Repair a Time Machine error after restoring from Time Machine

Nov 03, '09 07:30:52AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

After restoring from a Time Machine backup, I ran into this error when Time Machine then tried to create a new backup:

The backup is too large for the backup volume. xxGB is required but only yyGB is available.
This occurs because Time Machine sees your restored computer as a completely new set of data and is trying to do a full back up. To solve this issue, open the backup drive that Time Machine backs up to, and locate the following file:
computername_0022334455.sparsebundle
Where computername is your computer's name, and 0022334455 is your computer's MAC address. Delete this file and have Time Machine do a new full backup of your system, and this error will disappear.

[robg adds: I've never had to do a full restore from Time Machine, so I haven't seen this error -- if someone else can confirm the problem and the fix, please post in the comments.]

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