Time Machine backup disk full... help

This happened sooner than I thought it would. I would like to copy my existing–but full–Time Machine backup to my new 2 TB external disk and be able to continue using it from where I left off.
I recall a discussion about this a couple of months ago, but with this new (and I think, stupid) discussion board format, I've no idea where it is.
All suggestions are appreciated!

Here you go,
Mac OS X v10.6: How to transfer your backups from your current hard drive to a new hard drive
If you upgrade to a new hard drive with a larger capacity, you may want to transfer your existing Time Machine backups to it before using it for regular backups. To keep your existing backups on your new, larger backup hard drive, follow these steps:
Connect your new hard drive.
In Disk Utility, make sure it has a GUID partition and is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If needed, reformat the drive as Mac OS Extended with a GUID partition. If you do not know how, see the steps in this article. Note: Back up any data on the hard drive before you format it.
Select the new drive's icon on the desktop and choose Get Info from the File menu.
Make sure "Ignore ownership on this volume" is not enabled.
Open Time Machine preferences in System Preferences.
Slide the Time Machine switch to Off.
In Finder, double-click the current backup hard drive to open its Finder window.
Drag the folder "Backups.backupdb" to the new hard drive.
Enter an administrator user name and password, then click OK to start the copying process. This may take some time to complete because all your backups will be copied.
In Time Machine System Preferences click "Select Disk…"
Select your new hard drive, then click "Use for Backup."
Now, on your new hard drive, you will have all of your existing backups from the previous backup hard drive plus have more room for more new backups.

Similar Messages

Time machine backup disk full, won't backup

My backup disk recently filled up. Now I get a message saying:
"Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to "Backup disk." The backup disk ran out of space unexpectedly. Time Machine will try to make more space available by removing expired backups during the next scheduled backup."
When I then manually click on "Back up now", it runs fine. But then an hour later the same thing happens.
I thought that with a full backup disk, Time machine is supposed to automatically make space by dumping the oldest backup... Right????
My backup disk is 2TB, it is backing up a 750GB internal disk plus an external disk with about 250GB on it.
Thanks!
Dan

10/22/12 12:51:25.611 AM com.apple.backupd[248]: Starting manual backup
10/22/12 12:51:25.722 AM sandboxd[273]: ([272]) mdworker(272) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
10/22/12 12:51:25.728 AM sandboxd[273]: ([271]) mdworker(271) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
10/22/12 12:51:25.861 AM com.apple.backupd[248]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup/Backups.backupdb
10/22/12 12:51:33.251 AM com.apple.backupd[248]: Using file event preflight for Macintosh HD
10/22/12 12:52:47.310 AM com.apple.backupd[248]: Will copy (1.16 GB) from Macintosh HD
10/22/12 12:52:48.436 AM com.apple.backupd[248]: Using file event preflight for WD Passport drive
10/22/12 12:52:48.437 AM com.apple.backupd[248]: Will copy (6 KB) from WD Passport drive
10/22/12 12:52:48.439 AM com.apple.backupd[248]: Found 3606 files (1.16 GB) needing backup
10/22/12 12:52:48.496 AM com.apple.backupd[248]: 3.62 GB required (including padding), 29.11 GB available
10/22/12 12:52:53.408 AM mdworker[282]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
10/22/12 12:52:53.638 AM mdworker[283]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
10/22/12 12:52:53.000 AM kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(284) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
10/22/12 12:52:54.113 AM sandboxd[284]: ([282]) mdworker(282) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
10/22/12 12:52:54.119 AM sandboxd[284]: ([283]) mdworker(283) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
10/22/12 12:54:56.497 AM mdworker[298]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
10/22/12 12:54:56.715 AM mdworker[297]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
10/22/12 12:54:56.000 AM kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(299) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
10/22/12 12:54:57.043 AM sandboxd[299]: ([298]) mdworker(298) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
10/22/12 12:54:57.108 AM sandboxd[299]: ([297]) mdworker(297) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
10/22/12 12:59:12.299 AM mdworker[318]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
10/22/12 12:59:12.524 AM mdworker[317]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
10/22/12 12:59:12.000 AM kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(319) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
10/22/12 12:59:14.647 AM sandboxd[319]: ([318]) mdworker(318) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
10/22/12 12:59:14.677 AM sandboxd[319]: ([317]) mdworker(317) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
10/22/12 1:02:43.439 AM CVMServer[118]: Check-in to the service com.apple.cvmsCompAgent_x86_64 failed. This is likely because you have either unloaded the job or the MachService has the ResetAtClose attribute specified in the launchd.plist. If present, this attribute should be removed.
10/22/12 1:02:47.655 AM CVMServer[118]: Check-in to the service com.apple.cvmsCompAgent_x86_64 failed. This is likely because you have either unloaded the job or the MachService has the ResetAtClose attribute specified in the launchd.plist. If present, this attribute should be removed.
10/22/12 1:02:57.453 AM PluginProcess[347]: Error loading /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin/Contents/MacOS/DVCPROHDAudio: dlopen(/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin/Contents/MacOS/DVCPROHD Audio, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin/Contents/MacOS/DVCPROHDAu dio: no matching architecture in universal wrapper
10/22/12 1:02:57.454 AM PluginProcess[347]: Cannot find function pointer NewPlugIn for factory C5A4CE5B-0BB8-11D8-9D75-0003939615B6 in CFBundle/CFPlugIn 0x7fada9c31ab0 </Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin> (bundle, not loaded)
10/22/12 1:02:58.847 AM WebProcess[337]: objc[337]: Object 0x7f9d8bc1c8e0 of class NSUserDefaults autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking - break on objc_autoreleaseNoPool() to debug
10/22/12 1:03:28.573 AM mdworker[353]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
10/22/12 1:03:28.735 AM sandboxd[355]: ([353]) mdworker(353) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
10/22/12 1:03:28.769 AM mdworker[352]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
10/22/12 1:03:28.787 AM sandboxd[355]: ([352]) mdworker(352) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
10/22/12 1:03:29.000 AM kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(355) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
10/22/12 1:03:33.011 AM PluginProcess[360]: Error loading /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin/Contents/MacOS/DVCPROHDAudio: dlopen(/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin/Contents/MacOS/DVCPROHD Audio, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin/Contents/MacOS/DVCPROHDAu dio: no matching architecture in universal wrapper
10/22/12 1:03:33.012 AM PluginProcess[360]: Cannot find function pointer NewPlugIn for factory C5A4CE5B-0BB8-11D8-9D75-0003939615B6 in CFBundle/CFPlugIn 0x7fd77a8283f0 </Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin> (bundle, not loaded)
10/22/12 1:03:52.662 AM coreservicesd[63]: Can't change an application into stopped state for app App:"Console" [ 0x0/0x4004] @ 0x0x7fbc6a43a2e0 because it's already been started.
10/22/12 1:03:52.776 AM WindowServer[98]: kCGErrorNotImplemented: receive_notification: CPXSetEventFilter failed
10/22/12 1:08:10.762 AM mdworker[377]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
10/22/12 1:08:10.763 AM mdworker[376]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
10/22/12 1:08:11.000 AM kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(378) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
10/22/12 1:08:11.661 AM sandboxd[378]: ([376]) mdworker(376) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
10/22/12 1:08:11.680 AM sandboxd[378]: ([377]) mdworker(377) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
10/22/12 1:09:19.000 AM kernel[0]: (default pager): [KERNEL]: ps_allocate_cluster - send HI_WAT_ALERT
10/22/12 1:09:19.000 AM kernel[0]: macx_swapon SUCCESS
10/22/12 1:15:09.167 AM SystemUIServer[180]: *** WARNING: -[NSImage compositeToPoint:operation:fraction:] is deprecated in MacOSX 10.8 and later. Please use -[NSImage drawAtPoint:fromRect:operation:fraction:] instead.
10/22/12 1:15:09.167 AM SystemUIServer[180]: *** WARNING: -[NSImage compositeToPoint:fromRect:operation:fraction:] is deprecated in MacOSX 10.8 and later. Please use -[NSImage drawAtPoint:fromRect:operation:fraction:] instead.
10/22/12 1:15:44.503 AM com.apple.backupd[248]: Cancellation timed out - exiting
10/22/12 1:16:16.019 AM mdworker[403]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
10/22/12 1:16:16.022 AM mdworker[404]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
10/22/12 1:16:16.000 AM kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(405) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
10/22/12 1:16:16.990 AM sandboxd[405]: ([403]) mdworker(403) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
10/22/12 1:16:17.010 AM sandboxd[405]: ([404]) mdworker(404) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
10/22/12 1:18:14.578 AM quicklookd[414]: [QL] Can't get plugin bundle info at file://localhost/Applications/Keynote.app/Contents/Library/QuickLook/iWork.qlge nerator/

Time Machine backup disk full solved

I was able to solve my problem with Time Machine! Happy. This thread helped me, but it's so old that I can't reply to it directly.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20087557
If you have any virtualization software, such as VMware Fusion, you need to exclude their directory from Time Machine.
Reason is, they maintain huge files that represent your virtual disks, and even if a little bit changes in them, Time Machine must still back up the entire thing, even if it's multiple GB. That will quickly balloon out to fill your entire Time Machine drive, unfortunately.
Time Machine isn't capable of selectively copying only the changed parts of files (differential backup), instead, it just bluntly copies the entire file, regardless of size.
There's other programs that work the same way. Bitcoin, for example, has the blockchain stored here, and it doesn't need to be backed up because it's already being replicated exactly by every other Bitcoin user in the world
Bitcoin's directory is somewhat hidden on Mac OS, though, so navigate to it here (check "Show hidden directories" first):
Home
Library
Application Support
Bitcoin
blocks
Glad to have my backups working again!
Josh

Time Machine isn't capable of selectively copying only the changed parts of files (differential backup), instead, it just bluntly copies the entire file, regardless of size.
The programs could make it possible by using a Sparse Bundle disk image instead of their own database structure, but I doubt either of the programs you mentioned would find that possible.

My 2008 MacBook Pro Stop Recognizing my Time Machine Backup Disk "HELP"

My 2008 MacBook Pro Stop Recognizing my Time Machine Backup Disk & without it my MBP Run's Slow like a "I Hate to say it Windows OS" Is my USB Drives? (2.0) Or is it Time to UPGRAIDE to a Unibody MBP? Please Help ASAP

Take it to an Apple store or AASP.

Error Dialogue: "Time Machine Backup Disk Can't be Found"

Hello -
I am trying to "Enter Time Machine" (which is on a Time Capsule); but when I try this, I am met by the error message "Your Time Machine Backup Disk Can't be Found" with the option given to "Set up My Time Machine".
Needless to say, my Time Machine has been set up for months. When I look in the preferences, it clearly shows the disk I'm connected to (here's a screenshot of the error dialogue alongside my Time Machine preferences: http://cl.ly/1HGk).
Any idea what the best course of action is here.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: notice from the screenshot that Time Machine thinks the earliest backup is only 1 day prior. This is also strange as I have said I've had Time Machine working on this Time Capsule for months. I called Apple about this and was told that a software update had gone out yesterday that reformatted the drives and started the backups all over again. While completely fishy - I don't remember agreeing to any software update dialogue about erasing my Time Capsule - I took them at their word. Not sure if this is related, but thought I should mention it.
Thanks Crew!

MattLat wrote:
Hello -
I am trying to "Enter Time Machine" (which is on a Time Capsule); but when I try this, I am met by the error message "Your Time Machine Backup Disk Can't be Found" with the option given to "Set up My Time Machine".
Needless to say, my Time Machine has been set up for months. When I look in the preferences, it clearly shows the disk I'm connected to (here's a screenshot of the error dialogue alongside my Time Machine preferences: http://cl.ly/1HGk).
Any idea what the best course of action is here.
The +sparse bundle+ containing your backups may be corrupted. Repair it, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum).
If that doesn't help, try a "full reset" of Time Machine, per #A4 there.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: notice from the screenshot that Time Machine thinks the earliest backup is only 1 day prior. This is also strange as I have said I've had Time Machine working on this Time Capsule for months. I called Apple about this and was told that a software update had gone out yesterday that reformatted the drives and started the backups all over again.
That's the first I've heard of that. They may have been referring to the +Time Capsule Backup Update 1.0+ update several weeks ago, that some folks got but others didn't. If it finds a problem, it sends the message in this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4076 The existing sparse bundle is renamed and locked, and a new one made.

Migration Assistant won't see my Time machine backup disk

Hi,
I've seen some other discussions but they apply to slightly different situations and turn out to be too complex for me to follow. My situation is this. My Dec 2008 Macbook running Lion just died. Not sure what the problem is but it seems to be the hardrive. It will take me a while to get it fixed and in the meantime I have a farly new mac mini running Lion.
I also have been making Time Machine backups to an external drive. I read that I could migrate content from a time machine backup and I connected the backup to my mac mini and launched Migration Assistan (MA), seleted the option to migrate from a Time Machine backup. MA is stuck trying to find my disk even though it shows up in Finder. This is the screen I'm talking about http://screencast.com/t/AC0OiVzxx
I'm hoping there is the equivalent of a little on/off switch that I'm not seeing and you can direct me too.
How can I get MA to see my Time Machine backup disk? Thanks for your help.

sorry, i don't know what else it could be then. if you have another external drive you can try doing a full system restore from the TM backups onto that drive and see if MA will recognize that drive and migrate from it. other than this there is always manual migration. slow and tedious but it can be done. see this link for help with that
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6185507

How do I get back iphone app information from a DELETED Time Machine Backup disk

Hi People,
here is what happened:
I have been using an iPhone App (Audio Memos Free - The Voice Recorder) to record song ideas (I am a songwriter). I have been using it for years.
I backed up my iphone to itunes, and backed up my mac on Time Machine. After a month or so I did a fresh OSX install on my mac, copied all of my files back from Time Machine into my mac, and tried to set up Time Machine. I was not able to do so, so I had to format the Time Machine Backup disk and doing a "fresh" mac Time Machine Backup.
After a week or so, my iphone asks me something like "you do not possess the rights for one or more applications". do not know what i did, but after 1 minute my iPhone was wiped out of all my apps and app contents. I had also the icloud app sync, so i did not worry, recovered from icloud notes, contacts, and all other things. so i did another backup to itunes.
Now i discover icloud did not recover or save the "Audio Memos Free" app content. I know the data are hidden into the Time machine Backup HD, but i do not know where to search for the itunes backup in it.
I know it is in library, but library won't show up.
Any help would be much appreciated.
PS there is a chance that, even without a data recovery, my latest itunes backup was containing these songs, but i do not know how to fish that out of the Time machine drive.
Thank you in advance.

I would email iTunes Customer Service:
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/store/browser/
CG

Restored system from Time Machine backup disk but the system could not start-up

On MacBook Pro early 2008, restored the entire system from Time Machine backup disk to the entire disk.
The previous system on the backup disk had FileVault turned on.
The restore completed successfully and I was prompted to restart the system via the new restored system disk.
I heard the normal start-up sound, then the Apple logo, but it stuck at the logo screen. And the cooling fan run at almost full speed?
I have been waiting for a few hours, guessing it might FileVault the disk.
Finally I have to shutdown the machine as it stuck at the logo screen forever.
Anyone has the same issue? Any ideas?

BTW, I also tried Repair the system disk, Fix permissions via Disk Utility.
I guess I must lose some files either during the backup or the restore.

Time Machine Backup Disk Encryption Password

I use a partitioned external drive to backup my stuff. Had enabled encryption option for the Time Machine backup disk and forgot the same. Can not find an entry in Keychain, any inputs on how to retrieve the password or unlock the particular partition?

Thanks for your reply. Call me stupid, but I had set-up the encryption in August and didn't use the back-up since then. Even though hint is visible, it doesn't help.

HT201250 My MacBook Pro (using OSX 10.7.5) suddenly can't find the Time Machine backup disk, which is on the harddrive of my desktop iMac. What to do?

My MacBook Pro (using OSX 10.7.5) suddenly can't find the Time Machine backup disk, which is on the harddrive of my desktop iMac. What to do?

Inherit a Backup
Inherit a Backup (2)

Time Machine Backup Disk Cannot be found

While my iMac was in sleep mode, I disconnected the power to my external, firewire time machine backup disk. The backup is a Western Digital hard drive.
Now I get the error message "Your Time Machine Backup Disk Cannot be Found"
I have rebooted the computer with the disk connected and the disk still doesn't show up on the desktop.
I rebooted the computer with the disk powered up but the firewire disconnected, then connected the firewire. The disk still doesn't appear on the desktop.
I tried Disk Warrior, and Disk Warrior doesn't see the external Time Machine disk.
What to do?

Dan Mackey1 wrote:
While my iMac was in sleep mode, I disconnected the power to my external, firewire time machine backup disk. The backup is a Western Digital hard drive.
That might corrupt your backups, but shouldn't make the disk completely un-usable.
Disconnect it and power it off for several minutes, turn Time Machine OFF, then Restart your Mac again. Let your Mac get powered-up and running before connecting and powering the disk on. Then see if Disk Utility can see it.
Is this a dual-mode disk? If so, try connecting via USB -- it may work that way.
Can you tell if it's running? Is it one with a light, and/or can you hear it run or feel it vibrating?

Verify Disk failed for Time Machine backup disk

Thread <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7930301&#7930301> discussed a similar issue, but it was closed without an answer so I'm opening a new one.
After a power failure I ran Disk Utility to Repair Permissions on my boot disk and Verify Disk on another that I use to store media files; neither had significant problems. Then I ran Verify Disk (verify, not repair; and disk, not permissions) on my Time Machine backup disk. It started spitting out the errors shown below. The time remaining counted up to 16 minutes, but wasn't coming down very fast so I left it running overnight. My machine is set to not sleep or spin down the disks. The next evening it was down to 12 minutes left, and was still spitting out the same errors. The second evening it was done, having failed out as shown in this log file excerpt:
2009-06-20 22:25:48 -0400: Verifying volume “Backup”
Starting verification tool: 2009-06-20 22:25:48 -0400
2009-06-20 22:25:50 -0400: Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
2009-06-20 22:25:50 -0400: Checking Extents Overflow file.
2009-06-20 22:25:50 -0400: Checking Catalog file.
2009-06-20 22:35:21 -0400: Checking multi-linked files.
2009-06-20 23:08:17 -0400: Checking Catalog hierarchy.
2009-06-20 23:16:59 -0400: Checking Extended Attributes file.
2009-06-20 23:18:34 -0400: Checking multi-linked directories.
2009-06-20 23:31:05 -0400: 2009-06-20 23:31:05 -0400: Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 3763501)
2009-06-20 23:31:05 -0400: 2009-06-20 23:31:05 -0400: 2009-06-20 23:31:05 -0400: (It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
2009-06-22 15:14:54 -0400: 2009-06-22 15:14:57 -0400: Incorrect owner flags for directory hard link (id = 7746623)
2009-06-22 15:14:59 -0400: 2009-06-22 15:15:00 -0400: 2009-06-22 15:15:02 -0400: (It should be 0x2 instead of 0x0)
2009-06-22 15:20:35 -0400: Checking volume bitmap.
2009-06-22 15:20:37 -0400: Checking volume information.
2009-06-22 15:20:39 -0400: 2009-06-22 15:20:41 -0400: The volume Backup needs to be repaired.
2009-06-22 15:20:43 -0400: Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.2009-06-22 15:20:44 -0400:
2009-06-22 15:20:44 -0400: Disk Utility stopped verifying “Backup” because the following error was encountered:
Filesystem verify or repair failed.
At that point the whole system was extremely sluggish, and the access light on the backup disk was flashing steadily. The pmTool process seemed to be running away, but the system wasn't responsive enough for me to do much about it, so I held down the power button to shutdown. Upon the 2nd restart the system booted and seems to be OK, but I'm leery of running another Verify Disk.
What's going on? Are those errors anything to worry about? Is it possible to run Verify Disk on a Time Machine backup disk? What about Repair Disk?

John Seal wrote:
2009-06-22 15:20:43 -0400: Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.2009-06-22 15:20:44 -0400:
2009-06-22 15:20:44 -0400: Disk Utility stopped verifying “Backup” because the following error was encountered:
Filesystem verify or repair failed.
At that point the whole system was extremely sluggish, and the access light on the backup disk was flashing steadily. The pmTool process seemed to be running away, but the system wasn't responsive enough for me to do much about it, so I held down the power button to shutdown.
Any time Disk Utility says you need to repair a disk, you need to repair it. Period.
So run it. If it fails to repair everything, run it again (and again) until it either repairs everything or can't repair any more. If it can't repair it, post back and we'll discuss options.
There's no point in running +Verify Disk+ on an external drive; just run +Repair Disk.+ The only time +Verify Disk+ is needed is for your internal HD (because you can't repair the disk you're running from).
And you need to do that again because of the forced power-down. Any time there's an abnormal shutdown, it's possible the file system on your internal HD can be damaged. Usually it isn't, but it's possible. If that says you need to repair it, you'll have to boot from your Leopard Install disc and use it's copy of DU. Post back if you need to do this but don't know how.

I need to backup my mails from a time machine backup disk from a powerbook leopard to an IMac snow Leopard...can I do this?

Hi everybody...
I need to backup my complete history of emails. I have a time machine backup disk I used in a powerbook intel, second generation with Leopard OS. Now I have an Imac of 24 inches, with Snow Leopard OS. Can I use that backup disk (TM) to put the mails that used to be in the powerbook into my IMac?
My original powerbook is broken, so I cant do anything there...

You should be able to find and restore emails that were on the old Mac via Time Machine. Emails that were on the server, not the Mac, won't be there, of course.
See the blue box in #15 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Can't connect to a Time Machine backup disk

I have erased my TM via Airport Utility
AirPort Utility 6.x: Erase an AirPort Time Capsule disk
So far so good...But now, I am unable to open TM, when I do it opens momentarily, then closes with message "Can't conect to a Time Machine backup disk".
I have turned off TM as I do not want to use the TM as backup..I want to use it as an EHD and transfer data to the disk manually (not by automatic TM backups).
How can I do this?

No. It is not in Finder at all..only I can see the Airport Capusle (on the left side) under "Shared"...but this does not allow for any data transfer.
It should show under "Devices", and allow for data transfer....don't know how to fix this one..

How do I manually erase my Time Machine backup disk?

I have a 500GB external hard drive with only 43 GB left after years of serving as a Time Machine backup disk for another computer. I wanted to use the same disk for my new computer. The new computer's backup is 130 GB, and when I connected the old external drive, Time Machine said "The backup disk needs to be 130.37 GB for the backup but only 47.24 GB are available. Select a larger backup disk or make the backup smaller by excluding files." So I manually deleted the files I found on the external drive onto my computer's trash.
Big mistake. Apparently, there are still only 47.24 GB on the external, but there are no apparent backups or files on it. Furthermore, I can't restore the deleted files to the external hard drive because there isn't enough space on it. Too late, I did some searching and discovered that you can't delete files from a Time Machine external drive manually; you can only go through the gear icon in Finder and remove backups in that way.
So why does my external drive say that it has only 47 GB out of 500 even when there is nothing on it? Is there any other way to manually erase/reformat it?

Try opening Disk Utility and select the highest level drive name on the external drive. Click on the Partitions tab. Remove all the partitions on the drive by selecting each and clicking the "-" sign in the lower left corner of the partition table view. Then choose 1 Partition from the dropdown of partitions to create. Make sure the format shows Mac OS Extended-Journaled. Click Apply.
The above should delete everything on the drive and create a new single formated partition.

Time Machine backup disk full... help

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