Hard-Drive Disconnected While Time Machine Running. What Consequence?

Dear Apple Community:


I have quite a concern. I’d greatly appreciate your input on it.


My regular practice is to use Time Machine to backup, on rotation, to three different hard drives. One of them I keep off-site at all times, and one of them I keep in a fireproof location at the place where I use my Mac. Today, having retrieved my off-site backup for use, I was anticipating a lengthy backup since I haven’t used it in quite a while. After running the backup for roughly 15 minutes, a book on my desk ever-so-slightly jarred the hard-drive’s USB-C cable that was plugged into my MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, I got the horrifying “You didn’t properly eject the disk before unplugging it” message. (My paraphrase.)


Since the Time Machine backup routine was still running when this occurred, I’m concerned what damage might have resulted. I immediately ran Disk Utility’s “First Aid” routine on the backup drive, and fortunately, I got the green checkmark and the words “Operation Successful.”


One of my questions is this: Does the green checkmark mean that both the data and the hard-drive itself are ok? And perhaps just as important: What has become of the data that was backed up during the 15 minutes prior to the mishap? I am hoping that Time Machine will totally DISREGARD all the data that was transferred, knowing that a “not rejected properly” interruption occurred during the backup session.


One clue I have that Time Machine is wisely disregarding that data is this: Time Machine indicates that my “Latest Backup” is another one of my backup disks; NOT the one that had the mishap. That was reassuring, so I then re-ran Time Machine with the hard-drive whose cable got bumped. When I commenced the backup, I received another clue that Time Machine will be disregarding the data that was transferred during the mishap session. When the new backup began, it listed the amount of data needing transfer as 13.33 GB. If I recall correctly, that is the same amount that was being transferred during the mishap backup (but of course, when I ran that backup, I wasn't paying as much attention to the transfer quantity; I just recall it being a large number like 13 GB.)


I hope you won’t mind if I state the obvious, but the reason I’m showing such concern with all these questions is this:  if one day I ever need to use this particular Time Machine backup drive to restore my computer, I want to know if I can confidently rely on its data integrity.


Thank you for any help you can offer me with these questions! :-) Mark


MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Aug 22, 2020 4:08 PM

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Posted on Aug 22, 2020 4:47 PM

<<One of my questions is this: Does the green checkmark mean that both the data and the hard-drive itself are ok?>>


Disk Utility Repair/First-Aid reads and checks ONLY the Directory. It does not read any data blocks, and if it did, it would take over four Hours to complete on a large drive.


<<What has become of the data that was backed up during the 15 minutes prior to the mishap? I am hoping that Time Machine will totally DISREGARD all the data that was transferred, knowing that a “not rejected properly” interruption occurred during the backup session.>>


An Incomplete backup will likely be removed if it is not immediately usable. It is usually not an issue. Time machine will just do over.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 22, 2020 4:47 PM in response to MacManMark

<<One of my questions is this: Does the green checkmark mean that both the data and the hard-drive itself are ok?>>


Disk Utility Repair/First-Aid reads and checks ONLY the Directory. It does not read any data blocks, and if it did, it would take over four Hours to complete on a large drive.


<<What has become of the data that was backed up during the 15 minutes prior to the mishap? I am hoping that Time Machine will totally DISREGARD all the data that was transferred, knowing that a “not rejected properly” interruption occurred during the backup session.>>


An Incomplete backup will likely be removed if it is not immediately usable. It is usually not an issue. Time machine will just do over.

Aug 23, 2020 1:42 PM in response to MacManMark

There are several other mechanisms conspiring to be certain you do not lose data due to a power loss or equivalent.


One is journaling. This makes a note in the drive's journal like, "I am staring update of this file now." Rather than overwriting, almost all files will be Copied with changes incorporated as they are copied. When update is complete, the journal will be updated to indicate it is complete.


A crash in the middle allows a quick recovery to a know-good state: the old file will be used and the partial update will be discarded. No half-done updates are saved.

Aug 23, 2020 1:29 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi Grant,


Thanks for taking the time to answer my inquiry.


Based on the second of your two answers, I feel somewhat assured concerning the hope I expressed in my initial post — namely, that TM will disregard the data that was backed up to my external hard-drive prior to the backup session's power/connection interruption; that TM will treat that backup session as if it never happened. Thank you.


And regarding the first of your two answers, you've helped me understand the limited role of Disk Utility's First-Aid routine. Thanks for that too! Since the routine doesn't check anything but the directory, I suppose a power loss to the hard-drive (via a bump of its cable) might have caused harm somewhere on the drive, but I'll never be able to know that by running Disk Utility. I guess my only hope is that in this 21st century, when there's a power loss to a hard-drive, it doesn't crash or harm the disk as it did in the 80's and 90's. Is that a fair assumption?


Thanks once again for responding!


Mark

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Hard-Drive Disconnected While Time Machine Running. What Consequence?

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