Time Machine is out of BackUp Space??????

I've been using Time Machine for back ups. But for whatever reason it failed the last attempts at backing up my HDs. Doesn't Time Machine delete older content when it is updating new backup data?
This would make sense to me. But doesn't seem to be the case.
Anyone??

Ah, that's it. After a restore, TM's next backup is a +Full Backup.+ Everything it just restored gets saved again: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338
What to do now depends on how much space you have.
What is the total "used" on your 2 internal HDs (less any exclusions)?
How big is your TM drive/partition?
If TM's space isn't at least twice the total used on your internals, all you can do is use Disk Utility to erase your TM drive/partition and let TM start a whole new sequence.
If there's considerably more than twice the space, you can manually delete backups from the "old" sequence. Do NOT use the Finder for this, but the TM interface.
If you can't see the old backups via +Enter Time Machine,+ hold down the Option key while selecting the TM icon in your Menubar. The +Enter Time Machine+ option will change to +Browse Other Time Machine Disks+. Then select the oldest backup, click the "gear" icon and choose +Delete Backup+. Repeat until there's sufficient room.
To tell how much room you need, look at the messages from a failed backup attempt via the widget. There should be a message like "... xx GB requested (including padding) ..." The figure for "xx" will probably be the total used (less exclusions) plus about 20%. (TM needs a fair amount of workspace to do it's magic.)

Similar Messages

  • Time Machine is out of BackUp Space?????? and Fails!

    Why doesn't Time Machine delete backup space to begin the latest backup? I keep receiving a "failed" message because there isn't enough free space... Anyone?

    James Bearde wrote:
    It's still telling me it's too large for the backup volume.
    Ah, that's different. TM has apparently already deleted as many backups as it could, which means it's probably made at least one new, full backup of everything on your system.
    This can be caused by certain hardware repairs, a full restore, or going several days without a successful backup.
    If those haven't happened, there may be some clues in your logs. Download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget from: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/timemachinebuddy.html. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. Copy and post the messages here (be sure to get them all, as sometimes they overflow the small window).
    Also it's possible your TM drive/partition just isn't big enough. How much data is on your internal HD (and any others TM is backing-up); and how big is your TM drive/partition?

  • Does Time Machine require add'l backup space?

    I have two 2TB external hard drives which are pretty much full.
    I want to partition a 4TB drive into two 2TB sectors and backup my two drives.
    I don't need additional "archived" backups, those previous changes that Time Machine stores when additional space permits.  I just need an exact backup of the drives in their current state and that's all.
    If one of my current hard drives is full to 99% capacity (say 1.98 TB) and my backup drive has 2TB capacity, will Time Machine let me backup?  Or does it require additional space?
    I ask because I've been reading other posts that talk about "recommending" an additional 20-50% in size for saving previous changes.  I understand the suggestion, but I only have these two 2TB partitions and I don't believe I need those previous backups. 
    Is that "additional" space mandatory or optional?

    Thanks for the reply, ds store.
    I wonder if you (or anyone else) can still answer a question or two for me. 
    Are there any free options for making mirror backups of my drive?  I don't need the thing to be bootable.  It's all media files that don't change, but do get added to from time to time.
    I would settle for a click-and-drag copy of the drive, but the occasional addition of a new file makes it a hassle to remember what I need to add to the backup drive. 
    Sure would like a *free* solution to the problem of needing to backup a mostly full 2TB hard drive to another 2TB drive (ie, not much "work space") and not needing archived time machine-style backups ... just a system for knowing to add that occasional addition to my files.
    Seems like time machine should do something like that ... simply pass on additional archived files ... just copy the disc at hand, but I get the idea it doesn't.  It insists on creating those additional archived files AND requiring me to allocate substantial extra space for "work space".
    I don't want to buy another drive.  I want to back up my 2TB to another 2TB and make updates from time to time - without the wasted space of archived backups.
    Any free solutions to that?  Possibly something already in my Mac that I'm not aware of?

  • Time Machine Locked out of Backup Disk after Install of 7.6.3 Airport Utility

    Yesterday the system advised that Software update was available for Airport Utility. I updated (7.6.3) since I was having trouble getting AirPlay to work. Following the update the system wanted to update the firmware on the Time Capsule and also the Airport Base Stations. I did this as well. Now the new Airport Utility can't find my Airport Base Stations with any reliability. Also, Time Machine can not run because the Backup Disk on the Time Capsule is "in use". The Airport Base Stations are working just fine even though the utility doesn't always see them. I am most concerned with the backup situation.
    Do I need to undo this faulty software/firmware upgrade to resolve this? If so, how?
    I would appreciate some guidance on this very much.
    Thanks in advance.
    Cyclone
    PS the iMac is at 10.8.2. Can't seem to be able to change it on the profile.

    First, restart the Time Capsule by disconnecting the power adapter and reconnecting it. If other devices on the network can see it, you can skip this step.
    From the menu bar, select
     ▹ System Preferences ▹ Network
    Click the lock icon in the lower left corner of the window and authenticate to unlock the settings, if necessary. Click the Advanced button, then select the TCP/IP tab in the sheet that drops down. Click Renew DHCP lease.
    Try again to back up.

  • Time machine ran out of disk space

    My WD passport has 2 partitions. I need to get rid of the partitions so I have enough room for backups. Can I wipe the whole disk clean and start fresh with just one partition. I'm not tech savvy so I need walking through the procedure if it can be done.
    Thanks in advance.

    Yep, but you may be able to change the partitioning without having to erase the drive. First, starting from scratch:
    Drive Preparation
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
    Second, changing on the fly may be possible but only if the TM partition is the first partition on the drive:
    To resize the drive do the following:
    1. Open Disk Utility and select the drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list.
    2. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
    3. Click in the area of the bottom partition. It will become enclosed in dark blue lines. Click on the [-] Delete button to remove the partition.
    4. Now grab the sizing gadget of the remaining partition with your mouse and drag all the way to the bottom of the partition window. The sizing gadget is in the lower right corner of the partition rectangle.
    5. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process is completed.
    You should now have one volume on the drive.

  • Time Machine deleted my old backups and crapped out midstream

    I had just gotten my failing hard drive replaced, and restored from Time Machine backup. So far so good.
    So a week later, I wanted to upgrade to Mountain Lion, but figured I should be responsible and run Time Machine backup again before doing the upgrade just in case something goes wrong.
    The Mac has a 4TB drive, which has 2TB free. The backup drive is a 4TB external drive, which has (or had) Time Machine backups going back two years or so. It still had over a TB of space left. I clicked on Backup Now and let it run overnight. I noticed it said "Deleting old backup to make room" or something like that, which I thought was normal.
    I woke up in the morning to find that Time Machine had crapped out in the middle, and said that it couldn't complete. I realized that it had deleted all my old backups. It didn't need to do that, since the only files that had changed would have been less than a GB, and it had over a TB of space to work with.
    It must have thought that everything on the drive had changed since the last backup, and it wanted to backup the entire drive. As such it tried deleting all my old backups! But it failed, and stopped in the middle.
    Now I have a drive that still says there is only 1.2 TB of space on the drive, but I can't see the files! Even with Tinkertool, I can't see anything beyond the one most recent backup.
    Can these files be recovered? I am totally ticked that there isn't some kind of confirmation like "Are you sure you want to delete X?"
    I actually need to have some of these older backups, as they include files that had been deleted before the latest backup that I may need to retrieve. Any hard drive experts out there? Any terminal commands that can make these files accessible, even if I have to retrieve them manually?

    To clarify, this all happened under Snow Leopard as I had said. My profile lists Tiger, since I haven't cared to update my personal profile since using that OS, and in fact I still use Tiger among other versions. I manage a lot of users. And I never got to upgrade to Mountain Lion on this system, as explained in the post above. So I don't see the confusion.
    I don't think the model of Mac makes a difference for this type of problem, but in case it does, the incident was on a 2010 Intel iMac with a 4TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM. I would have mentioned that if this was a problem with hardware specific to the model of Mac. But this is more of a universal issue.
    But to stay on topic, I'm guessing my old backups are toast. But if anybody has any experience with recovering from Time Machine deleting their old backups, I would be happy to hear from them. In the meantime, I am going to try to do some old fashioned file recovery, and see what I can salvage.

  • I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down eliminate

    I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down menu with the gear box symbol to eliminate

    I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
    You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots.  Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
    See Pondini's page for more explanation:   What are Local Snapshots?   http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
    I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
    You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.  
    The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library.  Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

  • 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.

  • Time Machine wiped out all my backups!

    This morning, Time Machine wiped out all my existing Time Machine backups and started a new, full backup of my startup drive.. My Time Machine volume was only half full, and I use TimeMachineEditor to schedule backups once a day instead of every hour. Does anyone know what might have caused this to happen?

    Not helpful. I've been using TimeMachineEditor for years without any problem whatsoever.
    It's true, though... it sounds like something went wrong with Time Machine somewhere, and that's one possibility. Having used it for years without a problem does not mean that trend will continue. There was just an update to that software one week ago, adding Mountain Lion compatibility. Something could have been wrong with the update if you installed it, and if you didn't, you were using it with Mountain Lion without it being compatible.
    As for Time Machine's default hourly backups, they can result in spinning beachballs each and every hour
    Something else may have been wrong then (instead or in addition). That's not normal.
    In any event, there's nothing to be done about the old backups now... they're gone. What I would advise is to stop using TimeMachineEditor (for the time being at least), erase your backup drive and start your backups over from scratch, and make sure that your drive is used in one of the supported configurations (ie, directly connected, connected to a Time Capsule or a shared volume on another Mac on your local network).

  • Time machine Deleted old computer backups

    Hey,
    I have been using a mac pro for about a year and a half now and as all computers get it has become slow and full of garbage. So i used my time machine back up and successfully backed up all my files. I put in the OS disk and wiped the computer clean and reinstalled the OS. I plugged the time machine back up in and began to copy over only the files that i wanted. A few days later I had not yet copied over all of the files that I needed, i was prompted me to set up this computer with a time machine back up. I began the process thinking that it would create the backups in a new file on the drive or append it to the current list of back up images. It stopped half way though saying there was not enough free disk space. on the 1 TB HD there was only 5 GB remaining. So I just canceled it and was going to finish copying over all of the files i wanted and they delete the old backups. However when I went to get my old backup files, they had all been deleted.
    I was using this hard drive to store other media files as well as time machine backups. taking the HD into the local computer shop i was informed that that is a terrible thing to do and perhaps the reason that my backups have been lost. the tech said there was nothing to be done but reformat the drive and start again. I am hoping this is not the case. the drive still says there is only 5GB of free space however I can only fine 300GB of files on the drive. so i believe that the files are still there. Does anyone know a solution to this issue. There are many valuable things on this hard drive that i would hate to loose.
    I have tried holding the option key and clicking on the icon to view other backups, but my original backups are not there.
    Thanks in advance.

    Before I make any reply, note that you are responding to a topic that has been inactive for more than two years, on a system two versions out of date. In the future, you would do better to start your own topic in an appropriate forum, specifying what system you're running and what hardware you're running it on, among other things.
    this exact thing happened to me as well and I must say that I find it totally unacceptable...
    Well, without more information, it's impossible to say what might have happened or how you can recover. You may find some answers on Pondini's excellent site:
    http://pondini.org
    However, it's important to understand that this may or may not have anything to do with Time Machine. Perhaps your backup drive is dying, perhaps its directory structure became badly corrupt, perhaps one of any number of other things could have happened. Because there is no such thing as storage that is completely stable, it's important to keep more than one backup, as noted previously on this topic.
    Carbon Copy Cloner seems like a much better solution at this time.
    Carbon Copy Cloner is an excellent solution. Is it better? No. It is simply different, and that makes it better in some aspects and worse in others than Time Machine. The best backup strategy will involve two different backup programs. I frequently recommend using both Time Machine and CCC. I use TM with a Time Capsule for one backup, which has certain advantages over CCC. I use CCC for a couple other backups, one of which is in a safe deposit box at all times, and that has some advantages over TM. Using both, with multiple backups, means that I'm extremely unlikely to lose much data, if any at all... unless a meteor hits and destroys both my home and my bank, in which case I've got bigger problems!
    Anyway, with regard to recovery, take a look at Pondini's site. If that doesn't help, or you need assistance with something, start your own topic in the appropriate forum for your system and provide additional details that may help us better assist you.

  • Time Machine Loses All Previous Backups(!)

    Hi folks,
    If anyone can shed any light on this, I'd be eternally grateful. I had been using TM for some time to backup my personal documents and downloads. Until, that is, I got the 'There is not enough space...' error.
    "OK", I thought, "I'll do some house-keeping in a day or two and clear out some unnecessary files on my laptop's hard drive." After I did, however, Time Machine kept saying that the space required to perform the backup was 43Gb, when I had only 11Gbleft. Had I let my backup folders (previously totalling 10Gb) balloon up to 43Gb? Surely not. I looked closer at my TM backups and all I could see was a half-backup that had failed to complete. The worrying thing though is that it contained top level folders e.g. <mymac>/Applications, <mymac>/System etc. I had excluded these in the backup folders list, so why had TM tried to back them up? Why did it ignore/override my exlusions?
    Most worrying of all though, where had all my previous backups gone? My drive still showed the same capacity. If they'd been deleted, wouldn't the drive show greater capacity? So, if they haven't been deleted, where are they?
    Also, it's a little disconcerting that if TM comes to the end of a backup drive, it'll behave just like a teenager - it'll complain, then go quiet, become uncooperative and hide information from you.
    Any suggestions/things I may have overlooked?

    MrLinguaFranca wrote:
    Hmm...I reckon I have a good technical grounding but this business about 'sparsebundles' is gobbledegook to me. Also, to me the line about "A TM backup drive should be at least twice the capacity of the drive(s) backed up." is nonsense. Surely the TM backup drive should be at least twice the capacity of the chunk of data you want to back up. I have a 250Gb had drive drive but I only want to backup perhaps 5Gb of data. So, why on earth would I want to buy a portable drive of half a terabyte? So, I use a portable usb drive of 75Gb. (Of which, about 15Gb is free and used for TM).
    TM is designed to back-up your entire system, and the vast majority of folks using it do just that. And many users start out with a lot of free space, but have a tendency to put more and more data on their Macs. So it's a good "rule of thumb."
    James, thanks firstly for your response. To answer your questions, no I didn't see the backups that I had lost when I entered Time Machine afterwards. You're right, the partial ones didn't appear.
    I'm not superstitious, (just experienced I suppose), but I kept making manual backups throughout, so, fortunately, I haven't lost that much. Hence, I'm looking more for answers as to why it failed more than practical steps to recover the lost data.
    1. After it ran into trouble with disk space, why did TM try to back up items I had excluded?
    2. What had happened to all the backups PRIOR to the error? Why weren't they preserved?
    TM may have been trying to do a full backup of the 5 GB. As TM needs some workspace, that would actually require about 6 GB.
    Does TM have it's own, exclusive partition on that drive? If not, that could contribute to the problem, along with any manual deletions you may have done (you didn't answer that question, by the way).
    We may learn more with the results from your logs, via TM Buddy.
    Meanwhile, I suppose I'll try and download that Time Machine Buggy, sorry, Time Machine Buddy thing and output the results here.
    This couldn't have been what HG Wells had in mind.
    No, it wasn't what Apple had in mind, either. I suspect you've used other backup apps, and have assumed that TM is similar, which may have caused, or at least contributed to, your problems. Since you're using it in a very different way than it was designed for, you may want to reconsider either your strategy or what's the best app for it.

  • Time Machine doesn't make backups

    Hi,
    I have problems with Time Machine. I deleted by error the backup file in Time Capsule, but now Time Machine doesn't create a new one, simply it doesn't work. External disks are recognized (Time Capsule or USB disk) but it doesn't make backups, only appears the "preparing" for one or two seconds and then nothing. It's the same if I try to make backups on a external USB disk.
    I can not enter to Time Machine to see the backups.
    Looking at "Console" for the last logs there many crash reported, for example:
    18/02/09 11:59:26 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3053] Backup requested by user
    18/02/09 11:59:26 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[3053] Starting standard backup
    18/02/09 11:59:27 ReportCrash[3054] Formulating crash report for process backupd[3053]
    18/02/09 11:59:28 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.backupd[3053]) Exited abnormally: Trace/BPT trap
    18/02/09 11:59:28 ReportCrash[3054] Saved crashreport to /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/backupd2009-02-18-115926GK.crash using uid: 0 gid: 0, euid: 0 egid: 0
    Any one with a similar problem???
    Is it possible to reset Time Machine in order to restart the backups?
    I bought Time Capsule and I can't use Time Machine!!!!
    Thanks.

    magali mistral wrote:
    Hello!
    Thanks for your message. The Time Machine Buddy widget was helpful. Although I couldn't mark the text, copy and insert it here.
    You should be able to highlight them by dragging your mouse over them, then cmd-C to copy to the clipboard, then cmd-V to copy it here.
    Event store UUID don't match for Volume: Macintosh HD
    This means TM isn't sure whether the last changes to your internal HD got logged to OSX's File System Event Store, a log of all changes that TM can normally use to see what needs to be backed-up. Most commonly caused by an abnormal shutdown.
    Node requires deep traversal:/
    Reason: kFSEDBE even FlagMustScanSubDrs /kFSEDBE vent Flag Reason Deep Backup/
    Since it can't trust the Event Store, this means it has to examine every file and folder on your HD. Quite a lengthy procedure, of course.
    Then it said - I didn't copy that - something like "thinning out" isn't necessary because there was still 368 GB or so space left - 7 GB were backed up - but it did "thin out" some outdated file afterall, whatever that is - hope it didn't delete something I wanted to keep.
    All normal. TM automatically deletes it's hourly backups after 24 hours, except the first of the day, which is called a Daily backup. That is kept for a month, when a similar process converts the first of a week into a Weekly backup, and deletes the others.
    Only when the disk is near full (TM does need some workspace) will you see deletion of one or more of the oldest weeklies, instead of the first message.
    Then the next problem started. It wasn't possible to eject the external drive. I waited for quite some time but each time tried to eject it, a window opened saying that it was still in use and could not be ejected. Although it had defenitely finished doing the backup and the next one was to be done about half an hour later.
    Is there anything else on your external drive, besides TM backups? Could you have been looking at it via the Finder, when you tried to eject it?
    Try this: de-select the drive (chose the "none" icon) in TM's preferences, then quit System Preferences. Then go back and re-select it. Sometimes this resets TM's lock on the drive.
    If not, and it happens again, try turning TM off, then ejecting the TM drive. You shouldn't have to do this -- TM is supposed to let you eject it, then automatically do another backup whenever you re-connect it.
    Now that you have a good full backup, just keep an eye on it. Your incremental backups should be very, very quick under normal circumstances.
    There are a few things that may cause long backups, such as an abnormal shutdown, certain hardware repairs, not letting TM back up for several days (seems to be about 10, some say), and the use of certain apps. File Vault, Entourage, vmWare, running Windoze are a few. If you do see long backups, post the messages here in a new thread.

  • Time Machine Does Excessive Full Backups

    Time Machine used to just backup changed material on a hourly basis. It seems that recently every time I look at the progress indicator it is trying to do a full backup of my entire hard drive. Any ideas why?

    Have you recently done a restore?
    I have the same problem. I did a full restore, and TM did a full backup afterwards. This is a "documented feature". Then it did skims every hour. However, if I reboot, it does a full backup the first time after the reboot. It's done 5 full backups (50 GB each) in the past 5 days. I can't afford to shut down my Mac until I figure this out. I only have 170GB of free space on my Time Machine drive.
    Is there any way to see how big each backup is, and delete un-needed ones?
    I'd really like to figure out what causes this problem, before Time Machine starts deleting old stuff I want backed up to make room for all these wasteful new backups.

  • Time Machine Managament of oldest backups

    I have a question about Time Machine's management - and deletion - of its oldest backup versions
    I've just upgraded one of my Macs from OSX 10.8.5 to 10.9.4. Now I've re-engaged Time Machine. Before the OS upgrade, I had a two year history of Time Machine backups, after the OS upgrade TM was pretty short of space, the messages in the log indicate that it deleted about a years worth of backups, and the oldest backup is now 28 Aug 2013.
    What does this mean about files which  I have not changed since August 28 2013 -  I assume Time Machine now has no backup for those files?
    If I had known that TIme machine would have done this, I probably would have removed all the system files from the backup, and deleted their backups, probably a few other things as well. 
    Is there any setting one can make for Time Machine that will cause it to stop and ask "Do you want to Proceed" before deleting oldest backups, ore even just cause it to stop with an error message?

    Thank you Linc and etresoft. The backup finally finished, I checked some older files, and it works as you describe.
    There was even a user message after the backup stating "Your backup drive is now full, you should migrate to a larger disk". Its unfortunate it couldn't have given that message before it started to delete information; I'll send that in by Apple feedback.
    In the mean time I've turned Time Machine off until I figure out what to do about getting a larger drive.

  • Time machine sometimes fails with no space left

    Hi,
    I'm beginning to notice that sometimes Time Machine is failing to backup saying there is no space left on the Time Machine backup disk.  I'm using OS X 10.9.4 .
    My understanding is that when there is not enough space left, Time Machine will automatically delete older backups to make space? Sometimes this happens, sometimes not.
    For example:
    Aug 10 18:39:49 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Starting automatic backup
    Aug 10 18:39:50 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Backing up to /dev/disk6s2: /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb
    Aug 10 18:40:04 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Will copy (1 MB) from Macintosh HD
    Aug 10 18:40:04 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Will copy (Zero KB) from HD5
    Aug 10 18:40:04 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Will copy (Zero KB) from HD2
    Aug 10 18:40:04 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Found 64 files (1 MB) needing backup
    Aug 10 18:40:04 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: 1.74 GB required (including padding), 7.41 GB available
    Aug 10 18:40:26 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Copied 70 items (1 MB) from volume Macintosh HD. Linked 709.
    Aug 10 18:40:33 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Copied 1 items (Zero KB) from volume HD5. Linked 2.
    Aug 10 18:57:34 Barney.local backupd[9571]: Metadata.framework [Error]: server port invalidated for uid 0
    Aug 10 19:01:02 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Stopping backup.
    Aug 10 19:01:02 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Error: (-34) SrcErr:NO Copying /Volumes/HD2/Users/gj/Documents/2013.partial.mbox/mbox to /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/Barney/2014-08-10-184001.inProgress/38868 CAA-6167-40B8-8F15-BF798FADF283/HD2/Users/gj/Documents/2013.partial.mbox
    Aug 10 19:01:03 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Copied 9 items (16.82 GB) from volume HD2. Linked 21.
    Aug 10 19:01:03 Barney.local backupd[9571]: Metadata.framework [Error]: MDBackupCancel failed:-1 (4) (os/kern) invalid argument
    Aug 10 19:01:03 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Copy stage failed with error:28
    Aug 10 19:01:04 Barney.local com.apple.backupd[9571]: Backup failed with error 28: 28
    What I'm interpreting here is that initially TM says there isn't anything to copy from HD2, but then spends about 3.5 minutes copying a very large file from HD2 and then files due to being out of space.
    Why did TM not realise this file existed in the first place?
    Thanks for any help.
    Steve

    About TM "Backup Drive is Full"
    Alert TM only deletes older files if they have been deleted from the source and when TM needs space on the backup drive for a new incremental backup. Time Machine "thins" it's backups; hourly backups over 24 hours old, except the first of the day; those "daily" backups over 30 days old, except the first of the week. The weeklies are kept as long as there's room.
    So, how long a backup file remains depends on how long it was on your Mac before being deleted, assuming you do at least one backup per day. If it was there for at least 24 hours, it will be kept for at least a month. If it was there for at least a week, it will be kept as long as there's room.
    Note, that on a Time Capsule the sparsebundle grows in size as needed, but doesn't shrink. Thus, from the user's view of the TC it appears that no space has been freed, although there may be space in the sparsebundle.
    Once TM has found it cannot free up enough space for a new backup it reports the disk is full. You can either erase the backup drive and start your backups anew or replace the drive with a larger drive.

Maybe you are looking for