Time Machine

[Diver]

I have been using Time Machine to back up to an external HDD for the last few months but it now says that the disk does not have enough space to make the back up. When I check the HDD it only shows 212gb of the 500gb I know it to be and when I try to delete the old back ups the space they took up does not become available - it removes the files but not the space they took if you see what I mean.

I thought that Time Machine deleted the oldest back up each time it made the latest one? Has my HDD been partitioned by Time Machine?
How do I delete files from an external disk or card using a MAC as I seem to be not able to do so?

Please can someone help a VERY new MAC user who is wondering why I made the switch from the dark side now...

 

[Kaveman]

If it is a network volume you put them in the Trash and then it will ask do you want to delete them immediately you say Ok and they are gone.

If they are on a local volume, like a Flash Card, you put them in the Trash, then Finder Menu > Empty Trash.

Are you sure it said that I couldn't make more backups, that message normally says that its going to begin purging the older files. Its just letting you know you are now loosing files.

Deleting Files in Time Machine does nothing as they are just Alias to the original, you don't want to do that as you may have messed up its indexing. How did you do it?

 

[Diver]

If it is a network volume you put them in the Trash and then it will ask do you want to delete them immediately you say Ok and they are gone.

If they are on a local volume, like a Flash Card, you put them in the Trash, then Finder Menu > Empty Trash.

Are you sure it said that I couldn't make more backups, that message normally says that its going to begin purging the older files. Its just letting you know you are now loosing files.

Deleting Files in Time Machine does nothing as they are just Alias to the original, you don't want to do that as you may have messed up its indexing. How did you do it?

When I try to back up it says" This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 289.16 GB but only 270.63 GB are available."

It now shows in Finder 2 drives - 1 called Untitled which is 227GB and one called Time Machine which is 272GB.

When I tried to delete the files in the exHDD all I did was to send them to the trash but as I say they never actually deleted them from what I can see.

How can I format the drive and start again?

 

[Kaveman]

It sounds like you've partitioned the drive, and doing a first time TimeMachine backup. And that is too big for the Partition .

If the drive is locale (not a TimeCapsule) the you have to choose Empty Trash from the Finder Menu.

Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
You don't want 2 Partitions else you'll never get your backup on there.