Hi, I have a 1TB external drive to backup my MBP. TimeMachine said it cannot be used to backup as the drive is full. I read that if I just manually move all those backup files to the trash, I will mess up TimeMachine. What is the safest way to delete all those TimeMachine related backup files in my external drive and reuse it to backup my MBP?
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Time Machine external backup drive is full. What is the safest way to delete files?
- Thread starter hajime
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time machine does not delete old backups … - Apple Community
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It does not seem to provide a solution on what to do if I have only one external backup drive.
So the idea is to buy a higher capacity exteral drive and backup the entire contents of my MBP to it.
Then, somehow delete the backups in the original smaller external drive?
I'm guessing that you have more than 500GB used on your MBP. The backup drive needs at least 2x that much space available, because it has to complete a backup before deleting an old one. You need at least 2TB for your backup drive and more would be better.
Either toss the 1TB unit into a drawer (it does, after all, contain backups); or, if you don't need the backups there, reformat it fresh and use it for something else. Not backups - not unless you manage to clean your MBP to well below 500GB used.
Either toss the 1TB unit into a drawer (it does, after all, contain backups); or, if you don't need the backups there, reformat it fresh and use it for something else. Not backups - not unless you manage to clean your MBP to well below 500GB used.
I would get a larger TM drive, as stated above and use the old 1tb drive to clone your mbp.
Get Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper (both free), for easy cloning.
Get Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper (both free), for easy cloning.
