Freeing up space on Time Machine external drive

I realise I have probably done the wrong thing! I deleted (sent to Trash) some old back ups on the external drive I use for Time Machine. I emptied the Trash though had to skip lots of the files and folders as they were said to be "in use". The drive has not freed up any space! Plus I now cannot see the folders that I tried to delete. I've tried Disk Utility to erase free space. The backups are in a directory I do not use any more for back ups so I cannot see them in Time Machine either.
I really want to free up the space but I am nervous of using Terminal commands or external software. Any suggestions or shall I just buy another external drive?!

Thanks Rudegar I thought this might have been the answer. Unfortunately, I cannot now see the files that I tried to delete but are still there as the disk is still full. So how do I get them to show up? I'v tried switching off Time Machine but they still do not appear. NB they are a backup from a previous computer not the one that TM is currently doing.

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How do I restore the entire system from a Time Machine external drive?

Hello everyone,
Up front - I have searched through numerous threads but have not yet been able to solve my problem - even though it is presumably easy for many.
So... I had to bring in my late 2009 27" iMac to Apple to replace the hard drive - mine was one of the thousands affected by the defective Seagate 1 TB disk recall. I was told that the disk would be cloned, but nevertheless I made a full system backup with Time Machine to a dedicated external hard drive.
A week later and I now have my iMac back - but when I boot, I only see a white screen with a pointer, so it appears that the drive was not cloned - but that I now have a blank 1 TB disk, correct?
I have also tried booting with the external drive attached, thinking that the dedicated Time Machine external drive would allow me to boot directly from it and restore the system if need be - I booted with CMD+R, tried again with ALT ... no luck.
And I cannot find my Mac OS DVDs...
So... is the drive blank, or am I missing something here?
If so, how can I boot from the external Time Machine drive, or is that not possible either?
Any pointers greatly appreciated, thanks very much in advance.

Call Apple to get replacement DVDs > http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57
1. Insert the Mac OS X DVD and press C key while your computer is starting.
2. Go to Utilities menu and restore the backup.
You should have made a clone instead of the backup because Apple gives the hard disk without OS X

Hello I bought my wife a new MacBook Pro, in setting it up for her, I took her Time Machine external drive to migrate onto the new machine but her old MBP not only was on 10.6, it was my old machine which I was still Administrator for. i plugged in the

Hello
I bought my wife a new MacBook Pro, in setting it up for her, I took her Time Machine external drive to migrate onto the new machine but her old MBP not only was on 10.6, it was my old machine which I was still Administrator for.
i plugged in the external drive to start the migration process after entering her name and username from the old machine which gave me the options on transferring the old data over.
I also unchecked the Administrative end that had my info hoping that ONLY her data, files, etc., would be the ones sent over to her new machine which I wanted her to be the ONLY Administrator for. All went like clockwork until the restart.
Normally the screen should show the username and only need the password but both entries were blank, as in ‘Other’ sign in option available only. I entered her name and password, nothing….used her username and password, nothing. Used my old Administrator name and password, NOTHING!
I tried defaulting to factory settings from the Restore feature but it directs me to notify Apple. I tried in Terminal to change the password, nothing. I tried to boot from MY external drive and it doesn’t recognize it. I tried to even use my external drive which actually has the Mavericks upgrade, nothing!
Basically I can only get the startup screen which isn’t accepting the username/password or the Restore feature which doesn’t offer any options helpful!
Please, how do I start from scratch and start over here? Or simply change the Administrator name and password so I can proceed with everything thats already on there? I wish I could even boot from another drive but no luck on anything!

First, on the old machine, make your wife's account an admin one. Log into it and delete yours. Then, update the TM backup. Finally, use Internet recovery mode, ⌘⌥R, erase the HD, and restore the OS. One first boot, follow the steps outlined in Pondini's Setup New Mac guide.

I need to erase my hard drive and start anew, will time Machine(external drive) and all the discs I got with my computer be enough to restart things

I need to erase my hard drive and start anew, will time Machine(external drive) and all the discs I got with my computer be enough to restart things. And secondly does RAM memory cards go bad. Here's the info on my IMac:
Model Name:          iMac
Model Identifier:          iMac6,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          4 MB
Memory:          3 GB
Bus Speed:          667 MHz
Boot ROM Version:          IM61.0093.B07
SMC Version (system):          1.10f2

I need to erase my hard drive and start anew
Why do you feel you need to do this? That is such a 'Windows thing' to do!
And secondly does RAM memory cards go bad
Very rarely, but nothing in life is guaranteed (except death and taxes)! If you purchased RAM from a reputable source like Crucial or OWC it will carry a lifetime warranty.

My hard drive died. How can I start my computer with my Time Machine external drive?

My hard drive died. How can I start my computer with my Time Machine external drive?

Pondini wrote:
If you're on 10.7.2, yes, you can boot from the TM drive.
Beep, beep, beep....
Hold ON! Getting a call on the red phone.
"Yes...yes.... ok!"
It's confirmed, H.e.l.l. has finally frozen over! TM drives are now bootable!
Still it's not a real bootable clone, can't run the computer off the external drive for long in only Recovery mode, still requires the boot drive to be replaced if it not functional, and with TM backing up every hour, isn't going to offer much software protection as the TM drive is just as likely to be as messed up as the internal boot drive.
For a iMac it still requires the computer to be taken in to Apple for a drive replacement, as ONLY Apple can do it due to proprietary connections and firmware on the iMac hard drives.
But it is bootable!
The backup time factor can be controlled using TimeMachine Editor, from every hour to just when the user thinks it's necessary.
Apple lurches slightly forward! Hurray!
Question is, can one restore from earlier stable TM's or just the last one? In this bootable fashion?

Lion time machine - external drive spin up causing apps to crash

I have a 1TB external drive set up for time machine backups on my 27" iMac running Lion 10.7.3 that seems to be causing my Adobe CS 5.5 suite of apps (photoshop in partiucular) to crash as the drive spins up. If an adobe application or lion/time machine is asking the drive to spin up I have no idea, but it seems random, and when it does, the adobe app(s) freeze and the beach ball from **** just spins. All other applications remain uneffected which leads me to believe it's related to a scratch disk function of some sort. I've googled high and low to find an scrap on insight into this issue and have found nothing...
Few questions:
• Why does the time machine external drive randomly spin up even though there are no backup processes running?
• Why would an adobe app would need to access an external drive?
Before anyone says it, I know I can always just eject the drives, but I'd rather keep my backups running for obvious reasons. If a complete wipe and install is the only solution recommended by the doctor, I will. It's just maddening to regularly loose work. Any help is greatly appreciated!
iMac: Mid 2010 27"
Processor 2.8 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 (11D50)
Adobe CS 5.5
Photoshop CS5 / v12.1 x64
Illustrator CS5 / v15.1.0
InDesign CS5.5 / v7.5.2
External Drives
Firewire800: 2TB Hitachi G-Drive: http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive.cfm
USB: 1TB Western Digital MyPassport 0730

Set the TM drive not to spin down, I think there is a setting in the system preferences.
Could be the G drive feature,
consider making option key bootable clone drives
Most commonly used backup methods explained

Back-up on external drive, in addition to the time machine external drive

Quick question: I am using Time machine on an external drive next to my laptop. To protect against fire/theft, I want to do a monthly back up on an other external drive which would be kept at work. Does time machine allow 2 external back up drives and remember what needs to be updated on each, or do I need to use SuperDuper or similar to do my monthly back up?

You can do what you want by going in to System Preferences > Time Machine > Change Disk whenever you rotate disks. Time Machine will keep track what modified files belong to its respective backups on the two disks. However, it's always a very good idea to diversify risk in your backups so using different software for your second set of backups would be something to seriously consider. SuperDuper is not yet Leopard compatible but Carbon Copy Cloner is. You can use the "Copy selected items" function in CCC to do incremental backups.

I can´t see my "time machina external drive" in windows

Hi, I used to have my itunes lybrary in my external drive so I can hear my music both when I´m working in the Mac Os or the Windows Os. I install de 10.5 and start using the time machine (prior I back up de audio file and re recorder to the new formated external drive). The thing it´s that know in windows mode I can´t se or access my usb hd.
Anyone knows how can I do to use time machine but still continue to use this hd in windows?
Thanks

you formatted the drive in HFS+ format, which Windows doesn't recognize..
to get a workaround, partition the drive (make sure 1 partition is greater than or equal to your Mac's HDD) into 2 and format the one which is greater or equal to yr mac's HDD in HFS+ format, while the other one in FAT32 format...
then, keep your music in the FAT32 partition...
or, install MacDrive (not free) and you can start browsing your HFS+ partition...

HT201250 How to Use One Time Machine External Drive to Back Up Two Macs

How do I set up two computers -- an iMac and a MacBook, both running Mountain Lion -- to use a single external hard drive for Time Machine backups?
Both are on an Airport Extreme network

Yes, it does.
I took it from there and the iMac is now backing up its contents on the HD.
Thanks very much for your knowledgeable and prompt help.
Best regards,
ed

Freeing up space from time machine backup folder

can i just throw away some of the middle folders in time machines backup folder to free up some space? Each of those folders says its holding multiple gigs of data, which they are obviously not.
Throwing one of them away won't incite time machine to discard the originals, will it?

l_elephant wrote:
can i just throw away some of the middle folders in time machines backup folder to free up some space? Each of those folders says its holding multiple gigs of data, which they are obviously not.
Throwing one of them away won't incite time machine to discard the originals, will it?
That could result in a veritable disaster. You stand the chance of corrupting the entire TM database, rendering it useless. Never do anything directly in any of the TM folders or backups. Always use TM itself.
The proper way to remove TM backups is with TM.
Select an item and click the gear in the Finder. You have many choices including deleting all instances of a file or folder.
When TM determines that it needs more room, it properly deletes old files and folders, without any user intervention. It "knows" how to do this.
If you need more room on the HD for other purposes, I suggest using SuperDuper to clone your TM backup onto a larger drive.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

MIgration assistant doesn't detect my Time Machine external drive

Hello.
I just upgraded to Snow Leopard (cleaning first the Mac HD).
After installing SL, I then used the Migration assistant to restore all my previous files and applications previously backed up with Time Machine.
In the Migration Assistant I selected the Time Machine option, and my surprise was not to find my external hard drive in the hard drives list. The only drive that appeared on the list was the Mac HD.
The external Hard Drive can be selected with the finder but not possible though the Migration assistant.
Note: External HD has 2 partitions, one for Time Machine and other with extra data.
PLease help!!!!
Thanks
Pedro

Hi - I am trying to use Migration Assistant on a MacBook Pro to transfer my files from a La Cie external hard drive - which has all my files back up from a 2005 mac book (photos, music etc) The migration assistant does not recognise the LaCie Hard Drive although it is connected to the MacBook via a cable and I can see it on the desk top.
What did the last response mean when the hard drive needed to be formatted a certain way ? Why wouldn't migration assistant just recognise the files directly from an old mac ?

Time Machine external drive not displayed in Migration Assistant

I have been suffering repeated lockups with my iMac, so I decided to bite the bullet and reformat the drive and restore from a Time Machine backup. I have been backing up to an external USB drive, not a Time Capsule. It seemed to be working fine and I have successfully restored the occasional file. However, having reinstalled Lion, the external drive was not offered as a possible source for restoration. Similarly, having chosen not to restore during reinstallation, I attempted to use the Migration Assistant: once again the external drive was not offered as a source. Luckily, I also had an up-to-date cloned drive that was offered and I managed a successful restore.
Can anyone explain why the external drive was not available as a legitimate source? Must I always use a Time Capsule for a full recovery?

It seems that
in order for Mac OS X to realize that it's a Time Machine drive, there should be an invisible "flag file" (0 bytes in size) at the root of the drive, called com.apple.timemachine.supported - if this file is missing for some reason, Migration Assistant won't pick it up.
not sure that it's true but worth trying.

Time Machine External drive and data only [no OSX on it] partition both

are locked. I don't know what happened but think I might have done a Get Info and did an apply to enclosed = but if so, I was expanding access at the time to all readwrite and not restricting.
In any event, my TimeMachine external is now locked = even using Administrator login I can't open it. And my data partition which is separate from startup partition with OSX is also now locked.
I saw the following discussion tip but thought I would check lst - how do I handle this? If OSX is not on the data partition, fine and I'll follow those instructions but what about Time Machine which does have OSX somewhere on it, I assume.
I'm still running pre-SnowL. on this machine.
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2087835>

No - I was scared to do so tile I knew for sure that I could apply the suggestion ref the OSX TimeMachien drive and the nonOSX data partition. I wanted to be really sure.
"Locked" means there's a little lock in the lower L hand corner of the icon and there is no checkbox for locking and the privileges are set to Custom and I can't get them to be changed to ReadWrite or whatever.
Before I jump into the terminal, just want to be very sure! Thanks much.

TIME MACHINE EXTERNAL DRIVE BACKUP DISK CANNOT BE MOUNTED

Hello,
Last week i brought a WD MY BOOK LIVE NETWORK DRIVE.
I hv 2 Windows PC and 1 MACBOOK. All data residing on these 3 computers i intend to back up.
One Windows PC i was able to successfully connect, 2nd Windows PC not yet connected.
Macbook connected on teh first day of WD installation. After that day it gives an error "THE BACKUP DISK IMAGE COULD NOT BE MOUNTED".
I hv tried various methods to rectify this error as discussed in many forums, but none seem to be helping.
Can anyone suggest how should i solve this.
I called WD, they told me to call APPLE as its a time machine problem.
I call APPLE and they are asking me to call WD.
i AM USING MACBOOK - MAC OSX VERSION 10.5.8

My book world
Check here
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8422/p/247,264/c/0
I just solve the problem after 45 minutes with the lervel 3 WD support. You have to return to firmware 1.02.06 since the 1.02.10 version has a network card driver error and in some configurations (a lot more) the disk just stay connected for a couple of minutes. To do that you have to manually return to old firmware but WD do not has the file as public so you have to call them. One way to stay connected a bit more is making a permanent ping to the disk.

By adding an external hd to time capsule does it increase the size of available space for time machine back-ups?

By adding an external hd to time capsule does it increase the size of available space for time machine back-ups?

No, each drive is treated separately. Sorry!!

Freeing up space on Time Machine external drive

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