[Ham-Mac] Manual Deletion of Older OS X Time Machine Backups

[Bob Nielsen]

I needed to reconfigure the drive I used for Time Machine several months ago.  I just reformatted it and immediately ran a time machine backup.

I made a backup installation DVD of Lion and am very happy that I did.  I was deleting some old stuff (PPC binaries, etc.) and unfortunately deleted /private (which you only see from a command-line terminal, not the GUI, but actually /etc, /tmp and /var are symlinks to /private/etc, /private/tmp and /private/var).  After a few appropriate curses I booted from the DVD and the first option it offered was to restore everything from Time Machine.  In about 2 hours I was back in business.  I learned a lesson there and have come to really appreciate Time Machine!

Instructions for creating the installation DVD are at:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20080989-263/how-to-create-an-os-x-lion-installation-disc/

Bob, N7XY

On Jul 21, 2011, at 9:44 AM, Dick Kriss wrote:

> This is not a ham radio related posting but it something I have been thinking
> about and would like to know how others feel.
> 
> The Apple Time Machine has been working great and has saved my six a number
> of times.  The problem or issue is my external Time Machine drive is full. If the
> Time Machine determines it needs more space, it tosses the oldest backup.  The
> only problem is the Time Machine it takes forever to ditch the old stuff to make 
> room for the new stuff. 
> 
> I have wondered what would happen if I just opened the Time Machine backup
> hard drive in the Finder and trashed some the older backups?  To me this would be
> faster; however, I worry that manual deletion could screw up the Time Machine's 
> index to go back and restore when needed.
> 
> Has anyone manually trashed some of the older ™ backups?
> 
> Dick  AA5VU
> 
> Ps: Just noted something in the new OS X 10.7 version of Apple's Mail (v5.0)
> that I do not recall in the previous version. When I type the letters "T and M"
> as an abbreviation for Time Machine, it shows up as a Trade Mark ™. 
> 
> 
> 
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