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Harvey · Jul 28, 2010, 10:57 AM

Hello,
I am using a 500 GB drive to house time machine which is currently full. I could be misusing the program and would like to ask a question or 2. Once my iphotos have been backed-up can I then tell TM to exclude the file in future backups? Is this causing my TM drive to fill up? Also can I simply delete the files I have been Backing up for 2 yrs and start over.

Thanks,
Harvey

ibook_steve · Jul 28, 2010, 11:57 AM

Time Machine automatically removes the oldest backups when the volume is full. You don't have to manage that yourself.

In Time Machine options, you can can of course omit any items from the backup that you want. Just click the Options button and add item(s) to the list. Eventually, though, as the backup of those photos gets older and older, the backup will be removed.

The only things that I feel should be excluded from a TM backup are large files that change a lot, such as my Parallels virtual hard drive and large database files like those created by Office Entourage. These large files can fill up your TM volume much faster.

Steve

FireWire · Jul 28, 2010, 12:42 PM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

Time Machine automatically removes the oldest backups when the volume is full. You don't have to manage that yourself.

That's what I thought, but the other day TM wouldn't backup because my drive was too full and it didn't offer to delete old backup... great

Atheist · Jul 28, 2010, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by FireWire

That's what I thought, but the other day TM wouldn't backup because my drive was too full and it didn't offer to delete old backup... great

How big are your hard drives?

FireWire · Jul 28, 2010, 01:31 PM

I don't remember right now but I think my iMac HD is 500 and my external is 750 GB (but I'm excluding a lot of thing from the TM backup so it's less than 500 GB). In the past I would get the warning that old backup were deleted but this time I didn't have the option...

OreoCookie · Jul 28, 2010, 01:46 PM

In principle, Time Machine should automatically delete old backups. You're writing that you're sure you've excluded enough stuff so that you're below the 500 GB limit. Are you sure it's enough for Time Machine to actually operate? Having space for only one backup is not enough … Are you using Entourage, for instance?

However, seeing that your backup drive is much smaller, you should think about getting a larger backup drive. 1.5 and 2 TB drives are cheap. If you have a semi-recent enclosure that takes SATA drives, you can change the drives yourself.

FireWire · 02:10 PM

I'm not sure what the requirements are for Time Machine.. My HD is 500 GB (about 400 of it is backupable) and my backup drive is 750 GB so I think it should be sufficient, as TM only backups what changed. What's strange is that it used to delete old backup but stopped suddenly. I'm not using Entourage (or any large file) but one thing that could be the culprit is that I rename my Download folder from time to time because it's containing too many items and TM backups everything again even if just the name changed.

I'm a student so I don't have the budget for a new drive in the short term, so I will just format and start my backup over.

Atheist · Jul 28, 2010, 02:27 PM

Any reason why you don't exclude your Downloads folder from Time Machine?

FireWire · Jul 28, 2010, 03:06 PM

Because I want to keep its content

I think I will have to pre-create folders (ie July 2010, August 2010) and point my default download location to the appropriate folder at the beginning of the month, so TM will not have to backup it twice! I was about to create a thread about the best strategy I should adopt for my downloading habits..

Demonhood · Jul 28, 2010, 03:27 PM

Go through and see if there is anything in the Time Machine backups (thru the application itself) that you don't care about, and have Time Machine forget it.

ibook_steve · Jul 28, 2010, 05:01 PM

Why do you change the name of your Downloads folder? Just open in list view and click the Date Modified column to see when you downloaded something. That's what I do.

Steve

Atheist · Jul 28, 2010, 05:17 PM

Originally Posted by FireWire

Because I want to keep its content

I think I will have to pre-create folders (ie July 2010, August 2010) and point my default download location to the appropriate folder at the beginning of the month, so TM will not have to backup it twice! I was about to create a thread about the best strategy I should adopt for my downloading habits..

I suggest you keep the Downloads folder as is and exclude it from Time Machine. Periodically move the items you want to keep from Downloads to a permanent location ~/Documents/2010 July, ~/Documents/2010 August, etc...

FireWire · Jul 30, 2010, 11:55 AM

The problem is, I want to keep all of it (except pehaps less than 10 files), and my folder quickly balloons to several thousands files, so I couldn't keep only one folder, as it would take too much memory to navigate, and too much time to display pictures preview. It's not that I want to keep them in chronological order, it's just that I need to split the content in multiple folders to prevent overwhelming the Finder when I navigate.