross hardware platform image cloning from Time Capsule

Currently have a mid-2009 17" MBPro and will be receiving a new 15" MBPro Retina in August. Question is if there is anything I need to be aware of if I wanted to merely image the new 15" out of the box from the backup image from the 17" via my Time Capsule backup? OS updates done regularly along with weekly virus scans, all clean and no current corruptions when doing a disk health check. Appreciate any and all feedback from the group.

Currently have a mid-2009 17" MBPro and will be receiving a new 15" MBPro Retina in August. Question is if there is anything I need to be aware of if I wanted to merely image the new 15" out of the box from the backup image from the 17" via my Time Capsule backup? OS updates done regularly along with weekly virus scans, all clean and no current corruptions when doing a disk health check. Appreciate any and all feedback from the group.

Sparse disk image bundle file WAAAYYYY too big

Hi everyone! I'm currently using a Time Capsule in conjunction with Time Machine AND as an additional external hard drive. I decided against using the drive with Time Machine and deleted all my old backups (using the finder window in the Time Machine program). However, no space was cleared on my disk; i.e., the .sparebundle file is still HUGE! I have a 500TB version of the TC, with about 100GB being used on the hard drive and 204GB being occupied by the sparsebundle file. Is there a way to reduce the size of the sparsebundle file? I had thought deleting the backups would clear the desired space.

First you need at least two current backups of all the files you want to keep in your home folder. One backup is not enough to be safe. Warning: Time Machine does not back up a legacy FileVault while you're logged in.
Then you need to delete most of the data in your home folder. No less than about two-thirds. Deleting means moving to the Trash and emptying the Trash. Log out and log back in. You should then be able to deactivate legacy FileVault in the Security & Privacy preference pane.
Finally, you need to restore the files you deleted. That will be easier if you don't use Time Machine to back up. If you do use it, you'll have to dig down into the backups folder to find the most recent snapshot of your home sparsebundle, then mount it and copy the files back to their original location. You can't use the time-travel interface for this purpose.
If you restore everything, you may fill up your boot volume again. Some of the files may have to be restored to a secondary storage device, which you will then have to back up along with your primary device.

How do I delete an iMac back up from Time Capsule?

I am attempting to delete an iMac back-up (Bob's 20" iMac) which is located on my Time Capsule and I don't know if I'm doing it correctly.
In the Finder, I have located the backup as follows: Bob'sTime Capsule>Data> Bob's 20" iMac
I right-clicked Bob's 20" iMac and selected "Move to Trash"
A small Trash window has been chugging on my desktop for about 36 hours which ststes "Deleteing Bob's 20" iMac"
The size of the backup is 1.16 TB. Is this proceeding properly in which case I just need to be patient and wait for the process to finish?
Or, is therw another method I should use to delete said backup.
Thanks very much.

You are doing things the right way, so hang in there.
In general....if you are using an Ethernet connection between the Mac and the Time Capsule.....data will delete at a rate of about 30 GB per hour, so 1.2 TB...which is 1200 GB, will take require about 40 hours to delete the backup of the iMac.
If you are using wireless, unfortunately things will take, on average, about 3-4 times longer than using Ethernet. It all depends on the speed of your wireless connection.

How Do I Delete backup data from Time Capsule if have 2 computers on 1 TC?

I have been backing up 2 computers (one desktop/one laptop) to a 1TB Time Capsule. I have now added an external hard drive for the desktop computer and would like to delete that computer's backups from Time Capsule to free up space for the laptop computer. How do I delete the desktop computer's backup data from Time Capsule without disturbing the laptop back ups? Do I drag the desktop computer's backups.backupdb and sparsebundle to trash and empty?
Thanks.

Rick Gregory wrote:
Thanks though I am still a bit confused as I had read NOT to delete via Finder, but via Disk Utility (erase). Does it make any difference?
You're probably referring to the advice never to change, move, or delete anything inside your backups via the Finder, as that can corrupt them.
A number of folks have tried to delete a single backup that way, and caused all sorts of troubles.
Deleting the entire sparse bundle is ok.

How can i format my MacBook Pro hard disk and recover my data from time capsule?

Hello,
My MacBook Pro is running slow, more and more. Everything started with the "upgrade" to Lion.
Can I re-format my hard disk and recover from Time Capsule only the data and applications I really need (including Snow Leopard as OS, maybe)?
Thanks

The problem is that it is a Western Digital 3.5 inch internal hard drive housed inside a hard drive caddy. So the only way to connect it to my computer is through a dock.

Does Time Capsule back up everything on my computer? If I inadvertently delete photos from iPhoto can they be retrieved from Time Capsule?

Does Time Capsule back up everything on my computer? If I inadvertently delete photos from iPhoto can they be retrieved from Time Capsule?

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.
Also, see Pondini's Time Machine FAQ

Deleting Sparse Disk Image Bundle from Time Capsule

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