Hi Scotty,

Hope you're well. I have a quick question: Time machine says that it can't back up - it needs to create a new backup and delete the old one. It says it may take several hours. Do I agree to let it do this? And why is it doing this?

Thanks!
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I think that overall, it’s a good idea to erase time machine and let it start over periodically. I would suggest about once a year. There could have been so many changes to the computer’s data that time machine would rather get a new more identical copy of the data than keep up with all the changes. I say go ahead and do it. What would be even better is if you erase the Time Machine drive before hand. As long as you have no other data singularly on that drive. If it’s a stand alone drive connected directly to your computer, you can use “disk utility”. If it’s a time capsule drive, then to erase it, you’ll use the “airport utility”. After you’ve erased the drive then you can fire time machine back up and let it start backing up again.

I have also found that some files don’t work well with time machine. A few times, I’ve had clients have problems with the “microsoft user data folder” in the documents folder. It has something to do with Entourage’s file system. I know you most likely don’t use Entourage but just giving you possible explanations. There are other programs that may have caused the issue.