Removing large files from Time Machine?

I love the way Time Machine works. And I'm smart enough to have excluded certain folders, like Music and others.

But I foolishly forgot to exclude my virtual machines.

That's 3GB+ that's now been backed up, and Time Machine sees the disk image as one files, so minor changes have also been stored (at a cost of 3GB!).

I only found out when I ran out of space and I ran GrandPerspectiveCentral and found four big stinkers in there.

I've excluded those folders now... so... I guess... with subsequent updates these big files will come out in the wash. But I'd really like to free up the space (just in case).

Is it possible to delete the files? Time Machine says 'no'.

Do any super users know any different?

Solution 1:

To delete files from a Time Machine backup:

1. Open Time Machine when you have the Finder window displaying those files
2. Select the items you wish to remove the backup(s) (you can select multiples using shift to select a section or command to select just one at a time)
3. On the action button (what looks like a gear) in the toolbar choose Remove From All Backups... or just Remove from Backup if you only wish to remove the one instance of the file.
4. You will be prompted for your administrator password and then you're done.