How can I delete time machine backups from my external hard rive

My 2 TB hardrive is starting to fill up, so i went to check on what is taking all the space up, aparently time machine has use 321.90GB of space on my hardrive.
if it is possible I want to be able to delete a couple of backups but if i cant delete a couple of backups then i would not mind to delete all of the backups.
Thankyou

Time Machine manages space automatically. You should not delete snapshots yourself. You also should not use the backup drive for anything but backups. If there are non-backup files on the drive, move them to another drive (which must also be backed up.)

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When I get to the select disk page it says that the HD is uesd as time machine drive. How can I remove time machine backup from my Mac.

I am tring to installe OS X Mavericks. When I get to the select disk page it says that the HD is uesd as time machine drive. How can I remove time machine backup from my Mac.

Open up your Finder and click on Go on the top menu bar. Select Computer and then double click Macintosh HD. In here delete the backup folder. Might be called backups.backupdb.

I threw out 24 time machine backups from an external hard drive into my desktop trash and now I can't empty my trash.

I threw out 24 time machine backups from an external hard drive into my IMac desktop trash and now I can't empty my trash.

Since you didn't mention what type of error message you were seeing, I'm going to guess on what is happening.
I'm guessing that since you threw away Time Machine backups, that Time Machine is probably active on your Mac. There is a chance then that the files you tossed are marked as in use. You can't delete files that are in use.
Try turning Time Machine off, then restart your Mac. Then try deleting them again.
Once done, turn Time Machine back on.
Tom

I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and i can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help

I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and I can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help? I can find the mail folder in my libraries, but the Restore Button is grayed out

OSX treats the reformatted drive as a different one; it's the same as replacing it, and the old one is no longer connected.
See #E3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting to see and restore from the "old" drive.
And, you may not want to restore via the Finder; see the blue box in #15 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Is there a way to get my photos off an old time machine backup from an external hard drive?

Is there a way to get my photos off an old time machine backup from an external hard drive?

You will have to connect the Time Machine HDD and click on the Icon. You will see one folder called Backups.backupdb. Click on that and you will have to continue until you find the home folder. The iPhoto library (where the pictures are, not the application) will probably be in your pictures folder. You will have to drag that to your desk top. Then you will have access to individual images.
Ciao.

I've mistakenly deleted Time Machine backups from my external HDD. How do I fix this?!

I manually deleted several Time Machine backups from my external HDD. Whenever I attempt to empty trash, it states (error code -22) has occurred. How do I fix my predicament?
I understand (now) that I should never do this and ONLY delete from the Time Machine app itself but I did not assume this would be so complex by taking a blind stab at it. How do I either a) place the Time Machine backups where the originated (Put Back is not an option when right-clicked) or b) successfully delete these so I can clear my bin.
I am running Mac OS 10.10 on a 13" MacBook Air (mid-2013) w/ 4GB of RAM and 128GB SSD. My external drive is a 5400 RPM WD USB 2.0 External Hard Drive.

Try Trash won't empty deleted time machine backups

HT201250 How can I migrate a Time Machine backup from an external hard drive to a new TimeCapsuls?

I just got a 2TB Time Capsule. I want to migrate my time machine backups on an external hard drive to the new Time Capsule. I have about 430Gb of files to back up; I don't want to wait 7-8 days for the backup, unless I have to. I am using OS 10.7.5 (forget which cat that is). I have mounted the TC drive as 10.0.1.1; I tried to drag and drop from old to "data" on TC, but I get the error "The volume is the wrong format for a backup." Any ideas how I can move my old files to the new, and bypass creating a brand new backup file?
Thanks.

Rather than do that, which means starting over from scratch, losing all your edits, organisation and so on, why not simply use iPhoto Library Manager to revert the Library to the older version? Easier, less destructive.
The instructions on that are here
If you really want to start over: you can access the Originals folder simply by going to your Pictures Folder and finding the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.

How can I delete time machine backup folders moved into the trash from an external drive?

I made the mistake of moving Time Machine backup files into the trash, but I can't seem to delete them. I tried the option key when clicking on "Empty Trash" and "Secure Empty Trash" (before and after rebooting), but that always led to error 8003. The files won't allow me to change their name. Using approchaes to Terminal from three different Mac-related webpages also failed. I also tried Trash It, but it seemed to be making little progress after letting it run 48 hours. Any other suggestions before calling Apple?

Assuming these were not backups made over a network (thus not in a sparse bundle disk image), see #E6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
But any way you empty the trash on that disk/partition is probably going to take a very long time -- there's no doubt several hundred thousand files there, perhaps a million or more.
You may have to just erase the disk (with Disk Utility) and start over.
You really shouldn't have to delete Time Machine backups, as it will do that automatically when the destination gets full. But if you really want to, see #12 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

How can I recover time machine backup from previous iMac?

How can I recover some datas from a Time machine backup regularly done with my old imac,using now my new i7?
Problem is that when I open timemachine app,it's not giving me any chance to go "back" in the past snapshots of my desktop nor giving me any errors.So I suppose I'm doing something wrong
Any help?
Thanks

It's TimeMachine,
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Home.html
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/29553/back-in-time

Can I migrate my data from a regular hard drive to a solid state drive using only a Time Machine backup from an external hard drive?

I just bought a Samsung 830 256GB solid state drive which I will use to replace my 15-inch, 2.53 GHz, Mid 2009 MacBook Pro's stock hard drive. I also keep an external hard drive in which I keep my regular Time Machine backups via FireWire. Would I be able to migrate all my data from it after putting in the solid state drive? I prefer not to use any third-party applications and I do not plan on replacing the SuperDrive with the hard drive that I'm going to remove from my laptop.

chinodelarosa wrote:
Would I be able to migrate all my data from it after putting in the solid state drive?
Yes.

How to I get Time Machine backups OFF my external hard drive?!?!?

I'm not asking how I restore a backup.
I plugged in my 250GB external to try out TM. Before TM did it's first backup I have 160GB free. After TM did its backup I have 1GB free. I no longer want to use TM and have told it to "Stop Backing Up" in Sys Prefs. The problem is that I still only have 1GB of space left. When I view the external in the finder I only see my 90GB of drag and drop backups, but it says the disk only has 1GB of free space. Are the Time Machine backups invisible? How do I reclaim my space back?
Thanks!

pvonk wrote:
Looking at info, I found the folder was owned by root. Even with my admin privileges, I couldn't delete. I then found that root wasn't activated on that machine, so I had to do more dancing around.
In cases like this, you should be able to delete it from the command line by using sudo: sudo rm -rf directory (be careful with this command)
After deleting the TM backup folder, the drive still indicated that the former lost space was still lost. I eventually reformatted.
How did you delete it? Could it be that the folder was still in the Trash of the external disk?

How can I delete items in trash from an external hard drive?

I have a Macbook Pro and have installed Paragon so that I can use an external hard drive on both my Mac and my PC. But some files I deleted from my external hard drive (Seagate 3TB) while on my Mac can't be deleted from the recycle bin.
When I try to delete, the files just stay there. When I do a secure empty, a message comes up saying the files are in use. This has persisted for two days. I have restarted the Mac, reconnected the drive, and also cheked the drive on my PC for errors and found none. Of course, the files only appear in the trash when the drive is connected. I ejected the drive properly each time, and didn't just unplug it from the Mac.
I have tried to do a secure empty with option and/or shift keys down, but I still get a message that the files are in use. I tried a fix involving writing a command including the term "trash" (I don't have the full command at my fingertips) in Terminal in the Utilities application, and this did not work. There appears to be a program called "Trashit" which might help, but my computer says it will not open under my security settings because the author of the program is not listed.
The files remaining in trash are part of an old iTunes library that I wanted fully deleted from my external hard drive and my trash. It was a big file (over 200GB) and about 99% deleted and empltied. Reformatting the drive should not be necessary, might not help, and would probably erase the drivers on the drive and ruin it anyway.
I'm wondering what is happening, and how I could fix it. Many thanks for any advice, in advance.

I actually fixed this by plugging the drive into my PC, changing the settings to "show hidden files and folders," then finding the folder ".trashes" on the drive and deleting everything in there. When the drive was plugged back into the Mac, the trash was empty as it should be. (It was a very large folder I deleted, and a very small portion of the files were apparently corrupted.) In case anyone else ever needs this fix, it works. Good luck.

Importing Time Machine backup from an external hard drive

Hi...to all
Last week i bought a Macbook. I pluged in my external hard drive Maxtor OneTOuch 4 Plus and it did a time machine backup on the Maxtor OneTOuch 4 Plus. The folder that was generated by the time machine on my external hard drive has the name backups.backupdb.
Then, i decided to return the Macbook and bought a Macbook Pro.
When I pluged the same external hard drive, Maxtor OneTOuch 4 Plus, although I am able to access and open individual files and folders, I am not able to copy neither any nor all the folders/files from my external hard drive to my new Macbook Pro. Moreover, I am able to access/open the files located in my external hard drive but when try to copy specific files from this drive to my Macbook Pro I get the following error message: Sorry the operation could not be completed because an unexpected error ocurred (Error code -50). Now, here is where it gets interesting: after 2 failed attempts to copy any single file from my external hard drive to my Macbook Pro desktop and receiving the above error message I am then able to copy the specific file (singular). This would mean that to copy the files and folders in the external hard drive i would need to do it on a one by one basis? If so, it would take forever...
Can someone please kindly help out.
Thanks on advance

Are you referring to the files in Time Machine's backup directory on your hard drive? If so, and if what you are trying to do is to recover those from the backup to your working volume on the Macbook Pro (which is not what your title says you want to do but seems to be implied by the body of the question) then you need to have the computer name of the Macbook Pro the same as the computer name of the original Macbook (I think that step is required), then on the Macbook Pro choose "Browse Other Time Machine Disks" from the Time Machine menu in Dock. This will allow you to recover files or folder in the usual way.
Alternatively, if you wanted to transfer all your user data in one go, you could fire up Migration Assistant and choose the Time Machine backup as the source to transfer the user data from (again I think the computer names have to be the same but I'm not totally sure).

How can i use time machine using an ordinary external hard drive?

thanks in advance..

Yes. It must be partitioned using GUID and formatted Mac OS Extended, Journaled.
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.

Deleting the time machine backup from an external hard drive

I wanted to delete the backup because I got another hard drive for that and wanted to free up the space on this one that I had been using for that, and so I moved the whole Backups.backupdb file to the trash. I think I've learned the hard way that is not the way to do it. Now I can't get it out of the trash, and it continues to take up space on the hard drive. Secure empty doesn't do it. I repaired permissions, and the drive itself in disk utilities, which didn't help. I have a lot of other stuff on that disk which I would like to keep, so I don't want to wipe the whole thing. Please help.

Next time just use Disk Utility and Erase the Drive, it will be much faster and a whole lot less trouble.
In fact it might not hurt to do that as well, after you get the Trash emptied.

How can I delete time machine backups from my external hard rive

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