Time Machine nearing full, but has few backups on it (?)

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I have a 1TB Time Machine that is showing 70GB of available space. My 1TB iMac has only 200GB used on its disk. I deleted a bunch of the old TM backups, leaving only about 7 of them. My understanding is the backups are "incremental", so I'm assuming they are not each 200GB.

So why would I only have 70GB available on what should be a relatively empty TM?

Could old stuff be hiding somewhere?
 

chscag

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Did you leave the external hard drive attached and mounted on your iMac when you emptied its Trash after deleting the backups you no longer needed on it?
 
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Yes, as the TM is connected via AirPort.

Plus, I had a massive number of backups in my trash that I couldn't get rid of until I disconnected the AirPort. And oddly enough, a few days later they showed up again! I disconnect the AirPort and deleted the trash and they are gone - again - hopefully for good.

However, I'm suspicious that the mostly full TM is somehow related to my trash reappearing problem. Quite the conundrum.
 

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