Yes, clear the space and start a new one. From time to time, TM does this and a new one needs to be created from scratch. If you have sensitive data backed up, it's always a good idea to get at least ONE MORE drive in the TM mix as the odds in both getting corrupt at any one time is much lower.
For example, let the Synology NAS be one TM backup and then maybe a locally attached drive be another. Set both up as TM backups and TM will alternate the backup schedule. If you are using the defaults, instead of backing up to only the Synology each hour, that will switch to every 2 hours and the locally attached TM drive will get the hours in between. By this method,
you'll have 2 full backups at any given time... but one full backup (still available) at a time like this.
I have a Synology TM backup too. I go ONE more (drive) with the above, so that's:
- Synology for one TM backup
- a LAS (locally attached storage) for another TM backup AND
- another LAS that is recently TM backed up but stored offsite.
I regularly rotate #2 & #3 so the offsite drive is always a pretty fresh backup. For me, the timing that is right is monthly.
Why do this? The fire/flood/theft scenario that would be likely to take out both #1 and #2 and your Mac(s) at the
same time. #3 would allow me to recover almost everything. Worst case would be one of those kinds of events on approx. day 29, such that I couldn't recover the last month's worth of new/updated files. However, I tend to store very recent stuff in a "cloud" (Dropbox or iCloud free space) as well as regularly synching new files between Desktop and Laptop too... so even day 29 would not be a disaster for me.
That may seem like a lot but adding at least ONE more TM drive to
your backup setup would be huge for you. And if you can swing a #3 drive to have one more freshly backed up and stored offsite, you would be extremely unlikely to lose your files in just about
ANY scenario. Big storage is dirt cheap.
2 more tips if you are interested:
- get MORE storage than you think you need. I suggest the X3-X4 "rule" which is basically this calculation: tabulate all of the total storage of all Macs at home that you want backed up and multiply whatever that is by 3 or 4 times. For example, if the tally of a couple of household Macs was 4TB, you should seek #2 & #3 capacities of 12TB-16TB. Having abundant TM storage means the other HALF of the benefits- the ability to go "back in time"- is abundant too... vs. getting just barely enough storage and having very little "back in time" capability. TM is not only about a backup... but also this ability to go back up to many versions of backed-up files if necessary.
- while many push SSD for TM storage, the money you sink into bigger storage SSD can buy far more HDD storage. And TM is perfectly fine on HDDs. Put the same money towards much more storage. TM doesn't care at all.
