How to Remove Backups From a Computer

When using software like Apple's Time Machine or Microsoft's Windows Backup to backup your computer, data from your hard drive is saved to an external hard drive in case of future drive failure. However, performing frequent backups of your computer can take up a significant amount of space on your external hard drive. In this case, you may want to remove some backups in order to free up memory.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• PC or Mac computer
• External hard drive

PC Instructions

1. Connect the external hard drive with backups on it to your computer using a USB cable.

2. Go to "Backup" in the "System Tools" folder of the "Start" menu to launch the backup utility program.

3. Go to the "Restore and Manage Media" tab at the top of the window.

4. Right-click on the backup file that you want to remove from your computer and choose the "Delete Catalog" option. The backup will now be taken off of your hard drive.

Mac Instructions

5. Connect the external hard drive with backups on it to your Mac computer using a USB or Firewire cable.

6. Open a new Finder window by clicking on the icon in the dock.

7. Click on the icon of your external hard drive in the "Devices" list on the left side of the Finder window.

8. Double-click on the "Backups" folder and then open the folder with the same name as your computer.

9. Find the backups that you want to remove based on their date, highlight them and then move them to the trash. Empty the trash to fully delete them from your computer and hard drive.