Backup Question: Time Machine & CCC

[Hrothgar]

I'm using a 3 Tb external drive to store old media files and for backup. I've partitioned it to 750 gb for media and a 2.25 Tb partition for backups, which I've named "Time Machine".

I have Time Machine send backups to the Time Machine partition. I also use Carbon Copy Cloner every few months to clone my Mac's internal HDD into the same "Time Machine" backup partition.

It's now telling me that the backup partition is completely full.

When I look at the partition, I can't tell what folders are for what. Are all the Time Machine backups in "backups.backupsdb"?

There are other folders: CCC Safetynet; Applications, Docs, Incompatible Software, System, etc. Are these all part of the CCC backup?

Should I just delete a bunch of the old Time Machine backups?

 

[chabig]

You should never delete Time Machine files. Time Machine manages the space automatically. If I understand, you have a 750GB Time Machine partition that is now full. You don't have to do anything. Time Machine will manage it by deleting the oldest backups. See http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

 

[MacManiac76]

You should never delete Time Machine files. Time Machine manages the space automatically. If I understand, you have a 750GB Time Machine partition that is now full. You don't have to do anything. Time Machine will manage it by deleting the oldest backups. See http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

The 750 GB partition he has is for media. The 2.25 TB partition is for Time Machine and CarbonCopyCloner, which I think is a big mistake to have both on the same partition. One program could potentially corrupt data for the other program. My suggestion would be to create three partitions: Media, Time Machine, & CCC Backups.

 

[jbarley]

The 750 GB partition he has is for media. The 2.25 TB partition is for Time Machine and CarbonCopyCloner, which I think is a big mistake to have both on the same partition. One program could potentially corrupt data for the other program. My suggestion would be to create three partitions: Media, Time Machine, & CCC Backups.

IMHO it is better still to have the TM and CCC backups on separate HDDs.
Having them both on the same drive, even in different partitions is a disaster waiting to happen, should the drive fail you've lost all of your backup options.

 

[Fishrrman]

Your CCC backup belongs on its own drive, or at least on its own partition. The whole point of CCC is to create a BOOTABLE backup drive.

You DON'T want to "mix it up" on the same partition with a TM backup.

 

[Hrothgar]

Thanks. I'll delete all the folders other than backups.backupsdb.
I do have another external drive with a CCC backup, which I keep at the office.
I'm not sure why I wanted to do CCC and TM on this drive. I guess it's not necessary.
But I once tried to resinstall onto a new drive from TM, and it was a bit of a mess.

 

[Hrothgar]

I'm not sure how to delete the CCC backup. My backup disk had the backups.backupsdb folder -- which I think contains the time machine backups.
But it also had these folders: CCC Safetynet; Applications, Docs, Incompatible Software, System, etc.

I moved them all to trash. When I tried to empty the trash, I got a message that some files were locked and some were in use. This doesn't make sense to me. But I don't want to do anything stupid. Should I just delete these? How do I know if I need them for something?

 

[MacManiac76]

All of the Time Machine backups are in the Backups.backupsdb folder. The other stuff must be from CCC. Just to be safe, check the contents of the other folders and make certain nothing in there is possibly stuff you might need, especially in the Docs folder. The contents of the Safetynet folder should be files that have changed between backups using CCC.

 

[Hrothgar]

It's odd. I check the folders that I moved into the trash from the back-up Time Machine Drive.
Under System>Library, there are a bunch of folders -- some of which are dated as having been modified today.
If I look in my regular library (option-Go), there are many folders, but they're all different.

Is it possible that CCC copied certain Library files to my backup drive? How do I know whether I need these files?

 

[MacManiac76]

Since you have a Time Machine backup those CCC files are redundant. Just go ahead and delete them and create a new CCC backup on a new partition.

 

[Hrothgar]

My concern is that the folders in on backup disc are not the same as the folders on my regular HDD. On one hand, I assume they're not necessary because I often disconnect the backup drive from my computer -- and the computer still works. But it seems odd to me that I would have backup system/library folders that I don't have on my main system.

And why, when I try to emtpy these folders from trash, would I get a message that some are locked and some are in use?

Am I just over-thinking this?

By the way -- does CCC work by recreating the folders on the backup disc? Is that normal? I can't find any explanation on CCC's site.

 

[MacManiac76]

I think you are certainly overthinking this. CCC's job is to create a bit-for-bit exact copy of your drive so it will be bootable should you ever need it to be. I am not sure why the files/folders are locked or say they are in use. Possibly that is what CCC does to the files/folders so you don't accidentally delete them. Go into CCC settings and adjust the Safetynet settings so it no longer keeps the old files and only the most up to date backup, which is really how it is meant to work. Since you have a Time Machine backup also you really don't need the Safetynet features.

 

[Hrothgar]

Thanks. There was one file in the "system" folder on the backup disc. I copied that onto the Mac's hard drive, and then I was able to empty everything else out of the trash.