Increasing Time Machine space WITHOUT deleting backups contents should be possible but I need help to check some details and to test this. (See text in brackets.) From the NETGEAR support information „How do I increase the capacity of the Time Machine backup on my ReadyNas OS 6 storage system?“ (kb.netgear.com/app/answers/details/a_id/23835) I know that the used backup storage is a sparse bundle image file.Using a build in command from OS X it is possible to manipulate this file. If the name of the file is foo.sparsebundle you can use commands from a terminal window like this: hdiutil imageinfo foo.sparsebundleThis will give you informations about the disk image file.If the file size is 1 GB / 1000 MB then this command will increase the size to 1500 MB:hdiutil resize -size 1500M foo.sparsebundle These steps should work: Disable TimeMachine on the Mac you are using for this steps and shut down the other systems which are using the backup volume. This protects the data of the backups because nothing should interferes with the increasing of the backup space.Connect the volume with the sparsebundle file to the Mac as described in the kb article mentioned above. (This don’t work for me. I use a NETGEAR ReadyNAS 104 with Firmware 6.6.1 together with a Mac OS X 10.11.6 and the timemachine volume is not displayed for mounting. Is there another way to mount the volume? Idea: The username and password stored in the Mac Keychain tool for time machine can be used for mounting - if the timemachine volume is displayed. )Open a terminal and „cd“ to the path /Volume/timemachine ... where you should find a file with the extension .sparsebundle (Is NETGEAR accessing the file in any way which could interfere with the next steps even if no backup is running?)Use the „hdiutil resize“ command to increase the size of the file as desribed above. (Would the user interface of the NETGEAR Firmware recognize the new size and display it correct? If not: Can this cause any problem?)You should now close the terminal and unmount the timemachine volume. Don’t forget to start time machine again. The Mac should then see the increased sparse bundle image file during the next backup and use it. Any comments welcome Mark.

Hi daMark, To be honest I am not sure if this is possible. As far as I remember, deleting the sparsebundle was our way to go. You can probably post this on our Idea Exchange for ReadyNAS. Regards,

Hi FramerV, I found that the path for the volume of the time machine backup is also stored in the Mac Keychain. I have gone so far that I already got informations about the sparse bundle image file from the command "hdiutil imageinfo".So I'll test what happens if I go trough the whole procedure.I'll post the results here. Regards daMark.

Hi daMark, Any news about the procedure that you were doing? Regards,

Yes, some. There is no solution yet.To resize the sparse bundle file was easy. The new size can be seen in the configuration dialog for time machine on the Mac - sometimes. But the additional space is not used.I am quite sure that the filesystem inside the sparse file was resized too. I asume that that there are other special structures inside of the sparse bundle file and they did not resize. I'll see what I can find out but it will take some time. Regads daMark.

Hi daMark, I see, thanks for that. I will keep the thread open for you for the meantime; in case someone can pitch in with some steps to do. Regards,

daMark

Aspirant

Jan 21, 2017

Increasing Time Machine space WITHOUT deleting backups contents

Increasing Time Machine space WITHOUT deleting backups contents should be possible but I need help to check some details and to test this. (See text in brackets.)

From the NETGEAR support information „How do I increase the capacity of the Time Machine backup on my ReadyNas OS 6 storage system?“ (kb.netgear.com/app/answers/details/a_id/23835) I know that the used backup storage is a sparse bundle image file.

Using a build in command from OS X it is possible to manipulate this file.

If the name of the file is foo.sparsebundle you can use commands from a terminal window like this:

hdiutil imageinfo foo.sparsebundle

This will give you informations about the disk image file.

If the file size is 1 GB / 1000 MB then this command will increase the size to 1500 MB:

hdiutil resize -size 1500M foo.sparsebundle

These steps should work:

Disable TimeMachine on the Mac you are using for this steps and shut down the other systems which are using the backup volume. This protects the data of the backups because nothing should interferes with the increasing of the backup space.

Connect the volume with the sparsebundle file to the Mac as described in the kb article mentioned above. (This don’t work for me. I use a NETGEAR ReadyNAS 104 with Firmware 6.6.1 together with a Mac OS X 10.11.6 and the timemachine volume is not displayed for mounting. Is there another way to mount the volume? Idea: The username and password stored in the Mac Keychain tool for time machine can be used for mounting - if the timemachine volume is displayed. )

Open a terminal and „cd“ to the path /Volume/timemachine ... where you should find a file with the extension .sparsebundle (Is NETGEAR accessing the file in any way which could interfere with the next steps even if no backup is running?)

Use the „hdiutil resize“ command to increase the size of the file as desribed above. (Would the user interface of the NETGEAR Firmware recognize the new size and display it correct? If not: Can this cause any problem?)

You should now close the terminal and unmount the timemachine volume. Don’t forget to start time machine again. The Mac should then see the increased sparse bundle image file during the next backup and use it.

Any comments welcome

Mark.

ReadyNAS Backup

Time Machine