Apple Time Capsule/Time Machine - Where did my 136GB go?
Asked by
jaytkay (
25810
)
April 8th, 2011
On an Apple Time Capsule, I changed the file sharing settings from “With device password” (where everybody uses the same password) to “With accounts”. Before the change, 136GB was in use.
I created two accounts.
The Time Capsule created two shared folder. User1 can only see the new empty folder “User1”. And User2 can only see the new empty folder “User2”.
There is still 136GB unavailable. It’s useless, nobody can see it, it’s just hogging a huge chunk of the drive.
Any ideas for recovering that space?
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5 Answers
If you don’t care about saving the contents of the 136GB, you should be able to delete it using Unix commands in a terminal window.
Hmmm. I reverted to Device Password. And apparently the 136GB is the Time Machine backup for the one Mac on the network.
From Googling around I think I can move that file to the new folder created for User1, switch to With Accounts again, and re-associate it to his Time Machine backups.
That’s what I gather from the end of this Apple support thread, beginning with “Ok, I got this working after some troubleshooting. ”
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10468643
Oh no, I hope you don’t end up going through what I just did! Being only marginally computer-literate by today’s standards, I once used FileVault (aka VileFault, now). Security = good, right? Then one day my admin account evaporated, never to return. Eventually had to completely format the hard drive, which wiped my music collection (negligible), all my bookmarks (bit of an ouchie there) and all my pictures (including the last ones of my mom… I may never get over that). Wasn’t until after all this that I found out VileFault is supposedly only for people with big security issues, aka sensitive information on their systems. (As well as laptop users in case the unit is stolen; I fall under that category.) It doesn’t play well with Time Machine. I still couldn’t give you details as to why, even after a month’s worth of adventures.
Once I got back online, I only then found out about this issue. Apparently among the Mac cognoscenti (which neither includes my mortal self nor any of the employees at the Apple Store in Roseville, CA), this has been an issue for a while. Sure would’ve been nice of someone to stick a little ReadMe in Mac machines saying “Um, if you want to actually back up your hard drive at some point, here are some possible problems with FileVault”. Guess you have to know that sort of thing by osmosis, yes?
Damn right I’m angry, bitter, etc. about it. Forget about everything else that was lost, the time it took to bring my system to something resembling normal, etc. What stings the most is irretrievably losing those pictures. A “hur, sorry ‘bout that”—blessings upon Apple for bestowing even that much—just doesn’t cut it.
Thanks @peridot, I will read up more on FileVault before I make any changes.
@jaytkay No problem, and good luck. Sorry about the rant there… :“p
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