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Level 1

6 points

What is the extension name for backup files (time machine) ?

My external hard drive, used as the Time Machine backup drive, crashed recently.

I was able to scan the damaged drive and I'm about to recover the files to a new external hard drive.

I'm reading the file extension that the data recovery software found on the damaged hard drive but do not recognize the files extension names (.ipa - .abcddb - .otf - ???) ...

I must recover my backup files, first!

What is the extension name for backup files (time machine) ?

Posted on Jun 4, 2020 11:40 AM

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Top-ranking reply

Level 10

117,076 points

Posted on Jun 4, 2020 4:59 PM

ipa are iOS apps.

.abcddb is the Contacts database.

.otf is OpenType Format font.

There isn't a backup file type. The files are backed up as is. They aren't compressed, converted, or any other manipulation.

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2 replies

Top-ranking reply

Level 10

117,076 points

Jun 4, 2020 4:59 PM in response to Lowcut

ipa are iOS apps.

.abcddb is the Contacts database.

.otf is OpenType Format font.

There isn't a backup file type. The files are backed up as is. They aren't compressed, converted, or any other manipulation.

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Jun 4, 2020 6:11 PM in response to Lowcut

You didn't mention it, but what I would do before even attempting any so-called recovery software solution is temporarily disable Time Machine backups, and then run Disk Utility First Aid on the Time Machine drive. If it returns a green status, then I would enable Time Machine again, and observe if a subsequent backup finishes correctly.

A Time Machine backup is a mixture of current files, and the consolidations of prior weekly, and monthly backups. How would the data recovery software manage this mixture of different file versions based on different dates? I don't think that it reliably can do so.

Provided the first paragraph, use /Applications/Time Machine and restore the particular file from a current or past backup.

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What is the extension name for backup files (time machine) ?

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