Time Machine Help

[jeditor]

I'm new to Time Machine. I have purchased a new MyBook 4TB, set it up as Apple instructs to use as a time machine and have TRIED to just target one drive for it to back up (which is a 2TB drive almost half full) when the Time Machine goes through its attempt cycle is comes back with an error saying that I have exceeded its compacity by trying to add over 5TB when I only have the half full 2TB selected. Any advice?

 

[chscag]

Are you sure that you only have one drive backing up to your Mybook and that there is nothing else on the drive? You can make sure by erasing and formatting the Mybook and starting over by backing up just the one drive.

 

[jeditor]

I really can't tell what is or isn't being backed up. When I hit "options" and delete the other drives listed (which only show a few of the many I have plugged in buy the way) and even though I only have the one drive selected, it still says 5TB+ at the bottom.

 

[chscag]

Yeah, it appears you're trying to backup more than one drive which is why you're getting the warning. As I stated above, erase and format the Mybook and start over. This time make sure you only backup your primary drive. You didn't tell us anything about your Mac though. Are you backing up drives in a Mac Pro?

 

[jeditor]

Yes, Mac Pro (old) running 10.8.5. I have tried starting over several times. It still says I have 5TB+ if I only have the 2tb drive selected.

 

[chscag]

But, did you erase and format the MyBook 4TB drive? After doing that, you'll need to reassign the drive to Time Machine and make sure it's only backing up your primary drive in the Mac Pro.

 

[pm-r]

I'd suggest deleting any and all TM "backup" settings stuff, and wipe and partition/format your backup drive and start over and use something that actually works, like CCC.






- Patrick
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[ferrarr]

In Time Machine Preferences, when you click on "Options", you get the "Exclude these items from backup" list. You need to have all drives you do not want to backup on that list, and make sure the drive you want to backup in not in the list.

Why are you only backing up one drive with Time Machine? It is not the best option for this setup.