Time Machine Backups Too Large

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Hourly Time Machine backups are 26GB. I though only the changed files were supposed to be backed up. Anyone have any idea why the hourly backups keep trying to save 26GB. I am using Time Capsule. I am not changing that many files.
 
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Large cache of local snapshots

Must have been a large cache of local snapshots. The the back-up was interrupted a couple times due to the long duration. Currently the back-ups are sized appropriately.
 

Slydude

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Are you running any kind of virtualization software such as Fusion or Parallels? The files for these get backed up every time the virtual machine is run.

I have also seen reports that the protection files stored by some disk utilities and the Entourage e-mail database can also get quite large.
 
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Thanks for the insight. I was running Parallel at the time. I don't normally run with Parallels active. I thought that may have something to do with it. Do you know if the backup will be as large everytime I am running parallel or was it that large because I have never backed up with Parallels active before.
Thanks for the help.
Len
 
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if you are running virtual machines on your Mac, they will be one large file, several GB.
That file changes as soon as you launch the virtual machine, making it a candidate for Time Machine to backup.

In the Time Machine configuration you can exclude the folder where the virtual machines are residing and then TM will not back them up anymore.

Caution: If you have important data inside your virtual machine, that data will then also not be included in the TM backup.

Cheers ... McBie
 
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Thanks for the post. Makes sense. I will exclude Parallels since I back up what I am doing in Windows to a separate folder on an external drive.
Len
 

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