Time Machine Backup Not Completed

[Todd's keyboard]

Probably should have anticipated this.

My Time Machine Backup can no longer be completed. The external hard drive (2.5 TB) used to back up a 0.5 TB SSD is full. A Get Info says there is 483.13 GB available.

I assume if I switch to a larger (say, 4 TB) drive for a Time Machine backup, I should be good for a while longer. I also assume that I'll lose all of the information stored on the current, 2.5 TB drive.

Should I clone the current drive to the new, larger drive before designating the larger drive to be the new Time Machine?

Can I just start using the newer Time Machine today? Will I still have access to any data from the soon-to-be decommissioned drive (just by re-connecting it, if necessary)?

thanks, Todd's constricted keyboard

[tronnei]

Time Machine is supposed to delete older backups as needed, so it should never quit because of a full drive.

But I've seen it happen before. Time Machine is great, but can be flaky.

[mattkime]

I'm confused, is the drive doing anything other than TimeMachine backups?

Its possible that you need to wipe the existing backup and start over.

[Todd's keyboard]

I'm a bit confused, as well. I thought this drive was set up to be a dedicated drive to just back up the internal, SSD of the Mac Mini. On closer inspection, I saw that it was also attempting to make back ups of other, external drives.

This is my week of humble pie. TGIF

I'm finding out that assumptions I've been making have been false. (screw size and how Time Machine works) Fortunately, I've got a small bit of good news to share. (foreshadowing of future post, need to finish my devoirs first)

Todd's key-lime-pie board

[jdc]

yes, you can move your TM to another drive.

Yes, unless you specify otherwise, the default is to backup all drives connected.

[NewtonMP2100]

....Antikythera mechanism.....