NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Work-around: Deleting Time Machine images
Forgive me if I've missed any posts, but when I was trying to figure out how to quickly delete a Time Machine archive image on the ReadyNAS a month ago (notably, before Lion or 4.1.8 came out) I didn't see anything on point.
Deleting the archive via Finder is not only painfully slow (and you're lucky if it gives anything resembling an accurate estimate of time remaining), and rysncing an empty directory into the bundle's contents with the --delete --progress flags enabled does give a little more detail but isn't exactly speedy either. The ReadyNAS frontview doesn't give a quick option to delete the images, either.
However, it does give an option to delete shares, and moving files between folders on a given share on the ReadyNAS is quite quick. So, to delete a Time Machine bundle quickly:
1. Create an empty share on your ReadyNAS (doesn't matter what you call it, I'll call it "Delete" in this example).
2. Log in as admin
3. Mount the "c" share
4. In Finder, hit -Shift-G and go to "/Volumes/c/.timemachine". You should see bundles for whatever computers are set up to backup via Time Machine.
5. The folder for the share will be at /Volumes/c/Delete, in this example » do not try to copy it to a separately mounted share, or all the benefits of this method are eliminated. Both the folder with the time machine images and the share from Step 1 are accessible via the "c" share, so you want to access both through that mount point.
6. Move the bundle you want to delete to the folder of the share you created in Step 1 (should be /c/Delete/, in this example).
7. Log in to Frontview and delete the share from step 1.
You won't see the space reappear instantly - I'm not sure what file process the ReadyNas uses in the background to process the share deletion, but the space will be reclaimed over the course of a few minutes. The deletion doesn't require network interaction or for your computer to be on, however, and it is *far* faster than deletion via Finder or rsync.
Hope this is helpful. Be very very careful you don't delete a sparse image you're still using - there's no way (that I know of, at least) to get it back!
-Jamie
Deleting the archive via Finder is not only painfully slow (and you're lucky if it gives anything resembling an accurate estimate of time remaining), and rysncing an empty directory into the bundle's contents with the --delete --progress flags enabled does give a little more detail but isn't exactly speedy either. The ReadyNAS frontview doesn't give a quick option to delete the images, either.
However, it does give an option to delete shares, and moving files between folders on a given share on the ReadyNAS is quite quick. So, to delete a Time Machine bundle quickly:
1. Create an empty share on your ReadyNAS (doesn't matter what you call it, I'll call it "Delete" in this example).
2. Log in as admin
3. Mount the "c" share
4. In Finder, hit -Shift-G and go to "/Volumes/c/.timemachine". You should see bundles for whatever computers are set up to backup via Time Machine.
5. The folder for the share will be at /Volumes/c/Delete, in this example » do not try to copy it to a separately mounted share, or all the benefits of this method are eliminated. Both the folder with the time machine images and the share from Step 1 are accessible via the "c" share, so you want to access both through that mount point.
6. Move the bundle you want to delete to the folder of the share you created in Step 1 (should be /c/Delete/, in this example).
7. Log in to Frontview and delete the share from step 1.
You won't see the space reappear instantly - I'm not sure what file process the ReadyNas uses in the background to process the share deletion, but the space will be reclaimed over the course of a few minutes. The deletion doesn't require network interaction or for your computer to be on, however, and it is *far* faster than deletion via Finder or rsync.
Hope this is helpful. Be very very careful you don't delete a sparse image you're still using - there's no way (that I know of, at least) to get it back!
-Jamie
20 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
- When I put in the address of the ReadyNAS, it lists my shares (backup, media) but doesn't ask for any credentials.
I do appreciate your help. - You are automatically being logged in then (saved credentials or same username and password as NAS user on Windows machine).
In windows you could go to the command prompt, and use the "net use" command to delete the connections to the NAS and connect as "admin". - Well, I am at a loss. Nothing seems to be working and I am sure it is something amiss on my side.
It's late and perhaps I am just too tired.
I really appreciate all of your help, mdgm.
Thanks! - I have a question on this as well...I have trouble accessing the drive from a Windows 7 machine also. Just had an issue with TimeMachine and had to delete the sparsebundle and increase the allocated TimeMachine space. I couldn't manage to do it form my Windows machine and had to do it from my wife's mac.
I have the entire NAS "open" on my home network, (have a separate guest wifi network which is enough security for me). So there are no passwords required to connect to the NAS. Do I have to put passwords on all the shares and disable guest access to then connect to "C" as Admin to get this to work? - On Windows, you could go to the command prompt and use "net use" to delete any connections to the NAS. Then also use the "net use" command to connect as "admin" rather than as a guest.
On Mac when connected there will be a disconnect button, click it then click the button that replaces it ("Connect As") etc. - Thanks Jamie - fantastically helpful post!
- I have tried to follow these steps on my mac without success. Whenever I click connect to server it flags an error that server does not exist and file cannot be found?
I desperately need to delete some of the timemachine files and anything else that might be causing my server to be 99% full. As I'm only aware of about 400gb on a 1 TB drive. - I wasn't able to locate c drive at all. No matter what I did it would say the share doesn't exist. Anyway I recalled something I did in the past and managed to repeat.
I used NAS_NAME (AFP) and connected using the timeMachine credentials, UserName: ReadyNAS and the password you set when you set it up. This revealed the ReadyNAS share which I mounted and that contained all the TimeMachine sparsebundles.
You will only see the "c" volume if you use the NAS admin credentials when you connect to the NAS.EkDor wrote: I wasn't able to locate c drive at all. No matter what I did it would say the share doesn't exist... - You will also only see it via some protocols e.g. CIFS/SMB. You won't see it if you connect via AFP.
NETGEAR Academy
Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!
