Does Time Machine overwrite pre-existing files on your external hard drive?

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Level 1

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Does Time Machine overwrite pre-existing files on your external hard drive?

I'm unable to see or locate any of the files I had been saving for years on my 2TB external hard drive. Can I retrieve any of my old photos I had on my external hard drive? Everything that was there just before backing up my MacBook Air. Once I backed up my MacBook Air, and I checked the file tree, all my old files were and are missing. How can I get my precious documents and photos back? There was no indication Time Machine would overwrite the existing files on my external hard drive when I started the backup.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.5

Posted on Aug 30, 2022 3:51 AM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

124,354 points

Aug 31, 2022 6:39 AM in response to P3DG3

If you set up a new backup on Monterey, it should have informed you it would erase and reformat the drive for Time Machine. You should have seen something like this:

https://www.macworld.com/article/233342/why-you-re-prompted-to-erase-an-external-drive-when-you-use-it-with-time-capsule.html

New Time Machine backup disks in Monterey use an APFS file system and take complete control of the drive. You cannot do anything else with the drive.

You could try a file recovery services, but I doubt they would be successful since it has probably all been overwritten.

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Does Time Machine overwrite pre-existing files on your external hard drive?

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