Will deleting time machine result in lost files?

I purchased an external hard drive and connected it to time machine, however I no longer want all files on the hard drive and only selected items such as my itunes library and pictures. If I delete the folder on the hard drive that contains all the time machine files will they be erased from my computer as well (eg. documents and downloads)?
Thank you

katherinemcgetrick wrote:
I purchased an external hard drive and connected it to time machine, however I no longer want all files on the hard drive and only selected items such as my itunes library and pictures. If I delete the folder on the hard drive that contains all the time machine files will they be erased from my computer as well (eg. documents and downloads)?
Thank you
Avoid deleting the files inside the Time Machine disk via Finder.
The backups directories have many special permissions that can get you into an awful mess if you try to delete by hand. Instead use the 'Time Machine menu > Enter Time Machine'.
Navigate to your Downloads folder, select it and use the gear menu (or right click) to 'Delete all backups of …'. Repeat for other items you want to remove.
It can take a long time to remove all copies.
Personally I think a brody is right to suggest you think seriously about this before you begin. If it is your only backup I would get another disk to make a 'bootable clone' too.
You can also exclude items in Time Machines preferences, however you should not exclude too much otherwise TM is not much of a backup.

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