[phkc070408]

I have a Time Capsule and it is getting extremely full. I want to go into the various backups and remove files that I know I don't need. Also some files are duplicated (I had them on the desktop for a while and then relocated them to the proper folder).

Whenever I go into my Time Machine, it takes forever for the contents of a particular backup to load, if it ever loads. Usually it freezes and I have to restart the computer to get out of the time machine.

I performed ran first aid on the disk and it found a few things, but it is still failing to load my backups. It gets stuck on "Waiting."

Note that this happens on both a MacBoo Pro connected over Wifi as well as a Mac Mini connected through Ethernet.

If anyone has any ideas as to what is going on, I would appreciate it. Note that I do have another backup of everything that I keep at a remote location (in case of fire or theft) but I would like to get to the bottom of this.

Thank's in advance.

[reader50]

What kind of errors did Disk Utility report? Certain errors on TM volumes can be ignored, like "incorrect icon flag".

A full disk and heavy fragmentation is the most likely explanation. Though the HD could be failing, you can't do much about that. It may show a few GB free, but with heavy fragmentation, most of that free space will be in small KB-sized fragments. Which really slows things down.

First thing: clear some scratch space. Access it via ethernet, to eliminate any wireless questions. Use the Finder instead of the TM interface. Go to:

/(time capsule volume)/Backups.backupdb/(your computer name)/(snapshot folders)/

Go to the oldest snapshot folders, move a few to the Trash, empty the Trash. Assuming you're backing up multiple computers, you might do this step within each computer's folder. note: the Finder will take a long time to empty TM snapshots from the trash.

Repeat as needed until you've got a decent amount free, say 100 GB. Then try Time Machine again. If speed returns to normal, you're done.

If you have iDefrag and/or DiskWarrior, those would be useful to run after you have free space again. They'll also take a long time.

[phkc070408]

I have iDefrag and I attempted to run it, but the Time Capsule isn't showing as a volume. The only volumes I see are the Local Hard Drive and the Recovery Disk.