Time machine says that requires 426GB on a 120GB macbook!

Hi there, does anybody know why I am having the problem of time machine saying that it needs 426GB on a 120GB machine? I initially had the problems with "error 11" and gave up trying to fix it; so I re-formatted the time machine disk thinking I would start from scratch. Now I get the above error. Any ideas?
Thanks.

Do you happen to have another external HDD connected to your MacBook? If so, you need to exclude it from Time Machine backups via TM Preferences -> Options. Or your TM backup disk may be mounted and accidentally included for backing up.

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I have downloaded Mountain Lion and Time Machine says that my Free Agent Goflex (Seagate) external 2gb drive cannot be used as it is read only. I tried disc utility to repair permissions but that block is greyed out. The disc verifies as being OKI

Since installing Mountain Lion, Time Machine says says that my Free Agent Goflex (Seagate) external 2gb drive cannot be used as it is read only. I tried disc utility to repair permissions but that block is greyed out. The disc verifies as being OKI What next?

Ok, I solved this problem! I ejected the drive and then disconnected it both from the power supply and the USB connector. I then reconnected everything and powered it up again and Then went into TM preferences and chose the drive as the backup. TM did a new backup (well over an hour) and now works as advertised.

Time Machine says not enough room on disk

Time Machine says that I do not have enough room on my backup disk. It is a 1 TB Drive, with 992 GB available.
I only want to back up my programs and data, which, if a full backup, is 662 GB, but for some reason, I am being told that I have 2.6 TB of data to back up. I have no idea where all of this other data is coming from, is there any way I can select what I want backed up? Effectively I want to back up my boot drive, and my data drive, that's it. I do have two other drives in my tower, and they are full of data, but I do not need to back them up, and they may be what is causing the problem, but I don't know how to remove them from my backup list.
Any help or direction would be appreciated.
Thank you.

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.

HT3275 Time Machine says the backup is full, how to create more space on my time machine?

When i attempt to backup, time machine says that it does nto have enough free space to backup, how can i create enough space so that it will continue to backup?

Time Machine automatically deletes old snapshots when necessary to make room for a new one. If you're getting that message, it means that all your old snapshots have been deleted, and there is still not enough room to back up all your data. Either you must make some drastic exclusions from your backups, or you must back up to a larger destination volume.

HT201269 I just switch from a Windows 8 machine to a MacPro and when I try and sync my iPhone 5s for the first time it says that sync will erase everything on my phone because it is still synced to my old computer. Any suggestions?

I just switch from a Windows 8 machine to a MacPro and when I try and sync my iPhone 5s for the first time it says that sync will erase everything on my phone because it is still synced to my old computer. Any suggestions?

The Apple store wil do this for you.
You can call Apple support and they will help you
You can google it

Time machine says my drive is full, but it's not

time machine says my drive is full, but it's not. it is a 298 gig external drive with 51 gigs available. my internal drive on my lap top (the one I am backing up) is a 148 gigs with 44 gigs available. the backup folder on the external drive is
152 gigs.
how can i fix time machine so it can figure out that the external drive isn't full?

Lisa W wrote:
Thank you both for your replies. Something is seriously wrong with a backup program that needs that much extra space! So much for incremental back ups.
It doesn't, necessarily. We still have no information on what's going on with your situation.
It's a back up for a laptop and I would like to connect it to the backup hard drive once a week or so, but from what I read time machine only works one way... for a computer to have it active all the time.
No. It works BEST that way, but isn't required.
That just won't work for me for many reasons. Most importantly, time machine slows up my computer and I have to leave it off to run my applications.
Then something else is wrong. Again, without any details, we can't help you determine what.
There is no setting to have it turn on in the middle of the night or once per week.
Not in TM itself. But there is a free 3rd-party app that will do this, Time Machine Editor: http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/
It would sure be nice if I could back up when I want. Seems like time machine is just one of those ideas that apple didn't think all the way through.
You can. And TM works just fine for most people. There is something unusual in your setup, or the way you're doing things, that's causing your difficulties.
Let's be clear: if you'd like some help with this, please answer my previous questions and download and post the messages from the wIdget.

My external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive. Same thing has happened with Final Cut Express.

My new LaCie external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive.
The same thing happened recently between Final Cut Express and my other LaCie external hard drive used as the Scratch disk. It fixed itself.
I've run out of ideas. Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

have you done some searches on FCPx and time machine? Is there a known issue with using a TM drive with FCPx? dunno but ...wait...I'll take 60 sec for you cause I'm just that kind of guy.... google...." fcpx time machine problem" Frist page link
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/fcpx-bug-best-practices-for-using-external-hard- drives-and-final-cut-pro-x/
You cannot have time machine backups on your hard drive if you intend to use it in FCPX.
booya!

HT3275 Time Machine says my external hard drive does not have enough

Time Machine says my external hard drive does not have enough space for the current backup. It needs 34 G out of a 250G hard drive. All that is on the drive is earlier backups. I recently added memory, which may confuse Time Machine into thinking it is a new computer. How can I erase old backups and complete this one?

Walter Goodman wrote:
Time Machine says my external hard drive does not have enough space for the current backup. It needs 34 G out of a 250G hard drive. All that is on the drive is earlier backups.
See #C4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
If that doesn't clear it up, how much data is on your Mac? If TM is only trying to back-up 34 GB, it should be able to delete old backups to do that (assuming you're running Lion).
It sounds like your backups may be corrupted. Try to repair them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
I recently added memory, which may confuse Time Machine into thinking it is a new computer.
If that's all you did, no.
How can I erase old backups and complete this one?
Just erase the drive per #1 or #2 of Using Disk Utility.

Time Machine says Time Capsule Disk unavailable

     I have the exclamation point in the menubar icon and Time Machine says Time Capsule Disk unavailable even though I have backed up to it many times before. I tried unpluging/plugging in the TC, but this did not solve the problem. Any ideas?

      However, I did have a problem periodically with computers not recognizing the TC disk before I had unclicked the "Enable file sharing" box, so I might still end up using your advice if this happens in the future.
There is a bug or several of them.. losing the disk is one thing the new 7.6.4 firmware is supposed to fix.. my deeply held suspicion is that Apple are using all of us as beta testers.. as lots of people are having trouble. But who knows it may finally fix this bug.. we are awaiting confirmation. ie people saying it is now fixed.. rather than since loading 7.6.4 my TC is now dead.. or disappeared .. or broken.. or no longer has wireless output.
Lets say maybe they fixed a bug.. and added some more.
     The reason I had unchecked the "Enable file sharing" box is because I have Mountain Lion Server and wanted to use port mapping on the TC to point to my computer as a File Server. To do this I went into Airport Utility and in Network pane tried to add File Sharing to the Port Settings. However, this conflicted with the "Enable file sharing" box from the Disks pane. Do you know of a way to have time machine backups to TC but also run a File Server from a computer networked with the TC using port mapping? Thank you for any guidance.
You only need the ports forwarded to the server to get outside access.. ie remote wan access.. Did you have wan access to the TC checked.. that will cause a conflict with AFP .. since it cannot be forwarded to multiple destinations at once.
If you do not have WAN access checked then you should be able to check "enable file sharing" since that is local lan..
Try it and tell me what happens.. I have never tried the combo you are using.
I would try simply using a different method to access if that doesn't work.. eg BTMM should work fine to the Server without needing ports forwarded in the TC.. as long as the TC is the main router.. and this whole issue is only because the TC is the main router.
You can also do it with vpn.. which is more robust and more business/pro method to access a server remotely than AFP.

Why is Time machine saying backup disk disconnected? Using MBP 17" Lion 10.7

Why is Time machine saying backup disk disconnected? Using MBP 17" Lion 10.7

Do you have an external drive connected?
If you do has it gone into sleep mode? There is a setting in the OS to put drives to sleep if they aren't being used. Energy Saver "Put the hard disk to sleep when possible".
Also most external drives have a built in sleep function that if they aren't being accessed for a period of time they go to sleep by themselves.

My Time Machine says there is no backup disk available. I've never had any problems with my time machine. I'm not technologically savvy, so if anyone can help, I'd appreciate it!

My Time Machine says there is no backup disk available. I've never had any problems with my time machine completing backups. I was away from house with my laptop for about 9 days so I'm wondering if there is something I need to do now that I'm home to get it working again. I'm not technologically savvy, so if anyone can help, I'd appreciate it!
Thanks,
Jana

You can lose your ability to backup through TM for any number of reasons, but the most common is what happens after a update. If your drive still works, your best approach is to read this:
http://www.chriscolotti.us/technology/how-to-fix-osx-mountain-lion-time-machine/
The attached link contains helpful graphics, so don't worry if you're not tech savvy.

My time machine says it need more room to complete back up, how do i make more room? up

My time machine says it need more room to complete back up, how do i make more room?

Delete the old backups..
There is a reason though for this to happen. Tell us what model Time Capsule you are using and what size disk it has .. how much free space is available and how much is now required. If you upgraded to Mavericks it probably needs to do a whole new backup and simply doesn't have the space .. nor can it delete the old backup.
Please read Pondini FAQ for details of these issues.. deleting backups for example Q12
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
There is also info on how much space is required for backups.
eg Q9

HT3275 Time Machine says there isn't enough room on my external hard drive to perform a backup.

But there was until very recently. The difference is about 100 times what Time Machine says is needed, and I know I didn't add that much stuff in the course of a few days.

Derby Dave wrote:
But there was until very recently. The difference is about 100 times what Time Machine says is needed, and I know I didn't add that much stuff in the course of a few days.
Sorry I am unclear.. how much space does TM say it needs and how much is free on the TC?
Sometimes it reports wrongly.. have you reboot the whole network.. restart modem, router / TC..clients.. and test again.

Time machine says back up is too large.

I am trying to back up my iMac with Time Machine and a connected G-Drive. I have deleted many old files and in Finder I have 320 GB available. Still, time machine says: "This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 210.66 GB but only 9.15 GB are available." What to do?

Try C4 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

Recently installed a 1TB hitachi travelstar hard drive into my Macbook 10.6.8 however Time Machine says not configured hence cannot back anything up

Recently installed a 1TB Hitachi travelstar hard drive into my Macbook (13inch mid 2010) OS X 10.6.8 .
However now having problems with configuring , latest issue my Time Machine says Not Configured hence cannot back up using this device !
Can anyone help ?

You installed the new hdd with new install of Mac OS .. or did you recover your old TM setup??
If TM cannot locate the Time Capsule .. is it visible in airport utility or finder??
Are you even using a TC?? If you are using an external drive you need to spell it all out.
Time Machine may not recognise the old backup.. you can usually inherit the old one.
See B5 and B6 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Otherwise use A4.. delete the existing TM setup and reconfigure it from scratch. If you do that TM should discover and reuse the old backups if possible.. but a new hard disk might not be possible it may need to start over.

Time machine says that requires 426GB on a 120GB macbook!

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