How can i delete a 'backups' from time machine for a computer i no longer have

i have been using my time capsule for a few years now, everything was great until my imac died and i had to replace it
when i did, the time capsule worked perfectly, as it allowed me to "migrate" all my backed up data onto my new machine, joy
but now, as it wants to start its backups of the new imac, there just isnt enough disk space on the drive, and i suspect this is due to every file on my new machine is marked as never have being backed up which means i need like 400G, and most of the time capsule's space is still consumed by the old backups
how can i remove this old back up from the time capsule without reformatting the whole drive (i have other machines that are still using the backup service and i dont want that interrupted)
it just seems like, since i am no longer on the old machine, i cant access that machine's backup in order to delete them (through the time machine interface), and i cant seem to find a single tutorial on how to do this that is written in non-programmer speak (i really dont feel comfortable cracking open terminal and command-lining this sort of thing)
am i just nuts or is this really all that uncommon a problem with no easy solution?!?
any advice is appreciated, thanks in advance

how can i remove this old back up from the time capsule
click here for instructions.

Similar Messages

  • How can i find missing backup on Time Machine (for Mac)?, How can i find missing backup on Time Machine (for Mac)?

    I backed up my computer on August 8th 2010 with Time Machine. I'm absolutely certain I did. But some reason there's a gap. I have a backup of my computer from just before that date, and just after that date, but August 8th is missing.
    Is there any way to recover my files from this date? What's happening? It can't have started automatically deleting files because I have backups from as far back as June 2010 (when I started using time machine).
    Thank you

    See:
    A  whole  lot  about  Time  Machine for help with TM problems.  Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM.  See also Mac 101- Time Machine.

  • How do I delete all backups of Time Machine in OSX 10.7.2?

    I had some huge photo files (100gb) that were on my computer for a few weeks and have now been processed and deleted. I suspect that Time Machine backed them up on my external hard drive. How can I delete all backups from Time Machine and start with a fresh series of backups?
    Tks

    That would work also.
    I like to reformat the disk just to rebuild the directory when I clean one.
    Allan

  • How do I delete old emails from time machine?

    How do you delete all old email backups from time machine?

    Could we please get one more clue? 
    What email application are you asking about? 

  • How do I delete one Mac from time machine?

    I have a Mac Pro and a MacBook Pro that back up to the same 2.0 GB Time Capsule via Time Machine.  Both are running 10.8.3 Mountain Lion.  Time Capsule has been giving me the following error:
    "This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 6.10 GB but only 3.70 GB are available."
    I have purchased a separate hard drive for the Macbook Pro that is configured to do backups through Time Machine.  I want to delete the MacBook Pro from the Time Capsule backup so that only the Mac Pro is backed up on it.  How do I remove only the MacBook pro from the backup?  I do not want to remove any of the backups for the Mac Pro (only the PBP backups).
    I would appreciate any help you can give me.
    Tony in Arizona

    http://pondini.org/TM/12.html
    And then link to
    http://pondini.org/TM/TCQ5.html
    But unless you are connected by ethernet this can be super slow.. it is slow even over ethernet.. but wireless is killing.
    There are long discussions in a number of places about different ways to do this.
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2224110?tstart=0

  • Deleting old backups from Time Machine/Time Capsule

    I've spent a long time deleting copies of old back ups from Time Machine today. In view of this am I right in assumming this should in turn reduce the size of sparsebundle on TC?  If not, please can someone tell me how I can reduce the size of sparsebundle on my 2TB TC; my MacBook has 150GB HD and my sparsebundle is 500GB in size.  I want to address the amount of backups I keep as I do not wish to have a TC clogged up with multiple monthly backups of data each month, which in my opinion is pretty redundant.

    A sparsebundle file behaves differently than a normal file or folder. As you add data to the sparsebundle file, it expands as long as there is room on the drive. But, if you delete data from the sparsebundle, the size of the file remains the same, even though the data has been deleted.
    You will be able to add more data to the sparsebundle, and it will continue to expand as long as there is room on the drive.
    If you want to "compact" the sparsebundle file to have it indicate the exact amount of data in the file, there is a Terminal command that you can use for this purpose.
    See the pink box in this link for excellent information provided by Time Capsule -- Time Machine guru Pondini:
    http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/12.html

  • HT203177 how do i clear old backups from time machine to make more space

    My 2TB Time Machine is nearly full.  I am trying to back up a drive in a Mac Min that is starting to fail and wanted to do so on Time Machine.  Unfortunately since my Time Machine is nearly full it will not back up drive without eliminating nearly all of the files on this Mini.  I am okay overwriting the other backups already on the Time Machine but do not know how to force Time Machine to do so.  Please any clues on how to make Time Machine overwrite other backups would be greatly appreciated.

    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.
    As you can see Time Machine does prune old backups to make space, but eventually it may no longer succeed. Then you will get the alert. You can delete old backups if you wish, but only using the Time Machine application.

  • Screwed up Mail  How can App & files be recovered from Time machine

    Did something while trying to fix a send problem. Now Mail doesn't appear when "opened". Mail menus appear but Preferences, Quit and most menu items are grayed out; there is no mail window.
    Can the program and required files be restored from Time Machine? If so what files need be restored?

    +Can the program and required files be restored from Time Machine?+
    Yes, but of course you'll lose the changes since the most recent backup.
    +If so what files need be restored?+
    Start with this file (path relative to the top level of your home folder):
    Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
    Quit Mail before restoring, then try again. If it still isn't working, then quit again and restore:
    Library/Mail

  • HT201250 How to retrieve external drive backups from time machine on hard drive without external drive connected

    I am keeping my work files on an external drive which are backed up using Time Machine onto my computer's hard drive. I set it up this way so I can take my actual work drive with me if I need it. However, I just noticed that I can't see any of those files in time machine if the drive itself isn't plugged in, which makes this method useless. Is there any way to get to those, or do I need to reconfigure my backup system? I always thought if something happened to my hard drive I'd have a backup, but that won't work if I can't get to the files.

    See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

  • How can I make a backup without Time Machine?

    I'm finally upgrading to Mountain Lion, but my Seagate GoFlex harddrive isn't letting me backup via time machine.  do I have to reformat the harddrive to be used with time machine?  or is there an app I can download so I can get a clean install of OS X without having to loose any of my files or apps?

    The disk for Time Machine should be firmatted as HFS+
    If you want to do a backup so that you can do an erase & install, I suggest that you make a bootable clone with either CCC or SuperDuper.
    Allan

  • I am having major problems restoring from Time Machine. The computer tells me I have completely restored but no data is available in the various applications.

    I had backed up all my data to Time Machine, then securely deleted all data on my MacBook Pro and reinstalled Snow Leopard, prior to having Apple replace a faulty Airport card. I went through the normal restoration process from Time Machine, which took quite some time (about 2.5 hours for 240 Gb of data, including applications) without giving any indication of a problem. However, although the computer indicates that 240 Gb has been reinstalled on the hard drive, data such as photos, music, documents, IOS apps, movies, etc , is not showing up in the relevent application i.e. photos in iPhoto or mobile apps in iTunes. Even though application icons were visible in the dock, they would not open. I spent two days (one hour one day and five hours the next) at the Apple Genius Bar trying to find out what the problem was, without any success. No matter what was tried, no clear solution was evident so I was given a manual workaround to bring back banks of files one at a time, which has given me some workability. All data is obviously stored on the external hard drive, but restoration has not been successful. I have successfully used Time Machine to restore all data from a previous MacBook to my current MacBook Pro without any hitches whatsoever. The only difference this time is that I have two separate accounts on the Pro, which may be causing the problem. I can restore items manually from either account but they all go into one account. Also, when manually restoring photos or music from Time Machine, I am unable to select the relevent location for this data, i.e. iPhoto or iTunes. The only way I got these into the relevent application was by putting them into a burn folder or onto a thumb drive and then dragging them into the dock application. I am not very computer savvy and feel totally out of my depth to manually restore everything back to where it was before the clean install, particularly the two user accounts, which I would loke to have back again. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
    Rob.

    Your post is too difficult to read. Please repost using paragraphs.
    In the interim... For All things TM... See Pondini's Excellent information here...
    http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
    In particular... FAQs and Troubleshooting.

  • HT201250 Can I recover the backups from Time Machine, but the backups is deleted by the Time Machine!

    Unfortunately, the Time Macchine deleted my oldest backups in my hard drive.
    I have the important files in the backups.
    So hope someone could help me to recover the backups.

    Time Machine will remove old backups automatically. It tells you when it does, but of course by then it's too late.
    There is no recovering deleted backups, since it was necessary to overwrite them with newer backups.
    For further explanation read the following entries from Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini's Time Machine FAQ:
    12. Should I delete old backups?  If so, How?
    20. Once my Mac is backed-up, can I delete some stuff to save space?
    Time Machine is for backups. It is not an archiving utility. To archive files requires something like one of these:
    Carbon Copy Cloner ($39.95) http://sites.fastspring.com/bombich/product/ccc
    or
    SuperDuper! ($27.95) http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

  • How can i extract just documents from time machine backup?

    How can I extract just my documents from a time machine backup?   I had to re-install Lion after the update screwed things up, the Genius Bar guy told me to re-install each App, and then transfer just my data (documents) back but didn't tell me how.   I only see how you can restore the entire snapshot of what was on my MacBook that day, I don't see how to select specifics. 

    Hi,
    Install a fresh Lion OS on your Mac. After this is done, then connect your time capsule. Click on the time machine icon in the dock bar so you will enter in time machine. Select the document folder and any document or all you need. The same thing you can do with iPhoto, Emails, etc.
    Let me know
    Claudio

  • Why can't I delete old backups from Time Machine?

    I can actually delete them, but cannot empty them from the Trash Can.
    Any ideas?

    You should avoid deleting backups yourself, but you are determined to do it anyway read the following, courtesy of Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini:
    12. Should I delete old backups? If so, How?
    Your question is likely addressed in the third paragraph from the end.

  • How to safely remove all backups from Time Machine/Time Capsule?

    I plan to 'clean up' my Time Machine/Time capsule completely, whereby I want to make it impossible for third parties to recover all or part of these old backups.
    After I have accompished this I want to start from scratch backing up my Mac.
    Can you please let me have a step by step procedure to accomplish my goal.
    Thank you in advance!

    Muizen wrote:
    Thank you WZZZ.
    1) I am now specifically looking for info regarding deleting emails from backups.
    It is my impression so far, that this is not possible?
    Delete all backups of <home folder>/Library/Mail, per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #12. 
    And exclude that folder from future backups, per FAQ #10.
    2) In addition I feel that being somewhat better in control of TM that it would be an advantage to really clean out TH completely and start a new back up, thereby systematically blooking certain matters from backing-up since there is no need for doing so.
    How would I best accomplish this?
    If the emails are all you're worried about, the procedure above will be fine.
    But if you want to erase the TC's internal HD, see #Q5 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule.

Maybe you are looking for

  • How to revive my ipod

    well im on windows. my ipod wont mount, so i cant do anything through itunes.. and the windows refort tool cant reformat it. the ipod has got a file corruption error (folder with excalmation mark) and turn on but wont get past the start-up screen. oh

  • Kernel panic, hardware test lion---

    hi I've been several kernel panic in the last few days,,, running lion since it's been released and never had a problem... since some days i have a pop-up about the un-upadated perian software.. today i deleted perian.. how can i run a hardware test

  • JRun 4 Updater 2

    Hi All, I have ColdFusion 6.1 and it is running JRun 4 updater 2. Is it possible to upgrade to JRun updater 7 from my version? Will it cause any problem? Thanks!!

  • Anyone have a fix for Facebook video chat not working in Mavericks?

    I have seen many people having the problem of video chat not working in Facbook since upgrading to Mavericks. The good news is the camera icon has reappeared, but it still is not working. Any help would be AWESOME!! thx

  • How to present requirements and conventions?

    I'm curious how others go about designing their presentations to incorporate the nuts and bolts stuff. Do you typically have a systems requirements page in the presentation? List requirements outside the CBT where the CBT is hosted? How about convent