Keep old files only on Time Machine, delete off main computer

How can I delete my backed up files which are currently in the "Time Machine" off my computer? I don't need them on the computer, only in Time Machine.
To be clearer, Im worried if I delete them off the computer, Time Machine will also delete them..and I need to keep them.
If this is not possible then I will no longer use Time Machine, but instead manually back up my files.
Thanks in advance!!

mikebikeboy wrote:
How can I delete my backed up files which are currently in the "Time Machine" off my computer? I don't need them on the computer, only in Time Machine.
To be clearer, Im worried if I delete them off the computer, Time Machine will also delete them..and I need to keep them.
That's correct: if you delete a file from your HD, Time Machine will eventually delete it's copy. It is not intended for long-term, archival storage.
If you think about it, it's actually been doing that for as long as you've run TM: it only keeps it's hourly backups for 24 hours, then deletes them, except for the first of the day, which becomes a daily backup. Those are kept for a month, then deleted, except one per week, which is kept as long as there's room.
If this is not possible then I will no longer use Time Machine, but instead manually back up my files.
That's an option, of course, but you'll lose the advantages of TM.
You might separately archive those files, to CDs, DVDs, another partition on your TM drive, or a separate drive, or via MobileMe's Backup app to iDisk, or something like Mozy to their server.
You could use one of the "clone" apps, such as CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to archive them to another disk or partition automatically. They're mostly used for bootable clones (identical copies of your HD), but can also be used to backup selected folders, with an option to archive changed or deleted versions. CCC is donationware, SD has a free version, but I think to do the archives you need the paid version at about $30. There are others, as well.

Similar Messages

  • How to get my files back from time machine on a new computer

    My laptop has been stolen so i bought a new one.
    I would like to keep the clean install but also i would like to restore my files from my time machine (on a time capsule)
    How can i do that ?

    After you do a clean install, when you first boot up, Setup Assistant will open and you can restore everything from Time Machine.
    Set up a New Mac
    Migration Assistant/Set Up Assistant - Mavericks

  • Retrieving work files/data from a time machine backup off another computer

    If I create a time machine backup on one imac (imac 1) onto an external drive, I want to know if I can use this backup on another mac (imac 2) and restore or retrieve the old work files as and when required work from the external drive (time machine backup)? onto imac 2?

    You can't use Time Machine for Restoring on iMac 2 (if you made an TM Backup with iMac 1), but you can easily drag files from the "Time-machine-Backup-volume" in Finder on your iMac 2!

  • My old files disappeared using time machine

    I backed up my Macbook Pro 3 weeks ago using Time Machine.  Today I went after old files (more than 4 years) and they weren't there.  Did TM erase my files?

    As Martin says, Time Machine is not a permanent archive.
    It will delete it's copies of things that are no longer on your system, sooner or later.  Depending on when backups were done, that may be in as little as 24 hours or as long as there's room on your TM drive.
    See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #20.

  • Retreiving files saved with Time Machine on a different computer

    I am trying to view files on my external hard drive that I saved from my Macbook Pro on an older Macbook that does not have Time Machine on it. Any folder I try to open is locked and I get a message saying it is empty. When I checked the backups on the original computer, they work fine. Is it possible to view these files on a different computer?

    An older MacBook that doesn't have Time Machine would not know about hard links to folders. So, when you look in them, you don't see the linked files and thus it looks empty. TM uses hard links to keep track of files that have not changed. Somewhere, there is an actual file, but if it doesn't change, TM just puts a hard link in all the subsequent backups. Trying to dig through the backup, especially after changing permissions on the folder, will likely destroy the backup.
    Perhaps one of the Finder replacements or Time Machine helper apps can understand the hard links to folders, but I'm not sure.

  • Failure to recover some old files found in Time Machine/Library/Mobile Data/Day One/Journal_dayone/entries

    I have 1052 files found in the 'entries' folder as above, but can only recover 105 of them. The attached image shows info for 2 files dated October 22 and 23 2011 which I can recover, but the two files dated October 20, 21 are not recoverable.
    http://cl.ly/image/3p120U3C0k2M

    Thomas - You are awesome - THANK YOU!  
    I did exactly what you said (CAN"T believe an Apple Genius did not know this) and I think all of my events got restored.  
    However, it duplicated all of the calendars - I have 6 (one for each family member plus an extra called home that we all have to do).   Not sure if I did something wrong, but do you have any ideas?  
    Also, the time setting must be wrong b/c I have events from 2008 showing up in 2012 - same day and time as the old sessoin - just out dated.    Do I need to manually change all of this?   Should I delete the Calendars folder again and try again?  
    Also, I read some where about deleting a iCal cache file.   Do I need to do this?
    I TRULY appreciate you taking the time to help people in this forum.   I have spent hours the past two days trying to figure this out.   Plus, now I need to figure out about upgrading my Office for Mac b/c I didn't realize I lost Office 2004 when upgrading to Lion.   
    Thank you for your time and support!
    Lori

  • Restoring files ONLY from Time Machine on a clean install of Leopard

    Hi folks. I've seen variations of this asked but not quite the answer I'm looking for.
    I want to do a clean install of Leopard and want to restore only files from a TM backup (mp3's, photos, docs, etc.). I don't want to incorporate apps, system files or the user account from the TM backup. Just a fresh installation of OS X on which I can incorporate my files from a TM backup without having to worry about incorporating unwanted programs, hidden files and whatnot. I used to do this on Windows all the time but can't figure out a way of doing it on OS X. Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
    Jim

    j_kanaris wrote:
    What's user ID 501? So if I'm trying to import files from a TM backup and I have the same user ID, I won't be prompted to change it based on this method?
    you won't be prompted to change user ID but if the user IDs are different you'll be denied access to some folders (like the Documents folder) in your old home directory and won't be able to restore them. I presume the files you want to restore are there? this issue can be dealt with if it does arise but as I said if you only have one user on both computers this will not be an issue. just try it and see what happens.
    Message was edited by: V.K.
    Message was edited by: V.K.

  • HT201250 Does Time Machine delete files in back-ups that are deleted on my Mac?

    Does Time Machine delete files in back-ups that are deleted on my Mac?  IOW....if I need to restore a whole back-up, I don't want to restore previously deleted files.

    Does Time Machine delete files in back-ups that are deleted on my Mac?
    Not immediately. When space starts to get tight, Time Machine will start to delete the oldest file(s) to make more room, but this won't occur for some time.
    if I need to restore a whole back-up, I don't want to restore previously deleted files.
    You won't if you choose to restore from a backup that occurred after the date that you deleted the file.
    If you absolutely do not want to keep the file in your Time Machine backups at all, you do have the option to go into Time Machine, find the file, and manually delete all versions of the file from past dates.

  • Time machine deletes

    I am currently getting rid of some old files on my time machine by deleting all back-ups. Can anyone tell me where the deleted files go? And how to get rid of them on my hard drive-do I erase the free space? 

    Have a read here Should I delete old backups?  If so, How?
    Stefan

  • Time Machine deleted my first backup to make space for a new one, is there anyway to recover it?!?!

    So I had all my stuff backed up to December 23 on an external hard drive with Time Machine, then I deleted it all so that the next automatic backup didn't have any of these older files. Today Time Machine deleted my original backup to make space for a new one and so I lost Decemer 23, now I am screwed..HELP?? I accidently let it delete or something, I don't really know, I know this was just a series of mistakes and now I'm desparate ):

    Have a look at this article http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427 and section "backup drive fills up".
    It's a normal behavior that Time Machine is deleting oldest backups when drive is filling up.

  • HT201250 HELP! My Time Machine deleted old backups

    If any one can help me, please do so.
    Yesterday i did a clean install of OS X Lion. Started importing photos from the Time Machine this morning. While at work TM has deleted all old backups, so now the latest backup i have is from 5 minutes after I did the clean install.
    How can I restore an old backup that has been deleted automatically by TM?
    Thankful for any help!
    Lars

    The problem is that Time Machine is only a temporary repository.  It will always ensure that you can restore the machine to the state that it was in at the last backup.  But if the backup drive runs out of space - as yours undoubedly did when you installed a brand-new system, forcing Time Machine to back up everything on the entire drive all over again - then it will start deleting older files until it makes enough room to back up the newer files.
    So, if you only had one backup, with Time Machine, and it wasn't large enough (at least double what you planned on backing up) ,and you didn't restore all your files before letting Time Machine start backing up the new system, there is unfortunately nothing you can do at this point.  Your data is not only gone, but it has almost certainly been written over.  You could always try a data recovery tool on the backup drive, but results are likely to be poor.  Some such tools are DataRescue, FileSalvage and Stellar Phoenix.
    In the future, you need to:
    ensure that the Time Machine backup drive has a minimum of 2 times the capacity of what you plan to back up, now and in the foreseeable future
    make at least one other backup on another drive, preferably more than one (minimum of two backups total)
    use a different backup program, such as Carbon Copy Cloner, for at least one of those backups
    keep at least one backup off-site - but frequently updated - in case of fire, flood, theft, etc(I keep Carbon Copy Cloner backups on two drives, one of which is always in a safe deposit box at the bank, and swap them out about once per month.)

  • Time Machine delete old backups

    My wife has a MacBook Pro and uses Time Machine on a 500 GB external drive. She is using about 160 GB on her MacBook Pro, but the Time Machine drive is now full and is not backing up current files. The Time Machine backups go back to 2010 and two or three versions of the operating system. I would like to delete old backups from Time Machine, as I understand that only files no longer needed in other backups will be deleted. Is there any reason this approach should be avoided? Are there instructions on the best way to do this? Thanks.

    tomarm wrote:as I understand that only files no longer needed in other backups will be deleted. Is there any reason this approach should be avoided? Are there instructions on the best way to do this? Thanks.
    yes, your wife ..
    A: needs a MINIMUM of a second HD to archive data on
    B: Yes, time machine "throws data out the window" when full
    C: HD clones are more important.
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6031
    Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
    Time Machine / Time Capsule
    Drawbacks:
    1. Time Machine is not bootable, if your internal drive fails, you cannot access files or boot from TM directly from the dead computer.
    2. Time machine is controlled by complex software, and while you can delve into the TM backup database for specific file(s) extraction, this is not ideal or desirable.
    3. Time machine can and does have the potential for many error codes in which data corruption can occur and your important backup files may not be saved correctly, at all, or even damaged. This extra link of failure in placing software between your data and its recovery is a point of risk and failure. A HD clone is not subject to these errors.
    4. Time machine mirrors your internal HD, in which cases of data corruption, this corruption can immediately spread to the backup as the two are linked. TM is perpetually connected (or often) to your computer, and corruption spread to corruption, without isolation, which TM lacks (usually), migrating errors or corruption is either automatic or extremely easy to unwittingly do.
    5. Time Machine does not keep endless copies of changed or deleted data, and you are often not notified when it deletes them; likewise you may accidently delete files off your computer and this accident is mirrored on TM.
    6. Restoring from TM is quite time intensive.
    7. TM is a backup and not a data archive, and therefore by definition a low-level security of vital/important data.
    8. TM working premise is a “black box” backup of OS, APPS, settings, and vital data that nearly 100% of users never verify until an emergency hits or their computers internal SSD or HD that is corrupt or dead and this is an extremely bad working premise on vital data.
    9. Given that data created and stored is growing exponentially, the fact that TM operates as a “store-it-all” backup nexus makes TM inherently incapable to easily backup massive amounts of data, nor is doing so a good idea.
    10. TM working premise is a backup of a users system and active working data, and NOT massive amounts of static data, yet most users never take this into consideration, making TM a high-risk locus of data “bloat”.
    11. In the case of Time Capsule, wifi data storage is a less than ideal premise given possible wireless data corruption.
    12. TM like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    13. *Level-1 security of your vital data.
    Advantages:
    1. TM is very easy to use either in automatic mode or in 1-click backups.
    2. TM is a perfect novice level simplex backup single-layer security save against internal HD failure or corruption.
    3. TM can easily provide a seamless no-gap policy of active data that is often not easily capable in HD clones or HD archives (only if the user is lazy is making data saves).
    HD clones (see below for full advantages / drawbacks)
    Drawbacks:
    1. HD clones can be incrementally updated to hourly or daily, however this is time consuming and HD clones are, often, a week or more old, in which case data between today and the most fresh HD clone can and would be lost (however this gap is filled by use of HD archives listed above or by a TM backup).
    2. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
    Advantages:
    1. HD clones are the best, quickest way to get back to 100% full operation in mere seconds.
    2. Once a HD clone is created, the creation software (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) is no longer needed whatsoever, and unlike TM, which requires complex software for its operational transference of data, a HD clone is its own bootable entity.
    3. HD clones are unconnected and isolated from recent corruption.
    4. HD clones allow a “portable copy” of your computer that you can likewise connect to another same Mac and have all your APPS and data at hand, which is extremely useful.
    5. Rather than, as many users do, thinking of a HD clone as a “complimentary backup” to the use of TM, a HD clone is superior to TM both in ease of returning to 100% quickly, and its autonomous nature; while each has its place, TM can and does fill the gap in, say, a 2 week old clone. As an analogy, the HD clone itself is the brick wall of protection, whereas TM can be thought of as the mortar, which will fill any cracks in data on a week, 2-week, or 1-month old HD clone.
    6. Best-idealized 2nd platform redundancy for data protection, and 1st level for system restore of your computers internal HD. (Time machine being 2nd level for system restore of the computer’s internal HD).
    7. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
    HD cloning software options:
    1. SuperDuper HD cloning software APP (free)
    2. Carbon Copy Cloner APP (will copy the recovery partition as well)
    3. Disk utility HD bootable clone.

  • Time Machine Deletes Old Backups without warning!!

    I have just lost loads of pictures and emails when my Timemachine deleted old backups. I was so happy to have an easy way to keep my iPhoto cleaned up while keeping all the photos for the future. I would load my all the photos from my camera, backup with TimeMachine and delete the "bad" unwanted photos, confident in the knowledge that these pictures are still there on my external. I looked forward to some future date when someone would write an easy piece of software to consolidate old iPhoto libraries and even go through TimeMachine and consolidate those photos too. But until that fantasy event, my pictures, even though not wanted were still there.
    Not any more!!
    I replaced my hard drive and reloaded my laptop from Timemachine and I think that was the event that sparked the dump.
    There should be a special check box to make sure that NO backups are automatically deleted, EVER. They should be a way to make them Sacred!!
    There should be a way to create a separate backup just for iPhoto because right now, there are no good ways to easily break apart or merge iPhoto libraries. At least what I was doing worked, (well.... until it didn't).
    Any ideas??

    nerowolfe wrote:
    True, TM is not a classic archival system, but until the drive is full, the difference is moot.
    No, the difference isn't moot.
    I still have on my TM HD every file I ever had because it's only 1/2 full.
    No, you don't. Read on...
    Time machine has three levels of backups:
    1) hourly - deleted after 24 hours
    2) daily - deleted after a week
    3) weekly - deleted only when the disk is full - these are the only deletions you will be warned about
    Time machine is always deleting files. Every time it backs up, it deletes files.
    But the OP's real question is why he was never warned about the old backups being deleted, as TM says it will do, archival stuff notwithstanding. Apparently TM simply ignores the user's request to be warned.
    No, it doesn't.
    That being said, as I asked in a post not too long ago, "how many have had a warning from TM that old backups are being deleted?" as one would expect when the TM preference box, "Warn when old backups are deleted" is checked.
    It appears to me to be a bug.
    I ask again if anyone has gotten this warning.
    Nobody answered my previous post with a yes.
    Yes.
    Because Time Machine continually cleans up behind itself, it tries very hard to ever delete the weekly backups. The only time I've gotten the deletion warning was when my disk was full. I think I just avoided the problem by removing my old Parallels images from Time Machine and got back an extra 70 gig or so - good for another six months.
    This is not a bug. This is how Time Machine works. It is unfortunate that the original poster did not fully understand this. The fact is that Time Machine backs everything up. If you create 100 files, it backs up the folder with 100 new files. If you delete 100 files, it backs up the folder with 100 less files. Then, the next day, it deletes old backups. The only one it keeps is the last one, with 100 less files.
    It is correct to say that Time Machine is not an archival system. It is a backup system. If you want to save your files forever, you need to copy them to a location that isn't under the control of any sort of automatic software.

  • I have a 500 gb hard drive partitioned for files and time machine but when i connect it to my mac only the time machine one shows up

    well as the title says i have a 500gb hard drive with 2 partitions one with time machine and one for files it worked perefectly until yesterday only the time machine partition appeared in finder, i checked disk utility and both partitions appeared but the one for files appeared in grey and when i press mount an error comes up.

    The repair shop likely replaced a major circuit board on your MacBook Pro, so Time Machine thinks that you have a "new" computer and it wants to make a new complete backup of your Mac.
    You are going to have to make a decision to either add another new Time Capsule....or USB drive to your existing Time Capsule....and in effect start over with a new backup of your Mac and then move forward again.
    For "most" users, I think this is probably the best plan because you preserve all your old backups in case you need them at some point, and you start over again with a new Time Capsule so you have plenty of room for years of new backups.
    Or, as you have mentioned, you have the option of erasing the Time Capsule drive and starting all over again. The upside is that you start over and have plenty of room for new backups. The downside is that you lose years of backups.
    Another option....trying to manually delete old backups individually....is tricky business....and very time consuming. To get an idea of what is involved here, study this FAQ by Pondini, our resident Time Capsule and Time Machine expert on the Community Support area. In particular, study the pink box.
    http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/12.html
    Once you look through this, I think you may agree that this type of surgery is not for the faint of heart.  I would suggest that you consider this only if one of the other options just cannot work for you.

  • Doesn't Time Machine delete old backups when it needs more space?

    I've had time machine running for a long time now. It worked flawlessly for quite some time.
    Today it gave me the error that there was not enough free space on the disk to complete the backup (the error message says something like there is 360 GB of data on the Time Machine drive already, 140 GB of free space and it would require more than that to complete my backup). I have a 500 GB Time Machine disk and my Mac has a 500 GB hard drive, so I should technically never run out of space.
    The Time Machine almost acts like this is the first time I've ever backed up, which is not true. Shouldn't Time Machine delete old backups to make space for the new? What's even weirder is that if I open the "Star Wars" window of Time Machine I only see one backup from March 31, 2011, but I have been running Time Machine for well over a year now. I'm totally confused as to what happened. Any advice on how to get my Time Machine back up and running (without buying a new drive) would help!

    You see only one backup in the Time Machine window because Time Machine has deleted the older backups to make space to do the current backup.
    Time machine needs some working space to do its backups, and so backing up a 500GB drive onto a 500GB time machine volume is not ideal.
    However, I do essentially the same thing, and what I do, when I have this problem, is exclude things from the backup.
    First off, figure out what you changed. If you moved things from one partition to another, then that will cause a backup of the size of the thing that was moved. This may be why you have a large backup.
    When I have this problem, I exclude large things that have changed recently from the backup. This makes the backup smaller, and means that there is less working space needed. I do this until I get a successful backup. Then I remove things, one by one, from the exclusion list, and back up after each one.
    So, for instance if you just put 4 new folders on your drive, each of which s 20GB of data and they are named A, B, C and D, add all four to the exclusion list, do a backup, then remove A from the exclusion list (leaving B, C & D on it) and do a backup, and continue like this, adding 20GB of backup data each time until none of the new data is on the exclusion list and you get a completed backup.
    Another possible issue, if you use multiple partitions, is that Time Machine may be keeping an obsolete backup of a partition that you previously reformatted. To see if this is the case, go into time machine (The universe interface) and go back to the most recent backup it shows. Click on your computer and see what partitions show up-- are any of them old ones that have been reformatted and renamed? You may be storing a duplicate backup because Time Machine does not realize that the disk that went away isn't coming back (because it has been reformatted as a different partition)
    You can right-click on these items and remove them from your backup by sleecting "Delete all backups of...." This will free up space as well.

Maybe you are looking for