Is it possible to delete a folder from my Time Machine backups?

Hi. I have Time Machine running on my office computer. It has backed up all my data since September. Problem is that I need to delete a folder from the backups that contains personal work. Is it possible to delete 1 folder from all the backups? If not, where are the instructions for erasing the Time Machine hard drive (in my case, it's Time Capsule) and starting from scratch?
Thanks!

Emily Kessler wrote:
Hi. I have Time Machine running on my office computer. It has backed up all my data since September. Problem is that I need to delete a folder from the backups that contains personal work. Is it possible to delete 1 folder from all the backups? If not, where are the instructions for erasing the Time Machine hard drive (in my case, it's Time Capsule) and starting from scratch?
Thanks!
Yes, but never do it directly with Finder or any tool other than TM itself.
Here's how:
Run TM and access the folder you are interested in with the Finder that pops up when you run TM
When you find the folder you wish to remove select it and then click the small gear in the TM Finder menu and have TM remove that folder and all corresponding folders.
Again, never to into the TM backup directly or you can corrupt the database and make it useless.

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After discovering this and mentioning it in a post somewhere, Rolf Kalbermatter indicated that was expected. and I should not be suprised.
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James Mamakos wrote:
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Message Edited by Ben on 04-28-2009 08:58 AM
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Hi uclamikey90,
It is possible, using Migration Assistant, to restore the contents of your hard drive selectively. See this article -
Mac OS X v10.6: How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from a Time Machine backup - Apple Support
In particular -
To migrate data from a Time Machine backup
In Finder, press Command-Shift-U.
Double-click Migration Assistant.
Click "Continue" and enter an administrator name and password when prompted.
Select the "From a Time Machine backup or other disk" option, then click "Continue".
Select your Time Machine backup disk or Time Capsule (enter the user name and or password if prompted), then click "Continue".
Select the Time Machine backup you would like to restore (such the most current one you just made), then click "Continue".
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A user account sheet may appear if you have a user name on your Mac that is the same user name in your Time Machine backup. You will have to give the username in your Time Machine backup a new username to avoid conflicts. Note: This will create a new user account on your Mac to hold the data from the Time Machine backup. After migration, you can use the /Users/Shared folder to transfer data files the accounts.
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Moving files from a Time Machine backup manually vs restoring from a Time Machine backup

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Let's start with some basics.
Check under the Apple in the Menu bar About this Mac > More Info
How much Memory do you have installed?
What size is our hard drive and how much free space?
You'll find the term Genius does not necessarily mean they are expert. Even on this forum, you'll find varying difference of opinions and levels of expertise.
I have read several articles saying that contemporary Macs and OSs are built such that they clean themselves up - defragmentation, general sweeping, etc.
This is true. Apps like MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, TuneUpMyMac, Washing Machine or anything like these apps might appear to be helpful, can do too more harm than good. As a result of the 'cleanup' it can leave your Mac non-functional Mac. The forums are full of users with computers that no longer work correctly after running these so call 'cleaners'
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4171
Your Mac runs maintenance in the background for you > Mac OS X: About background maintenance tasks
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2319
I was told by the Genius, however, that there are many little files that are left lying around after installs, uninstalls, file making, and file deletion that will gum up the works.
I'm going to disagree here. Get rid of the installer from downloads after installing. After removing an app, most of the little files do no harm and take up very little space. However some applications mostly crapware/cleaners will leave files that continue to run silently in the background takeing up resources.
Don't install stuff you don't really need. There is no magic bullet to clean up your messes.

HT201250 After restoring from a time machine backup using migration assistant I can't log in

Hi, I recently bought a Mac Pro and using a Mountain Lion boot disk I made installed a fresh ML install which went fine. During the final part of install it gives you the option of restoring user data etc etc from a time machine backup which I have from my MacBook Pro which again in principal went fine until I went to log in when I got the message 'An error has occurred unable to log into this account a this time'.
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Restore an individual iphoto event from a time machine backup!

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To make a long story short, I reorganized my disk space to create a Fusion drive from the initial hard disk drive and an added SSD one, confident in being able to restore everything from my Time Machine backups.
The creation of the Fusion drive went well but the restore from Time machine failed. This happenned probably (but I realized this too late) because the hard disk drive contained initially my own home directory and Time Machine had backuped 2 drives whereas I was asking it to restore on a "single" Fusion drive now.
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Many thanks and happy new year to all
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If you can't restore from a Time Machine snapshot in Recovery, Setup Assistant, or Migration Assistant, then restore as much data as you can in the time-travel view.
Starting from a fresh installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. Enter Time Machine and press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible.* Select the one you want and navigate to your home folder (in the Users folder at the top level of the old startup volume.)
You should now be able to restore your user data. I suggest you do this in two stages. Quit all applications except the Finder before you begin.
Restore all the visible items at the top level of your home folder.
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Any other invisible folders or files at the top level of your home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.
Then either restore or reinstall all third-party applications, or restore them from another kind of backup, if you have one.
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Browse Other Backup Disks...
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Mail from Lion Time Machine Backup to Mountain Lion

Hello,
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How can I add extra accounts from the Lion Time Machine Backup ?
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Hello Sig,
This helped but the original mail data is deleted completely. I tried it on a dummy account and discovered that the original data of <emailaccount1> is deleted by copying the Mail folder onto the original one.
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Is it possible to delete a folder from my Time Machine backups?

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