time machine won't backup, it thinks erroneously that disk doesn't have enough space

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Time Machine is telling me: "This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 280.57 GB but only 250.26 GB are available. Time Machine needs work space on the backup disk, in addition to the space required to store backups. Open Time Machine preferences to select a larger backup disk or make the backup smaller by excluding files."

Actually I have 500 GB in the hard drive, but time machine doesn't see them.
Note the previous backup was done when I had the snow leopard OS, now I have mountain lion.
I tried checking the 'delete old files' box in preferences, but that didn't work.

I also tried reformatting the drive to make it compatible with lion, to no avail.

What next to use my 500 GB hard drive?
 
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Your Mac's Specs
2018 15" MBP, 2019 11" iPad Pro, iPhone 11 Pro
So you've used it previously for TM backups on SL? And you initially formatted the entire drive for use with TM? It isn't partitioned by any chance, is it?
 
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Yes, I have been using it for three years - with only minor problems. I created a single partition with the Disk Utility. I have also now finished reading about this issue - perhaps I should have done that, first. Apple is usually, in my experience, much more responsive than they appear to be with this issue. At this point, I am considering buying a backup program. A suggestion or two would be very helpful.
 
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yes it's partitioned! I just saw that. I have to remove that somehow...

Here's my Mac info: OS X
version 10.8.2
processor 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

I don;t know if I should bring this up here, but I'm a Windows person who runs Parallels on a MAC, just to enjoy MAC graphics.
 
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I can't remove the partition, or perhaps it isn't partitioned. It says

You can't resize the partitions on this disk because it uses the Master Boot Record partition scheme.

This partition can't be modified.
 
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Here's what it says at the bottom of the disk utility:

Capacity : 500.1 GB (500,104,691,712 Bytes)
Format : Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Available : 250.26 GB (250,258,661,376 Bytes)
Owners Enabled : Yes Used : 249.85 GB (249,846,030,336 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 82,956 Number of Files : 307,929
 
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more info:
Name : WD Elements 1023 Media
Type : Disk

Partition Map Scheme : Master Boot Record
Disk Identifier : disk1
Media Name : WD Elements 1023 Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : USB
USB Serial Number : 5758503145323153554D3133
Device Tree : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/EHC1@1D,7
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : Yes
Location : External
Total Capacity : 500.11 GB (500,105,740,288 Bytes)
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 0
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
 
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Hi, me again! I was able to do a complete back up last night, but after it did the backup, I got a box saying the same as before...
"This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 276.32 GB but only 254.42 GB are available.
Time Machine needs work space on the backup disk, in addition to the space required to store backups. Open Time Machine preferences to select a larger backup disk or make the backup smaller by excluding files."
Some kind of glitch with time machine? Next time I need to do a backup, should I just erase the drive like I did yesterday and start over?
 
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I suspect your external drive is still partitioned. The very fact that only 254+GB are available tells me you need to wipe the drive using Disk Utility and reformat it as OS Extended (Journaled). No partitions.

After that your first Time Machine backup will be quite lengthy, depending on how it's connected (USB, FW400, FW800, etc.). After that, if you do regular backups (daily or even weekly) they won't take nearly as long.
 
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Why would it say no partition in this list?

more info:
Name : WD Elements 1023 Media
Type : Disk

Partition Map Scheme : Master Boot Record
Disk Identifier : disk1
Media Name : WD Elements 1023 Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : USB
USB Serial Number : 5758503145323153554D3133
Device Tree : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/EHC1@1D,7
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : Yes
Location : External
Total Capacity : 500.11 GB (500,105,740,288 Bytes)
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 0
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
 

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