Need Help with Deleting Old Time Machine Files

I recently had a Time Machine external drive go dead on me, but before it completely died, I copied a bunch of backups.backupdb files and because I didn't know any better, I simply moved them into a spot within my user directory. Anyway, I've decided that I don't really need those files (15 backup folders) and my new Time Machine drive is filled to the brim (990GB of 1TB) backing up 300G on my root HDD. I have no way of knowing how big those 15 folders are because I can't simply call up INFO and get a size... it calculates for hours.

So... I went into the Time Machine utility and pointed at the 15 folders and asked it to delete them. Its been just over 24 hours now and there's no progress that I can see. The directory looks the same... the folders are highlighted in yellow. I'm tempted to simply move them to the TRASH, and then empty the trash permanently. I don't need anything from those folders and otherwise, my iMac seems to be running just fine.

Before I make the move, I figured I'd ask for some advice and maybe figure out why the files are _not_ being deleted or why there's no progress bar or notification that something is taking place. I'm also wondering how much of my new TM Drive is being used to "save" those files and how to make sure I can eliminate them.

I have a 1 TB WD (actually 2 TB but i have raid 1 set) for my time machine backup. every few months something goes wrong. Actually, as i type this i am back to my first backup on my TM since I started getting an message saying my TM backup file was "read only' and the backup failed. (this happened right after my system upgrade to the Apple Store) . I reformated the drive and started over. I am exposed without a backup for the 15 or so hours it takes to make the first backup, but i have no choice. Well yes, i do since i am buying a second WD drive to switch TM between machines. I too had a drive go bad 25 years ago and i am still paranoid about backups. (i have 562GB to backup to TM)

I have Carbonite going but its going to take about a year to get the first backup. what a waste of time that is. its starts out 4GB a day but slows down after 125GB or so to a crawl. its not my system, its an undocumented feature according to the helpdesk at Carbonite. I even offered to pay more to increase my backup speed. (i have 422GB in my user file that i am trying to put in the cloud. its been backing up since November 7 and only 159GB have moved)

So you think my mac _is_ deleting the files? At a snail's pace?

Try SuperDuper. The registered version used Smart Backup and a weekly backup of all your files will take less than twenty minutes. Time Machine does not impress me for one.

I'm just trying to _delete_ old unwanted TM files that I have no use for. I just wish TM had a progress bar that showed exactly that... the progress of the deletion process. I am tempted to just reformat the TM drive and start over since I just installed it about 10 days ago. Would super Duper go into TM and properly delete files that I select?