Erasing Time Machine Backup Files

[julie.a]

Okay, bare with me. I'm not a techie by any stretch of the imagine but know my way around computers fairly well. I have time machine with an external drive attached that I use for backups. However, because of my learning curve when I first set up Time Machine I ended up with backups of my backups with backups. This means that my 2T external hard drive fills up every few days. Sigh...

I backed up everything on a different hard drive and want to totally erase what's on Time Machine and start over--I'm smarter now! ;-)

I tried just using Finder and "move to trash" but it takes FOREVER for the trash to empty once I've done that for just one backup file. I'm a senior citizen and at this rate I won't have everything off my backup drive before I die!

I there a faster way to do this? Appreciate any help!!

 

[bsamcash]

If there’s nothing else on the drive you can simply reformat it via Disk Utility. Otherwise you’ll need to use Terminal “sudo rm -rf ‘path to folder’”.

Edit: You may have to move the backup folder to Trash before it’ll let you use the command though.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I agree with the above. I would reformat your external drive using Disk Utility.

A lot of times, the Time Machine backups can be very stubborn to get deleted. Using Disk Utility will help assure you wont die before the backups get deleted.

 

[julie.a]

If there’s nothing else on the drive you can simply reformat it via Disk Utility. Otherwise you’ll need to use Terminal “sudo rm -rf ‘path to folder’”.

Edit: You may have to move the backup folder to Trash before it’ll let you use the command though.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I was able to do this...so easy!
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If there’s nothing else on the drive you can simply reformat it via Disk Utility. Otherwise you’ll need to use Terminal “sudo rm -rf ‘path to folder’”.

Edit: You may have to move the backup folder to Trash before it’ll let you use the command though.

Done! Thank you!!!!!! Very easy!

 

[KALLT]

Never ever ever move files on a Time Machine volume to trash.

If you want a fresh start → Erase the volume with Disk Utility
If you want to delete a particular snapshot → Time Machine app

 

[bsamcash]

Never ever ever move files on a Time Machine volume to trash.

If you want a fresh start → Erase the volume with Disk Utility
If you want to delete a particular snapshot → Time Machine app

Moving to the trash is fine if it’s to sudo rm -rf.