Time machine says back up disk doesn't have enough room?

use to work no problem, now this... any help is appreciated.
macbook pro (late 2011, mavericks, 500gb HDD)
back up drive lacie and 500gb

I have had this problem with time machine on OS X Lion also.
About your only options are to Erase that drive then make a new TM backup or buy a new larger external drive.
Time machine is supposed to delete older backups to make room for new ones but in my experience that doesn't happen with the Lion TM system. Eraing the drive was what I had to do.

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