I have TM on a 4T drive. It has used 3.7T of that drive. I moved from
Mojave to Catalina 4 weeks ago and it has been "Preparing backup..."
ever since.
Yesterday, I ran First Aid on the TM drive and it found many link
errors and reported successful correction. It has now spent 24 hours "Preparing backup..." One guess why it takes this long is that it
creating a new inventory file for comparison to my internal drive for comparisons and identifying which file to backup; the drive is huge so
it is taking its sweet time.
** My question is this: Can I "slim" the TM repository? It is 3.7T and
goes back to Auguest 2018. I don't need all that. Can I simply go to
the oldest folders and delete half of them? If not, is there an
appropriate way to lose the oldest full year of backups?
On 2020-12-18 19:31:05 +0000, gtr said:
I have TM on a 4T drive. It has used 3.7T of that drive. I moved from
Mojave to Catalina 4 weeks ago and it has been "Preparing backup..."
ever since.
Yesterday, I ran First Aid on the TM drive and it found many link
errors and reported successful correction. It has now spent 24 hours
"Preparing backup..." One guess why it takes this long is that it
creating a new inventory file for comparison to my internal drive for
comparisons and identifying which file to backup; the drive is huge so
it is taking its sweet time.
** My question is this: Can I "slim" the TM repository? It is 3.7T and
goes back to Auguest 2018. I don't need all that. Can I simply go to
the oldest folders and delete half of them? If not, is there an
appropriate way to lose the oldest full year of backups?
Though I don't completely trust the "whatever you find in Google"
because I don't know whether issues and solutions have changed since it
was posted, it seems that this is safe to do. So I'll give it a shot.
On 2020-12-18, gtr <xxx@yyy.zzz> wrote:
On 2020-12-18 19:31:05 +0000, gtr said:
I have TM on a 4T drive. It has used 3.7T of that drive. I moved from
Mojave to Catalina 4 weeks ago and it has been "Preparing backup..."
ever since.
Yesterday, I ran First Aid on the TM drive and it found many link
errors and reported successful correction. It has now spent 24 hours
"Preparing backup..." One guess why it takes this long is that it
creating a new inventory file for comparison to my internal drive for
comparisons and identifying which file to backup; the drive is huge so
it is taking its sweet time.
** My question is this: Can I "slim" the TM repository? It is 3.7T and
goes back to Auguest 2018. I don't need all that. Can I simply go to
the oldest folders and delete half of them? If not, is there an
appropriate way to lose the oldest full year of backups?
Though I don't completely trust the "whatever you find in Google"
because I don't know whether issues and solutions have changed since it
was posted, it seems that this is safe to do. So I'll give it a shot.
A much better way is to use the tmutil command-line tool:
# tmutil listbackups
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-04-24-022255 /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-05-01-103150
...
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-12-18-143907 /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-12-18-164020
# tmutil delete /Volumes/Time\ Machine\ Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-04-24-022255
tmutil: delete requires root privileges.
# sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/Time\ Machine\ Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-04-24-022255
Deleting: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-04-24-022255
Deleted (1.2G): /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-04-24-022255
Total deleted: 1.2G
On 2020-12-19 01:44:04 +0000, Jolly Roger said:
On 2020-12-18, gtr <xxx@yyy.zzz> wrote:
On 2020-12-18 19:31:05 +0000, gtr said:
I have TM on a 4T drive. It has used 3.7T of that drive. I moved from
Mojave to Catalina 4 weeks ago and it has been "Preparing backup..."
ever since.
Yesterday, I ran First Aid on the TM drive and it found many link
errors and reported successful correction. It has now spent 24 hours
"Preparing backup..." One guess why it takes this long is that it
creating a new inventory file for comparison to my internal drive for
comparisons and identifying which file to backup; the drive is huge so >>>> it is taking its sweet time.
** My question is this: Can I "slim" the TM repository? It is 3.7T and >>>> goes back to Auguest 2018. I don't need all that. Can I simply go to
the oldest folders and delete half of them? If not, is there an
appropriate way to lose the oldest full year of backups?
Though I don't completely trust the "whatever you find in Google"
because I don't know whether issues and solutions have changed since it
was posted, it seems that this is safe to do. So I'll give it a shot.
A much better way is to use the tmutil command-line tool:
# tmutil listbackups
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-04-24-022255
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-05-01-103150
...
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-12-18-143907
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-12-18-164020
# tmutil delete /Volumes/Time\ Machine\
Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-04-24-022255
tmutil: delete requires root privileges.
# sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/Time\ Machine\
Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-04-24-022255
Deleting: /Volumes/Time Machine
Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-04-24-022255
Deleted (1.2G): /Volumes/Time Machine
Backups/Backups.backupdb/services/2020-04-24-022255
Total deleted: 1.2G
Duly stashed. I assume this keeps me from having to "empty the
trash"[?] After deleting a score [of] months, I find I must also empty
the trash. It's been emptying all day and is currently beyond
2,000,000 and gives every indication of deleting files through the
night.
What maks it a better way? Does the "tmutil delete" command preclude
the trash emptying? That would have been handy.
An other benefits to this method over deleting via the finder?
| Sysop: | Gate Keeper |
|---|---|
| Location: | Shelby, NC |
| Users: | 718 |
| Nodes: | 20 (0 / 20) |
| Uptime: | 37:39:43 |
| Calls: | 9,178 |
| Calls today: | 26 |
| Files: | 5,288 |
| D/L today: |
355 files (206M bytes) |
| Messages: | 465,858 |
| Posted today: | 4 |