Deleting Time Machine backup folder from external drive

I'm trying to delete my Time Machine backup folder off my external hard drive, but the system won't let me because it says [my computer name] folder is in use, when it clearly isn't; I've turned off Time Machine and deselected my drive as backup.
Additionally, it takes about an hour for my trash bin to count the number of folders it needs to delete, and only after this does it say it is unable to delete these folders.
How can I delete my backup folder?

This is a picture of my Disk Utility display showing my internal drive (labeled 750.16 GB...... & below it the name ROBESPIERRE). Below that is an external drive I have connected (labeled 160.04 GB..... & below it the name untitled).
Note that the external HDD, 160.04 GB...... entry has been selected (shown in blue). That will open the 'Partition' window. If you select on the name, the 'Partition' window will not be an option.
Make certain that you have selected the correct entry.
Ciao.

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Deleting Time Machine Backup Folder on External HD

HI everyone,
Well I liked the idea of Time Machine so much, that I went out and bought an external HD to hook up to my mac to back up my files. So my time machine backups are located now on my external.
After a recent update gone wrong, I had to wipe out the mac, and was able to get almost everything back because of time machine!! So I was sold on the idea of Time Capsule.
Now that I have a time capsule and ready to set it up and use it for back ups, I would like to use my external for other things, but most of it is full from the Time Machine backs ups. Is there a way to delete the back ups from my external?

Go to the Time Machine preferences pane. In there you can specify what disks you use as TM backup disks under the options tab, You should see the external HD with a tick next to it. Just untick it and that will turn the disk in to a normal drive again (not that TM actually changes the drive file structure, just gives it a new icon to show that it's a TM disk is all.
Regards,
Peter.
Here's Apple's Knowledge Base article on how to do it:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
Message was edited by: Peter Miller

Errors when transferring my Time Machine backup to an external drive.

Hello,
I need some help transferring my Time Machine backup to an external drive. Let me explain what happened.
I have a Mac OSX Mountain Lion that was upgraded to Mavericks when the upgrade came out. Prior to upgrading, I've been backing up WD Passport Mac with the proprietary software "WD Unlocker on it". It worked flawlessly but after upgrading to Mavericks, I decided to backup and noticed that once i inserted the WD Passport, my screen will flicker, windows will close and reappear.
I decided to read up on this and discovered that Mavericks is not compatible with the "WD Unlocker " program on the Passport drive. Since I already have a backup in place, i decided to restore my computer to factory settings and when I attached the Passport drive with my backup on it, My device will see the backup but it will keep spinning for hours without restoring my backup. I decided to read further on this and I got the same Mavericks compatibility conclusion.
I then copied my entire backups.backupdb folder to my Mac desktop and formatted my WD Passport external drive and got rid of the proprietary software "WD Unlocker".. Once this was completed, I then tried to copy my backups.backupdb folder to my external drive within finder. Each time i tried, i get error messages and permission messages. Even when i changed the permission on the backups.backupdb folder to read & write for everyone, i still get the permissions error.
Please helppppp. I have over 500gb of vital data in my backup.
Thank you.

Since you don't really have a question, I will give you a very broad information source for the next time you have a Time Machine question.
Please visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
Oh, you cannot use a computer whose only disk drive is the target of a an OS X cloning operation regardless of what software is used for the clone. You can, however, use the source drive except if you try to clone using Disk Utility.

Time Machine Backup across multiple external drives

Hello all-
I have about 1.5 TB of data in my computer (video editing- fills things up fast)... I was wondering if it were possible to tell Time Machine to recognize multiple external drives as the backup volume? I'm not talking about creating cloned backups of my data on different drives, I'm talking about plugging in three 1TB external drives and having Time Machine use them as targets for the backup image.
Thanks

Yes, you can use Disk Utility to create a +Concatenated Raid Set,+ also known as a JBOD (Just a bunch of disks). See the Help for Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder).
This is kind of the opposite of partitioning: it combines 2 or more disks into a single volume. The three disks won't appear on your desktop or Finder sidebar individually, just the one volume.
I'm not sure that's necessarily the best solution, though. Is all that data on a single internal HD, or do you have, say, OSX, applications, and most of your data on one drive, and media on a second? If so, it might be better to use TM on your main OSX drive, and something else, like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper! on the media.
That would greatly reduce the time needed for a restore, as you'd only have to restore the drive that failed.
It could also reduce the amount of storage needed, as you might not need (or want) TM's hourly backups of the media files, and keeping all the previous versions. Using another app would allow you to back that data up somewhat less frequently, such as once or twice a day.
But, of course, it all depends on your situation and preferences. As usual, there are many options.

Can I move all data from time machine backup to another external drive & work from it?

Hi all, the harddrive on my macbook died (2nd time in a year) & I had a new one put in that's much smaller than the old one. Can I move everything from my time machine backup onto a seperate external drive and work directly from that on my laptop/imac? At the mo. I don't think time machine will recognise my computer as it's a new drive etc. Thanks Jenny.

What exactly do you want to do?
Is it that you wish to extract an older version of some documents to edit, but leave the original intact?
You can Restore an older version from TM and choose not to replace the current one.
Or, do you wish to install the OS on your new drive, and migrate all the information from the TM backup to the new isntallation?
EDIT: Ok, re-reading your question, I think macjack probably has the right idea.
However, see Pondini's Time Machine FAQ # 16

Multiple Time Machine backups to one external drive

I have a MacPro with an external hard drive that I use exclusively for Time Machine (the external drive is mirrored RAID).
I now have a MacBook Pro as well. Can I set the Time Machine on the laptop to backup to the same external hard drive that I currently use for my desktop? When I look at the Time Machine set up on the laptop I can see the desktop's external drive but don't know if I can have Time Machine backups from two different computers writing to the same external drive.
Thank you

yes you can do that. this is a supported configuration. although it's better to keep TM backups for different drives on separate partitions. probably not an option here though. the remote backups will be stored in a sparse bundle. while remote ones are stored directly in a folder on the drive.

Time machine backup with 2 external drives?

i got myself an external hard drive to use with my MBP. I do a lot of filmwork in imovie for my artwork, and have found my internal hard drive filling up fast.
So i bought a second hard drive yesterday. I'm hoping to backup my files on the external drives so i can erase the files on my MBP and keep it fairly free to record more film.
Is there a way to simultaneously backup to both external drives? or to move files from one external drive to another quickly? I am a complete newbie to macs (and technology for that matter) so simple words work best smile
thanks!

dman8950 wrote:
Hello
Does anyone know if it's possible to use two separate external drives in Time Machine to backup different parts of my mbp hard drive? That is, I want to use ex.drive1 to back up work files at work and ex.drive2 to back up personal files at home. In time machine options, I can set the folders for exclusion, but currently have to set those each time I back up at home/work.
There's no easy way to do that with Time Machine. As you see, it only has one set of exclusions and one destination drive at a time.
In theory, and if you're careful, you might be able to manipulate the preference file where all that's stored. Set TM up for home, say, then copy or rename that version. Then set it up for work and do the same.
The file is at the top level of your drive, not in your home folder:
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
You could probably write an Automator workflow or AppleScript to simplify swapping the files.
Otherwise, two alternatives:
Back up everything in both places.
Use Time Machine at home, and a different app, such as CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, at work, or vice-versa.

Deleting time machine backup files from old time machine disk

I have an external USB HD that USED to be my Time Machine backup disk. I have replaced it with a newer FW HD and use the old one for archiving files, disk images, etc. The old disk still had 100gigs of backup files on it from time machine. To free up space, I thought I'd drag a few months of backups off the old dick into the trash. This worked. But I can't empty the trash. When I go to put the backup folders BACk on the USB disk, I get an error. So they are stuck in the trash.
Any help? Thanks.

I have always understood that there is no need to delete backup files from Time Machine. Once it reaches 'full' it begins to delete them sequentially of its own accord.
Good policy to check out Pondini's comments.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.htm
Or type Pondini into Google for a broader selection of his offerings.

Can I use a Time Machine Backup (on an external drive) as a "start up" drive? I need to do a disk repair.

I am upgrading my MacBook Pro (17"; Intel Core Duo; Speed 2.16 GHz; 2 GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM) from Leopard (10.5.8) to Snow Leopard (10.6.8). I successfully Time Machine to make a backup to an external LaCie drive. Some issues appeared when I ran a "disk verify," and need to change the startup drive to boot up and use "repair disk." When I tried to change the startup drive (in System Preferences) the drive with the Time Machine Backup was not recognized. Can I even use Time Machine to create a bootable drive? I use Carbon Copy Clone with my iMac (and can boot from the clone), but that is not an option when running OSX 10.5.8.

Only if the backup was created by Mac OS X 10.8 or newer. Use the Mac OS X 10.6 install DVD instead.
(121333)

Limiting Time Machine backup size onto external drive

I have a 6TB RAID LaCie external drive that I would like to use with Time Machine. My mac has a 1TB HD which is not full. I do not want Time Machine to fill up my external drive with multiple backups. Is there some way to limit how much space Time Machine will use on an external drive? My understanding is that Time Machine will fill up the drive completely, then start overwriting the oldest files.
I do not think that I could partition the drive. But I am not sure how to do that, if it works with mac, and if I can do it now without reformating the drives. I am looking to see if there is a solution on the Time Machine software side.

Try Use Terminal to limit Time Machine sparcebundle size on timecapsule,
should work to limit Time Machine backup size on any NAS or external disk (or not...)
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize500000
to return to ilimited
sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine MaxSize
if you want to reclame deleted files space shrink it use
hdiutil resize -size 500g -shrinkonly /Volumes/TimeMachineYOURNAME/YOURNAME.sparsebundle/
Regards

Time Machine Backups on multiple external drives

Hello,
I use time machine to back up to my NAS drive and also to a USB drive. I wish to restore some files and want to use my USB back up as it will be faster. When I go into Time Machine it opens the NAS drive back ups by default. How can I change it to the USB one.
Many thanks for any assistance give.
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)
2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
510GB Flash Hard drive
OSX Yosemite 10.10.1
NAS Drive WDMyCloud 2TB
USB Drive WD My passport 2TB

I think I understand what you want to do and since the backups alternate, if you back up again, that will make the USB backup the most current, so that when you enter Time Machine, that will be the backup you enter. If you go to System Preferences/Time Machine, it will show you what drive was backed up to last.

How do I recover another computer's time machine backup to an external drive

I did much searching on this and came up dry on how to clone a new drive on one computer (A) from a Time Capsule backup from another computer (B) for the purpose of installing on that other computer (B).
Specifically, I want to replace the drive in my wife's MacBook Pro (Snow Leopard 10.6.8) with an SSD. I have a drive Dock that can be attached to the iMac (Mavericks 10.9.3) with FireWire 800 (and also to the MBP using a much slower USB2). I wanted to allow her to use her MacBook Pro (browsing only, no new documents or emails) while I used my iMac to create her boot drive from her Time Capsule backup, but couldn't figure it out. Migration Assistant assumed I was migrating to my own Mac or to a remote Mac running MA. I couldn't figure out how to get CCC to just see one backup on Time Machine as input rather than the entire volume with all the backup versions. Everything I found with Google assumed I was using the MBP for the restore. CCC won't clone to a remote drive either--local only.
This is academic at this point as I connected the dock to the MBP over USB and am now using CCC to the attached drive, which will take several hours during which I assume we shouldn't be using the MBP. Maybe that was the only way all along? I suppose another way would have been to install the SSD in the MBP and boot from a DVD and use Migration Assistant. I'm just curious for the future as I help friends upgrade from time to time.

Since you don't really have a question, I will give you a very broad information source for the next time you have a Time Machine question.
Please visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
Oh, you cannot use a computer whose only disk drive is the target of a an OS X cloning operation regardless of what software is used for the clone. You can, however, use the source drive except if you try to clone using Disk Utility.

Time Machine backup with firewire external drive

I am having issues with a brand new firewire external drive and I am not sure if it is a drive issue, a configuration issue or what.
I have a 6tb Firewire hooked up to my machine. This is the drive which is being used as the destination for Time Machine. I have had this drive for awhile and seem to be having no problem with it and have not had an issue with Time Machine previously. I have a new added a second firewire drive (2tb) in daisy chain to the first (the 6tb). Whenever this drive is included in my TM backup profile, TM fails. Whenever I remove it, TM seems to work. I am wondering if the issue is the sequence of the drives (the TM drive perhaps needing to be the last in the chain), an issue with TM or perhaps an indication of a hardware problem with the new drive itself. Anyone got a clue?
Thanks.

Okay,apparantly no one else seems to be having this issue. That being the case then, how do I find a log file to get an error code so I can try to determine *why* Time Machine is failing?

Time Machine backups to two external drives?

Hi,
I'm wondering if there is a way to use Time Machine to back up the same data to two or more external drives?
For that matter... I only have certain folders I need backed up. Can it be set up to do this?
I don't have it yet and couldn't find a definitive answer.
thanks,
Andrew

I'm wondering if there is a way to use Time Machine to back up the same data to two or more external drives?
You can use Time Machine to backup to multiple drives, but you'll have to manually switch target drives in Time Machine Options when you want backups to go to a different device.
For that matter... I only have certain folders I need backed up. Can it be set up to do this?
Not easily. Time Machine backs up everything unless you exclude each item that you +do not+ want to be backed up. SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner may do what you need to do a lot more easily.

Does Time Machine require a dedicated external drive, or can it include other files?

After a misplaced library file, I'm having problems restoring some of the content on my MacBook Pro. I have a Time Machine backup on an external drive, but the drive also includes lots of other files that I want to exclude from the restore process. I'm concerned whether the Migration Assistant will scoop up everything on the drive.
The laptop is still running on Snow Leopard 10.6.8 for specific reasons (although I have Lion 10.7.5 on my iMac). I presume Time Machine and the Migration Assistant are the same on both operating systems -- but I'd better ask here first.
Thanks for any help with this question.

David Henderson7 wrote:
Another good idea. Thanks, FatMac!
For a long time, I was leery of putting too much stuff on one drive. It breaks, and you lose everything. But you're right -- the prices allow for even two 3TB externals that could manage backups of backups for paranoid types like me. And that's in addition to the internal drive.
Welcome to paranoidville. Staples has been selling Toshiba Canvio 3 TB externals for $120 and even though they must have green drives inside because they run a lot cooler than Seagates (of course they do, also, have ventilation), being fed from an SSD I've seen transfer rates of 130+MB/s connected to USB 3.0 ports. I have one set up with 4 partitions and maintain a rolling backup of the boot disk with BU dates recorded for each partition. A second Toshiba has a single periodic BU of the Mac Pro as well as a bootable backup of the rMBP and what passes for a Windows 8 backup of a Lenovo laptop. A third has the rMBP TM partition and a series of rMBP backups (that was originally used for testing and using the rMBP for a week without touching the rMBP SSD in case there was an image retention problem or some other issue, since the internal SSD can't be securely erased and I had 14 days to simply return it).
You can never be too rich, too thin or too backed up.

Deleting Time Machine backup folder from external drive

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