Time Machine Full (when it shouldn't be)

Hi folks,
After my last back-up, it says that Time Machine is full so it had to delete some old back-ups. Now, my most recent back-up is 3rd January 2010.
Thing is, my Time Machine hard drive is 500GB capacity and there's only 232GB on there. In fact there's only 232GB taken up on my hard drive!
Any ideas?
Ben

Look at the size of the files you are backing up. Time Machine requires a crazy amount of "padding" (for me, I've seen it take over 500 MBs padding to backup only a total of 12 MBs, and 100 GBs padding for a 14GB file).
Use the Time Machine Buddy widget, and post what you seen there.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/timemachinebuddy.html

Similar Messages

After updating my MacBook Pro to yeosemite I want my old screen saver picture back. I did a full back up before the install. I found the "Settings" folder in Time machine but when I try to open it I get an error message saying "You can not open this

After updating my MacBook Pro to yeosemite I want my old desktop picture back. I did a full back up before the install. I found the "Settings" folder in Time machine but when I try to open it I get an error message saying "You can not open this folder. It is in TimeMachine".

Can you browse the Time Machine drive from Finder?
If you can and you know where the picture was stored ie on your desktop you can browse through the folder structure to the picture copy it and paste it somewhere on your new install before right clicking it and 'set as desktop background'

Mac enters a deep sleep during Time Machine full restore

I have the problem listed in the subject. Here is my configuration:
Mac Pro (early 2008), dual quad-core Xenon 2.8 GHz, 10 GBs of RAM, hard disks as follows:
Bay 1: 1 TB HD System, running OS X 10.6.2, ~500 gigs used, ~400 gigs free, small Bootcamp partition
Bay 2: 1.5 TB hard disk, used exclusively for backing up the drive in Bay 1
Bay 3: 1 TB spare drive, currently contains only OS X 10.6.2 plus some utilities. This drive is not backed up.
Bay 4: empty
OK, so now for what happened. Recently, I had an issue with my main drive (bay 1); rather than attempt to fix it, I decided to reformat the drive and restore from a Time Machine backup. I booted off the Snow Leopard DVD, chose the Restore option from the Utilities menu, and started the restore.
When I returned to the Mac after a couple of hours to see how things were going, the Mac was asleep and could not be woken up by moving the mouse, clicking its buttons, or hitting any key on the keyboard. The (wired) keyboard was totally inactive (no caps lock light, etc.). Pressing the Power button on the Mac Pro didn't do anything, nor could I connect to it from my MacBook Pro by means of screen or file sharing. The only thing I could do was to hold the power button in until the machine turned off completely. Restarting from the DVD worked fine.
I looked for answers on the web, and I found a couple of posts here. One of them suggested setting the sleep parameter to "Never" (if one still had a boot partition); I did that by booting from the disk in bay 3, not quite believing it would work since I was booting from the DVD to do the restore.
Once booted from the DVD, I tried the other answer I had found, and that is executing the command "pmset sleep 0" in the terminal before launching the restore. I got an error to the effect that the write operation failed (duh!), but I thought that maybe the parameter would be held in memory. I started the restore operation again and went to sleep.
Needless to say, the same thing happened again. The only way I was finally able to perform the restore was by sitting next to the machine and moving the mouse every few minutes to keep the system awake. This process took a little over two and a half hours (which is not bad considering the amount of data involved). The operation was successful, and I was able to boot from the restored drive. Everything is now back to normal. However, I am puzzled by the apparent necessity to babysit the Mac while it is restoring from a Time Machine backup.
This clearly did NOT happen with the Leopard (10.5) DVD. I suspect (but don't know for sure) that the 10.5 DVD's system included a never sleep setting that Apple forgot to include on the 10.6 DVD.
Is anybody able to perform lengthy restores by booting from the Snow Leopard DVD? If so, how do they get around the sleep issue? Or doesn't it happen in the first place? I would also like to know what state my Mac is in when it stops in the middle of a restore operation; it is clearly not a normal sleep mode since I haven't actually found any way of waking it up.
Finally, I would love to be able to boot from my Bay 3 drive and launch a system restore operation from there since both the Time Machine drive and the target drive would be available. Is there any way at all that this can be done? Has anyone succeeded in using the Time Machine full restore from any location other than the OS DVD? This would obviously be interesting since one could continue to use the Mac while the restore operation is ongoing.
Thanks for any info anyone can provide.
Daniel

something is wrong with your system. changing energy saver settings while booted normally from an external should have taken care of this issue. I suggest you reset SMC
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
and you are right, using "pmset sleep 0" from terminal while booted from the DVD does not work. I think it was me who recommended that. that was very dumb of me. thanks for pointing that out. but it should not be necessary as i mentioned.
all that said, in response to your last question yes it is perfectly possible to run the installer and the restore utility while booted normally from another drive. beeing quite impatient (and having a mac pro with several internal bays ) this is the only way I ever install or restore. also, I don't use the DVD itself. I made a small partition on one of my internals and cloned the SL install DVD to that. it works much quicker from there.
anyway, to start the installer while booted normally from another drive run the following terminal command
sudo /Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Installation/CDIS/Mac OS X Installer.app/Contents/MacOS/Mac OS X Installer
this will let you use the mac and do other things while the restore is going on.

How does time machine work when being used with a mac pro?

How does time machine work when backing up a mac pro?
Considering the fact that the mac pro can hold 8TB and a external (non NAS) hard drive can hold only 2TB does time machine only backup the OS disk.

macnewcomer22 wrote:
Considering the fact that the mac pro can hold 8TB and a external (non NAS) hard drive can hold only 2TB does time machine only backup the OS disk.
Time Machine will backup everything by default, on every disk in your Mac.
Choose System Preferences > Options to exclude items. You could exclude everything except your OS...but I'd think it is your data that's more important to you, if you have to make choices.
See...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1964018
While it's true you can store almost 8TB, how much do you think you'll actually store? If you have 1TB of data you want to store then a 2TB drive can do it. Also when your TM drive begins to get full it will begin deleting the oldest backups to make room.
You could also get a Drobo with 8 bays...
http://www.drobo.com/products/index.php
-mj

Hi, ive been backing up my computer to an external hard drive (with time machine). When i buy a new macbook will that hard drive put all my info on to the new computer?

hi, ive been backing up my computer to an external hard drive (with time machine). When i buy a new macbook will that hard drive put all my info on to the new computer?

When you boot the new machine for the first time, you'll be prompted to import your data from a Time Machine backup.

I restored my hard drive with time machine but when I log in I get "home folder protected by fire vault and needs to be repaired. But I can't get past the regular log

I restored my hard drive with time machine but when I log in I get "home folder protected by fire vault and needs to be repaired. But I can't get past the regular log

Maybe you might find some info to the right>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Time Machine stalls when trying to back up to Time Capsule or an external hard drive.

TIme Machine stalls when trying to back up to Time Capsule or an external hard drive. Time Machine shows a message such as "Backing up 4MB of 9.00GB" but nothing happens for hours.

Are you really running 10.6.4 OS?
What model TC and what firmware?
Wireless or wired?
How is the TC setup?
If TM can work to neither a TC or external hard disk it is more likely the computer is faulty hard disk..
Do a verify of the disk.
See A5 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Unable to boot after Time Machine full system restore!!

I was having some serious slowdowns with my computer. I did multiple RAM and HD hardware tests, everything seemed to be working fine. I had recently deleted a bunch of files in order to free up some HD space, so I thought that may be the culprit. So I did a Time Machine backup and restored the Powerbook to it's original 10.3 software. All was fine. Then I upgraded back to 10.5 and all was fine. Then I did a Time Machine full system restore overnight and got the message "Your restore was successful, you must now restart your computer" (or something to that effect). Now I get the start-up chime and startup screen (apple logo) but then the computer shuts itself down. I have reset the PMU and PRAM to no effect. I have tried booting up in safe made, also no dice. I have tried starting it up with the time machine HD attached - doesn't help. I guess I'll need to hit the genius bar but wanted to ask the friendly discussion forum folks first. thanks in advance.

Hi coldengray
Did you try to start from your System-CD? Hold down C-key during startup, start DiskUtility from the menu and verify/repair disk and permissions there.
If the CD is not available you can also connect your TimeMachine-Disk, select it as startup volume in System Preferences/StartupDisk, restart and then run DiskUtility from folder Applications/Utilities
Good luck P

I am getting error "The disk is used for Time Machine Backup" when installing the new OSX Mountain Lion upgrade"

I am keep getting this error "The disk is used for Time Machine Backup" when installing the new OSX Mountain Lion" when doing the upgrade to newly OS.

The folder would be at the root of your hard drive. Double-click Macintosh HD and look there.
If it isn’t there, I’m not sure what it is seeing.

When attempting to upgrade my iMac from Snow Leopard to Mavericks, I receive the message "This disk is used for Time Machine Backups" when I try to select the lone available hard drive.

When attempting to upgrade my iMac from Snow Leopard to Mavericks, I receive the message "This disk is used for Time Machine Backups" when I try to select the lone available hard drive. I have ensured that Time Machine is turned off. Upon some Google research, some who reported this problem were told to delete the folder backup.backupdb, but I do not have this folder on my Mac. Any suggestions?

The folder would be at the root of your hard drive. Double-click Macintosh HD and look there.
If it isn’t there, I’m not sure what it is seeing.

Can't access Time Machine settings when AirPort (WiFi) is on.

Problem:
My iMac (2.66 MHz Inter Core Duo) with 10.5.8 needs an upgrade to Maverick...it is connected to my home network with AirPort
I have a NAS on my home network (Verbatim MediaShare 2TB) wired connected, which I have had working as a drive for TM-backups. It stopped working with TM about 1,5 year ago, did never figure out why, backups just failed.
Now I want to get it going again for a fresh backup prior to the OS upgrade.
The issue I am facing now is that I cant access the settings for the backup drive in TM settings as the AirPort is on.
I need AirPort on to be able to mount the drive of the NAS, but then I cant access TM-settings. If I switch of AirPort temporarly to access TM-settings the drive which I need to select is dismounted.
I am kind of stuck. Why is this happening?
BRG
/Johan

BDAqua wrote:
Got me really confused, sorry...
Can't access Time Machine settings when AirPort (WiFi) is on.
the NAS Volume for backup "COMPUTERSBACKUP$" can be mounetd as it should when AirPort is on.
Hi, label explains the problem pretty much...
That is: The dialog in TM where the disk for TM to put backuped data is not accessable when the iMac has connection to my home network. The button is there, but when i press it notheing happends. If i deactivate the network interface, the dialog opens.
I hope this claryfy my problem.
BRG
/Johan

HT1178 I have set up Time Capsule to use with Time Machine. When I open Time Machine it 'cannot find' the Time Capsule and I have the Select the Disk each time. In the Next Backup tab it always says "When disk is connected" even though the disk is alrea

I have set up Time Capsule to use with Time Machine but when I open Time Machine it 'cannot find' the Time Capsule and I have to 'Select the Disk' each time. In the Next Backup tab it always says "When disk is connected" even though the disk is already connected.

Your pro doesn't matter.. I presume it is happily working.
Your imac setup has got messed up because you changed from a local (my book being USB type I presume) to network drive. Did you do a clean install of Lion?
Did you use the backup from the Pro on the imac? Otherwise I don't see how the Pro shows up in use previous disk. Where is Pondini when you need him??
You cannot download Time Machine as an App and replace the current version. It is built into the OS.. the only way to do it is a clean install. Unfortunately that might be the only way around the issue.
There is a number of issues that Pondini has covered in the setup issues of troubleshooting.
This is the most relevant I think. http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html
But look at the whole section B setup problems.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
If it was me, I would store all the info you need.. not using TM but using a straight copy of files.
Then clean install Lion. I doubt any of these issues would exist if you had not installed Lion over existing setup or used a different backup.
See if you can get Pondini to respond.. !!

Difference in Time Machine full restore instructions

My daughter had to replace a hard drive. She called Apple for help in a Time Machine full restore and was told to first install OSX from her DVD on the new hard drive and then do a Time Machine restore from the latest backup. It seems to me the last time we did a full restore with a new hard drive, we just formatted the new drive and then booted from the Time Machine option on the OSX disk and them did a full restore from the latest Time Machine backup. That restore restored OSX and everything that was backed up. Since these two methods are different, do you still get to the same restore point with either method?

There are two approaches depending upon what you backup. If you do a full backup of all system files then boot from the OS X installer disc, use Disk Utility to erase the drive, then opt to do a full restore from a TM backup drive. If you don't backup all system files then follow the procedure recommended by AppleCare.
For more please read the three User Contributed Tips you will find at the top of this forum's topic list. Also select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine." This will bring up numerous help articles on using TM.
Message was edited by: Kappy

I tried to instal 10.8.3 to my MBP and it crashed. I then tried to restore from Time machine but when it is about 50% through a message comes up "the files cannot be restored"

I tried to instal 10.8.3 to my MBP and it crashed. I then tried to restore from Time machine but when it is about 50% through a message comes up "the files cannot be restored" Can anyone help me to get out of this mess?

Back up all data.
Boot into Recovery by holding down the key combination command-R at the startup chime. Release the keys when you see a gray screen with a spinning dial.
Note: You need an always-on Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection to the Internet to use Recovery. It won’t work with USB or PPPoE modems, or with proxy servers, or with networks that require a certificate for authentication.
When the OS X Utilities screen appears, follow the prompts to reinstall the OS. You don't need to erase the boot volume, and you won't need your backup unless something goes wrong. If your Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade, so make a note of those before you begin.

Reimport of mail after Time Machine full restore

I did a full restore to a different machine today. That took a few hours. Then when I started up email it said it needed to import all the mail. It's been "preparing to import" for about 8 hours now. I do have tens of thousands of emails going back more than a decade, but it shouldn't take this long should it?
doug

A full system restore? Doing that to a different Mac, unless it's nearly identical both in hardware and date built, may be a problem. See: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2186 and: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3243
Apple actually recommended this as the "method of choice" for migrating to a new system if I had a full Time Machine backup. This happened In February when my MBP motherboard died. While waiting for repair I got a new iMac 21.5". I had my full TM backup and so Apple recommended I restore from that to my iMac and it worked perfectly.
This is disconcerting though. I depend really 100% on the fact that TM's backup is whole and valid. But I've noticed two problems since doing the restore to my MBP yesterday (1) this problem with the email and (2) the last few iPhoto events have missing photos - just placeholders showing where the photos are.
In this case, both machines are Core 2 Duo machines. Maybe that's why Apple recommended this method.
But if email is not going to be safely backed up this way maybe I need a combination of backup strategies, like throwing Carbon Copy Cloner (which I use for Parallel VM backups) into the mix.
What caused you to do this? Were you having problems with the other Mac? If so, perhaps something was corrupted on it, and the corruption was backed-up and restored.
There was no problem with either Mac. When my late-2006 MBP came back from Apple repair it then went out of the 3-year warranty. So I took this opportunity to upgrade the internal HD from its original 160 GB disk to a 500 GB / 7200 rpm disk. Now I can use it even more when on travel.
So all I wanted to do was take my current iMac content and move it over to the MBP. This worked fine in the other direction and was, as I mentioned above, the method Apple recommended I use.
I haven't actually lost any data at this point. Mail on my iMac is fine, as is the iPhoto library.
But I assumed the Time Machine backup was fine also. If it really isn't, it certainly adds an element of uncertainty that I didn't realize existed before.
Right now I can think of alternate ways of getting my mail over - like directly transferring the Mail library folder and preferences to the new machine.
But this sort of makes me wonder if I truly do have a good, reliable backup of important data now with TM. One purpose of TM is to be able to recover if your computer dies and you need to move to a different machine.
doug

Time Machine Full (when it shouldn't be)

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for