Time Machine Taking Up Space on Internal Drive Prior to Backup?

Hello- I have a Macbook air with an SSD. Thus, I'm quite aware of HD usage.
I've noticed my internal SSD space availability fluctuates a lot. It will go from 125GB available suddenly down to 75GB. The only reasons I can think of is a TM backup. There is nothing else that could suddenly take or add so much space.
Anyone know if TM locally stores backups before actually doing a backup or anything similar?
Thanks.

Also: Virtual Memory will use up disk space which varies in time.
Mac Virtual Memory – What it is, the Swap Location .

Similar Messages

Time Machine and missing space on lacie drive

I've got time machine all set up, but my backups keep failing. Time machine says that this is because there are only 19.2 GB available of the 149 GB on my external drive. I can only seem to find about 81 GB worth of stuff on my drive. I can't figure out what is taking up so much space. What is the problem?
-Dara

There have been a couple of posts saying that Time Machine needs twenty percent of free space on its disk. If you subtract that amount there should be approximately 38.2GB of space available for new files. I have no earthly idea where Time Machine is coming up with the 19.2 GB number. Report it as a bug through Feedback.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/
However, given that you are somewhat tight on space on your external Time Machine is probably not the best choice for backing up your 40GB of data. Unless you disconnect the disk or turn Time Machine off it will make hourly backups which will eat up the small amount of your available drive space very quickly. Also, Time Machine sometimes has problems deleting old backups to make room for new ones when the initial backup is close to taking up most of the Time Machine disk's available space.
Carbon Copy Cloner might be a better choice for you. It has the capability of doing incremental backups as well as being able to make clones.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/13260

Can Time Machine back up to another internal drive?

Does Time Machine require an external disk for back-up? I have 4 internal hard drives can I back one to another using Time Machine? If not is there another user friendly app that will back up to a separate partition or internal HD?

You can use an internal drive. Just select it to be the backup destination in System Preferences Time Machine.

Time machine only backs up one internal drive

I have a Mac Pro Early 2008 running 10.8.5 with 3 internal drives. Time machine sucessfully backs up the 600GB boot drive but has stopped working with the all important 3TB Data drive (half full). The remaining 4TB drive is for Time machine backups. Only the boot drive now sucessfully gets backed up with Time machine backups but not the Data drive.
I have tried everything I can to try to get it to work again and here are some of my steps taken:
- Checked to see if the Data drive has not bee excluded from Time machine backup options. No it hasn't been excluded.
- Check Smart Status on all drives - all good.
- Use Disk Util to verify all my drives - all good, no errors.
- Stop Time machine, formatted the Time machine backup drive and restarted Time machine. Still not backing up my data drive.
- Reset Time machine by following http://pondini.org/TM/A4.html - Still no change.
- Remove the Data drive from Spotlight indexing with Spotlight - privacy settings and then re-add it to Spotlight indexing - Now it does a full backup, but no more incremental backups are created when files on the Data drive are changed. And the full backup of the Data drive disappears from the Time Machine backup a few days later!
The Time machine logs just shows - "Will copy (Zero KB) from Data".
I have tried to follow the troubleshooting hints on http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html but can't seem to find any other clues to help me with my problem.
Does anyone else see this before and have any suggestions?

I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, they may not work as described.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
{ diskutil list; echo; diskutil cs list; } | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.

Will time machine back up a second "internal" drive?

I have a Macbook Pro "late 2008" unibody.
I'd like to eventually buy an SSD drive to use as my "boot up / programs" drive and then use my much larger conventional drive as a "data" drive which will reside where my superdrive was. Will time machine back up this second drive or is it limited to the drive it's installed on?
If it's not possible, I'd appreciate any recommendations / tips on how I would back up the second drive or an alternate back up solution to back up both drives more efficiently.

It'll backup all except items you add in the exclude options as below:

Using Time Machine to restore to new hard drive missing recent backups

On Mac Book Pro 2009 with OS X 10.5.8.
I have been backing up to Time Machine on an external drive since 2009. A few month ago I upgrade to OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
Trying to install a new hard drive and restoring from Time Machine. Just before installing the hard drive I again backed up to Time Machine.
Trying to restore from Time Machine.
Note: this link shows the screen I am on. It isn't from my computer. Just showing for display purpose.
http://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/xlarge/public/field/image/2014 /03/time_machine_select_backup.jpg?itok=G2WbV0Vu
"Select a backup. Select the Time Machine backup you want to restore. Only complete backups of Mac OS X appear in the list"
The problem is, the most recent "complete" restore point in the list is August 2011 (OS X 10.5.8). How can that be? Over the years I have checked Time Machine and I have back ups way past 2011.
What should I do?
Thanks

Daniel Greeney wrote:
So I just purchased an internal drive (separate from my system drive) to use as a Time Machine drive, for both of my computers (only one partition). Since they will be backing up every day, I will retain much more recent material in case of drive failure.
Let Time Machine back up every hour, as it's designed. That will protect you best.
My question is this - if I have a drive failure on my current internal system drive, and the internal Time Machine is intact, is it possible for me to take my external bootable backup (say 3 weeks older than Time Machine in how recently it was backed up), make a cone of that on a new internal system drive, and then use Time Machine to restore that drive to what is most current on Time Machine?
Does this question make sense?
The question makes sense until you realize that Time Machine backups contain everything you need (unless you do something silly, like exclude your system files).
Once the new drive is installed and formatted, you can restore your entire system from the TM backups faster than you can copy the clone to the new internal HD. See #14 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum. Note that you use the Snow Leopard Install disc only for the Installer on it; you don't install OSX from it.

Time machine doesn't see external hard drive on network

I have a pair of external hard drives connected to my iMac, which is connected to my 2WIRE modem/router via Ethernet. I'm using one of them as a Time Machine drive. For the past couple years, I've been backing up the laptops in the house to that Time Machine drive without fail.
Now none of the laptops (a MacBook and an iBook) won't see either external drive connected to the iMac, even though the iMac has file sharing turned on (as it always has) and both laptops are connected to the iMac via the Finder. Both laptops can see the iMac and the external drives connected to it via the Finder, but in Time Machine, when I try to select my Time Machine drive, nothing appears in the window.
I was having a problem with the Time Machine drive and had to wipe and reformat it, but I don't understand why Time Machine won't see the other external drive either, even if there is a problem with the TM drive. I recall Time Machine picking up all available hard drives as possible backup destinations, as long as they're also seen in the Finder.
The iMac has been having some OS X issues. The Finder will crash sometimes, and I have no choice but to hold down the power button to shut it down and then start it up. When it starts, it takes longer than it normally does, I assume because it's checking and/or fixing some things. However, those issues have been going on for a long time (I think I need to reinstall OS X in it, since Disk Utility finds nothing wrong; also, the hard drive in the iMac crashed about 2 months ago and I put a new one in; I then restored the TM backup to it, and the OS X issues have persisted, which tells me it's software-related, not the drive).
Also, the iMac backs up to the Time Machine drive just fine. Of course, the TM drive is connected to it locally, whereas the laptops have to get to that drive via wireless file sharing.
I did try plugging one of the external hard drives on the iMac into my MacBook, and Time Machine saw it immediately, so my guess is the issue must lie with my router and/or the iMac, but I don't know what to check next. I've restarted the iMac, I've restarted the laptops, I've turned TM on and off on the laptops, and I've turned file sharing on and off on the iMac; none of those things reestablished the connection.
I suppose I could just go with external hard drives for the laptops, but my wife moves her iBook all over the house, so I know hers won't get backed up regularly. That was the nice thing about the system I had in place, which I realize wasn't as elegant as a Time Capsule.
Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

That should say "Now none of the laptops (a MacBook and an iBook) will see either external drive..." I hate typos.
Anyway, after rereading my post, I'm starting to think I just need to reinstall OS X on the iMac, given the other issues it's experiencing. Any advice for doing that would be appreciated, if that's indeed the solution. Thanks.

Re Time Machine I have an external hard drive with files I backed up manually over the past 2 years 1TB of memory. I am finally taking the leap to use Time machine to back everything. will I have to reformat that drive, thus wiping my previous bac

Re Time Machine
I have an external hard drive with files I backed up manually over the past 2 years 1TB of memory.
I am finally taking the leap to use Time machine to back everything.
will I have to reformat that drive, thus wiping my previous back ups?
can I split it the drive in two partitions?
Also
as I have two separate Macbook Pro's- one older than the other.
OSX 10.68
the other is
OSX 10.75
can I back them up separately?
or even synch and merge files and folders etc? between the two?

You CAN use a drive with files already on it to store Time Machine backups. But long term, that is not recommended. You do not need to reformat or re-partition the drive to do this. Once Time Machine Backups are established, you could remove the old files.
But do not delete Time Machines files with the Finder -- that can cause it to lose its place and lose everything.
With the cost of backup drives under US$100, it might be a better idea in the long run to get another drive. Best results from Time Machine is a drive about 3 times larger than the drive(s) you are backing up.

Time machine can not select my internal hard drive any more.

Hi all
Time machine can not select my internal hard drive any more. I only can back up external disks. Does anyone know how to fix this?
All answers are much appreciated

I don't know the answer but I have the same thing happen. I have two external drives I use for backup. Sometimes it can see one and sometimes another. Then sometimes it can't see either one. I will take one out for a while then plug it back in and then it may see it. Maybe it's a cable issue or something but I will be curious to hear what someone more knowledgeable says.

Can I use Time Machine to archive like an external drive?

I've backed up my computer to Time Machine and everything from my computer is there, but I have a new project which needs me to archive 21 pieces of artowrk that have multiple photo images for aech, and they are large size originals. Can I upload these files to a folder in Time Machine or directly on my external drive, so I don't have to have all of these files taking up space on my main computer?

You can, but it is not recommended.
Apparently you cannot partition an existing Time Capsule volume if that is what you are using.
Excerpt from ASC contributor Pondini's Time Machine FAQ:
3. Can I use my TM disk for other stuff?
Yes. Time Machine will not delete anything you put there.
But it's much, much better to partition an external drive into 2 (or more) parts, also called volumes. Assign one to Time Machine, for its exclusive use for backups; use the other partition(s) however you want.
(Unfortunately, though, you can't partition a Time Capsule's internal disk. See #Q3 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule for some alternatives)

Time machine taking too long (indexing)

I run my time capsule to back up both of my computers
a Imac 2GHz intel core duo running 10.6.8 and
an Imac 3.4GHz intel core i7 running 10.7.4
both are connected wirelessly to the Time Capsule
Recently, on the older machine, backups have stalled. I can work on it for a while, doing disk repairs and disk permissions with the Snow Leopard installation disk utility and 'fix' it for multiple backups - and all is well. Then it stalls on 'indexing backup' again. Meanwhile, the new machine running Lion is just fine. I just noticed it again.
Last successful backup was 0517 this morning (EST) and this was at approx 1700 (5 evening). I sat at the computer and was working away when Snow Leopard became really slow and I noted that the Time Capsule was indicating indexing backup, I let it run for 45 minutes and it was still indexing backup, so I quite Time Machine and restarted at 1845 (645 evening). The restart of Time Machine allows Snow Leopard to regain its usual speed, Time machine reported a file count of 202 files that had changed and went to 'indexing backup' a half hour later it is still at 'indexing backup' (about 9 emails were received - how that relates to 202 files I am not sure)
Why does it work multiple times just fine and then all of a sudden stall? When it does stall it simply (over time I presume) eats up all available memory (1.5 gb) with page swaps each one getting bigger and bigger until all memory is gone. I can 'free memory' and recover to about 600 free (running email and browser app in the background) but the time machine does it all over again if I allow it to run.
As I said, I have used Disk Utility (with the Snow Leopard Installation disk to allow repair of the boot volume) and have repaired the disk and repaired permissions - several times. (some disk permissions are repaired - no disk repairs reported) After each time, I go back and restart Time Machine and 'poof' within an hour it performs a backup with no problems. I note that backups are performed on schedule for the next few days with no problems, and then bingo, the system is totally bogged down again, and Time Machine is stuck on indexing backup once again. I have not noticed any commonality as to when the problem occurs - sometimes after a day, sometimes after several days. And meanwhile, the Lion machine is performing flawlessly
At the moment my kludge to work around is to turn off Time Machine so as not to use up all the memory and then periodically use the installation disk routine to 'repair' (disk and permissions) and then backup, but this is NOT solving the problem long term of course.
The first time I noticed this (about two months ago) the disk repair did note a disk error the system was claiming 2 bytes less free space than there was, but after that time, all the disk repairs report fine.

Indexing can take a long time over wireless. You would do much better with ethernet connection.
Maybe the hard drive is failing.. The fact that the disk passes tests does not mean it is ok. As a disk ages it can have issues reading, where the same sector has to read multiple times.
I guess the ideal would be replace the machine.. it is several years old and really due for replacement.
Or at least the hard disk... although the cost of doing that job might not be worth it.
As a test I would do a backup using TM to a USB local disk plugged into it... that is good practice anyway when you are getting poor reliability on backups.
You can create a disk image using a other tools.. CCC or superduper.
A clone of the existing drive again can be worth it.
You can set to boot from FW drive and ignore the internal.. see if the problems go away.
Pondini is usually helpful although he doesn't have specific on this indexing issue.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Time Machine slow when backing up internal RAID

I've had some issues for some time now with Time Machine taking forever to backup information from my internal RAID in my MacPro. When I say forever, I don't think Time Machine is able to back up every hour, even if it's just doing the 44 mb backup. That can sometimes take 3 hours. I just determined today that it was specifically having trouble with the RAID. I copied a bunch of information to my OS drive, and WHAM, time machine was flying! I primarily work off of my RAID as this machine is used for video editing. The RAID is an 8tb RAID 0. The time machine volume is a GTech GSpeed 9TB RAID 5 connected via eSATA.

Bump for a monday, and hopeful for some replies.

Time Machine isn't backing up external drive

I've been using Time Machine successfully for some time now. Recently I decided to move my iTunes music to an external drive (my internal drive was nearly full.) So I moved 150+ GB of iTunes library to the external drive successfully, but Time Machine seems to completely ignore the external (FireWire) drive. It's formatted as Mac OS Extended (that's HFS+, right?) so I don't understand what the problem might be.
Also, if I can get Time Machine to start backing up both drives correctly, should I erase the backup drive and start over? Otherwise, I assume that I'm going to be wasting a lot of (backup) drive space, since the 150GB iTunes library will be backed up from its original location on my internal drive, as well as from its new location on the external drive… what's the best way to deal with that?
Thanks in advance for the help.

Dave Troup wrote:
If V.K.s suggestion doesn't work, try excluding the drive, quitting System Preferences, then removing the exclusion.
Also, if I can get Time Machine to start backing up both drives correctly, should I erase the backup drive and start over? Otherwise, I assume that I'm going to be wasting a lot of (backup) drive space, since the 150GB iTunes library will be backed up from its original location on my internal drive, as well as from its new location on the external drive… what's the best way to deal with that?
You may not need to. TM will, eventually, delete it's copies of anything not still on your internal HD. When is just a question of how soon the TM drive/partition gets near full, and TM must start deleting your oldest "weekly" backups. You are supposed to get a message about that, if you have the appropriate box checked in TM's Preferences, but several folks here report they never did, so assume nothing.
Still, if you want, you can delete all the backups of a file or folder. Enter Time Machine, find and select the folder in question (presumably iTunes on your internal HD) in one of the "cascade" of Finder windows, then click the "gear" icon. That will give you an option to +Delete all backups of <folder>.+
You'll then get a confirmation prompt (may take quite a while, considering the size), then the usual place to enter your Administrator's password. The actual deletion will probably take quite a while, also. There was a report the other day that the item was still visible for quite some time after TM seemed to have finished the deletion, but eventually it did disappear.
Then make some change to the folder, or something within it, so TM will consider it changed and back-up the new (smaller) version.

Time Machine formatted itself on my external drive despite pressing "Don't Use"

I have an external hard drive that has been in use on/off for years. I even had backups on it (not using Time Machine). I mounted this hard drive, it was taking a while to mount. A prompt came up to ask if I wanted to use this drive as a time machine backup. I said "Don't Use". It hanged. Meanwhile, I opened disk utility twice. Both I had to force quit. After a while I relaunched finder.
Assuming it would cancel the time machine prompt. Only when did the finder eventually relaunch that the drive mounted to see that all my files where gone and looking in Thermal under ls -a to see their we're spotlight and time machine files along with some oddly named thing. About 1GB Is in use on the drive(I had much more that a gig on it). It is a TB drive
Here is the output from the ls -a on the volume
._.com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent
.com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent
.Spotlight-V100
.fseventsd
.Trashes
USBCˆö?␀.␀€␀
._.Trashes
Anyway would a tool like this (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) help get back my files and format back to what I had previously? Or I am going in the wrong direction? What should I do?
Thanks. If you have any questions please reply below

Thank you Thomas,
I should have mentioned that the drive is formated as FAT32 and I ran verify disk on the drive and this error keep coming up until I stop the process :
"2013-02-16 12:06:23 +0000: / has entries after end of directory
2013-02-16 12:06:23 +0000: Truncate? no
2013-02-16 12:06:23 +0000: Extend? no"
Will the tools mentioned in you post work with FAT 32? I am looking at Data Rescue 3 becuase of the FileIQ functionality since I know I have obsure file formats on there
Does this help or it is irrelevant?

Hallo ,why is it that when I delete a photo ,which is backed up by time machine and western digital external hard drive , that I am able to restore the photo okay but not the titles and descriptions . I have a Macbook 4.1, mac osx 10.5.8 . Iphoto 7.1.5 ,

QUESTION.
Hallo , my question is ;whenever I delete a photo and restore it through Time machine and Western digital external hard drive , I am able to restore the photo but not the titles and descriptions . Western Digital inform me that it isn't their external hard drive problem and suggest that it is an Apple software problem ?
I am using a Macbook 4.1 , with Mac OSX 10.5.8 . I photo 7.1.5 , last modifie4d 01/05/2010 -universal . Should I be upgrading Iphoto ?
I hope that someone is able to help in this matter , as i have to restore 12000 photos !
Thanking you in anticipation.
Alan from Wigton

Hallo Kieth ,
I am not quite ready to restore the full iphoto library , as I have days of work re - imputting titles,descriptions and enhancement . I hope that your suggestion works , as I use my Macbook basically to work with digital photography. Through time , I will need to delete my library to recover more disc space and I would hate to have to spend more time re - imputting titles and descriptions all over again .
Thanks for your interest and advice.
regards - Alan

Time Machine Taking Up Space on Internal Drive Prior to Backup?

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