[Tyinturru]

(If anyone feels this thread belongs somewhere else, please feel free to move it)

I have a bit of a problem. I'm rather new to Macs but I'm loving every bit of my new Macbook Pro. My problem is this:

I bought a 500GB hard drive (Seagate FreeAgent) for Time Machine and such, and formatted it for the Mac only format (no idea why I did that but I did) but I never partitioned it. So now after a year Time Machine has completely filled up my hard drive with back ups and just now I realized that it is intended to do just this.

The only problem is that I don't want the whole drive to be backups, as now my internal HD is full and I need a place to store video. I've already got a good amount of media stored within the same area as the Time Machine backups.

Question: how do I fix Time Machine to only take up say, 250GB for backups, partition my drive for both backing up and storing files (if it's possible I'd like to share files occasionally with a PC) and not totally screw up my computer and all my backups?

Sorry to be so wordy but I need help fast...

[Big Mac]

The easiest way to do what you need to do is to get another drive. Hard drives are cheap; even 1TB drives are selling for $99 now. The only way to limit Time Machine's backup space is to partition the drive, like you wish to do. You can, however, delete superfluous Time Machine backups if you can find the files you no longer need backed up. Otherwise, buy a 750GB or 1TB drive, partition it, setting aside 500GB or more for Time Machine, clone the Time Machine partition to that new drive using Disk Utility, and then you're done. The other partition is free for your other uses. And that way you also have the first drive free so that you can either keep it as a second Time Machine drive or reformat and use it for other purposes. Also, the reason why you used Mac formatting on the drive is because it's the preferred Mac format, and it's the required format for Time Machine drives. There should be a way to configure Time Machine to stop using disk space at a certain point, but Apple hasn't decided to make Time Machine very configurable yet.

[turtle777]

I second Big Mac's post.

Just buy another drive (1TB), then move the TM volume to the 1TB drive, and then use the 500GB drive for additional data.

-t

[Tyinturru]

Thanks for replying so soon!

I will do what you suggested but on a smaller scale. I'm 17 and I don't have time for a job so buying another hard drive is sorta out of the question. However, my sister just got a 160GB drive which she hasn't used yet so I may be able to borrow it, scale down and move my backups to her drive, reformat mine and then move it all back.

I don't think there's really anything important that is backed up through Time Machine, pretty much everything I need or have ever needed is on my internal drive. So now I'm just not sure how to go about deleting my old backups. Are they all just exact copies of my system or what? I'm somewhat confused by the whole functioning of Time Machine.

Thanks

[mduell]

Delete some backups until you have the amount of space free that you want and then non-destructively repartition the drive.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Delete some backups

If that's not particularly helpful:

One way to do this is to go into Time Machine (the backwards-clock thing on the Dock) and, going back through time, selecting folders of stuff it backed up over time that you won't be needing ever again, or that you know you have elsewhere, and selecting "Delete all backups of this object" from the little tool button-menu thingy.

[Tyinturru]

Could you maybe give me instructions on how to non-destructively partition? I assume that means not moving any of my stuff?

There are folders on my hard drive of different backups... can't I just delete those? I'm afraid to delete anythig before I'm sure it won't ruin the whole system.

[Tyinturru]

And where is the "little tool button-menu thingy"?

[Spheric Harlot]

See that little cogwheel icon in the toolbar (not the button marked red; this is not my image)?



When you're in Time Machine, that gains a menu option "Delete all backups of this item".

[Tyinturru]

Okay so if I delete all backups of that item, will it be backed up again fresh next time I run a backup?

I'm confused with this part of Time Machine... when it backs up is it copying my entire internal hard drive multiple times or just copying the new things? It seems like the whole backup file on my external hard drive shouldn't be that much bigger than everything on my computer plus some of the stuff that I've deleted.

[Spheric Harlot]

When you look through the folders on the disk, it *looks* like there's multiple copies of everything. That's just a trick, though, that allows a single object to live in multiple folders at the same time, yet exist only once, physically.
Except that Time Machine *will* keep different *versions* of your documents.

Remember, Time Machine is meant to be looked at through the Time Machine interface or the "restore machine from Time Machine backup" option during a reinstall, not the Finder.

So it copies everything ONCE onto the backup drive, and after that, it only copies everything that's changed.

If you have, say, a downloads directory with a bunch of torrents in it: those will get written over and over and over and over and over again, because every hour, when Time Machine begins its backup, a couple of bytes will have changed. If that torrent file's two GB, then that's two GB filling up your backup drive *every hour*.

If you're using Entourage instead of Apple's own e-mail, address book, and calendaring apps, everything lives in a single huge file. Every email and every calendar date that's updated or deleted will cause that entire stupid databank file to be backed up AGAIN. Hour by hour by hour.

You can exclude directories from being backed up in the Time Machine System Preference pane, under Options.

[Tyinturru]

Thanks for the help, I think I've got it all figured out.

[angelmb]

You may find TimeMachineEditor useful… as long as you can live without the hourly backup process.

[Tyinturru]

Ok actually I still need to know- is there a way to partition without moving any data?

[Big Mac]

There are non-destructive partitioning utilities. Disk Utility can do it to some extent. But how much free space do you have left on the drive?

[Tyinturru]

Right now I have roughly 200 gigs (after deleting and moving stuff). I think that 200 gigs just for Time Machine to run on is enough for me unless you have some reason why I should give it more. I'm planning on doing more video work with this drive so I want to have more than half available.

[Tyinturru]

I was playing with Disk Utility and I think I see how I can do this. Thanks for the help.

[ophiochos]

you could, if you're struggling, create a disk image in Disk Utility to be almost the spare room you have in total (see File menu). Then you could mount that disk image to put your videos on by double-clicking it. That would reserve the 200 or so gigs quickly and easily and Time Machine would start deleting old backups to make more space.

HTH and welcome to Macs...

[Tyinturru]

Thanks, ophiochos I might actually do that instead.

My attempt at a non-destructive partition was pretty disappointing. If anyone knows how to do that please give me some directions.