About this post:
John Williams breaks down the real process for deleting old backups from Time Machine. Hint: It ain't as easy as dropping them in the trash can.
A few weeks ago I tried to use my Time Machine-managed backup hard drive for manually backing up a hard drive that was dying on me. But to copy those files over, I needed more space. So I grabbed a handful of months-old backups and deleted them. You know, via the "Trash Can -> Empty Trash" method.
Turns out that this was entirely the wrong thing to do. Don't do this. It's bad. I had to format my Time Machine backup drive completely and start all over. Time Machine and the Trash Can don't cooperate.
The right way to do it is a little complicated, so I made a screencast to explain how it works:
Deleting backups from Time Machine without getting screwed from John Williams on Vimeo.
Thanks for the tip. Saved me a lot of frustration. Good job.
Posted by John on 01/31/10 at 9:47AM
How come no one else could make it this simple? Wish I had known before I’d moved those backups to the trash can.
Posted by Paul Gilchrist on 08/05/10 at 11:34AM
Thanks John, sure glad I found this post. I couldn’t find this answer on Apple’s website if it had bite me on the shin.
Posted by Jedi4gvn on 11/11/10 at 7:01PM
Hannah, Euphorism—when I dragged everything to the trash, I ended up having to format my backup drive and start over. Fortunately I had nothing but backups on that partition. But it was still a pain.
Posted by John Williams on 01/07/11 at 6:29PM
John,
Incredibly helpful info! Trouble is, I did the same thing you did. How do I format my Time Machine now?? Thanks!
Mike
Posted by Mike on 01/19/11 at 1:38PM
John, a million thanks, this is a real public service announcement.
Posted by Merluza on 05/07/11 at 2:06PM