You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
I want to use my older 4TB HDD used for backups on my newer iMac but it won't mount. First Aid says it has partition problems and can't be mounted. I would have to erase it to restore it and I have to check it to make sure it doesn't have files that aren't on my other backup HDD before I do that. Any way to access the files on it to review them so I save the ones I need before restoring it?
iMac 27″, macOS 11.7
macOS programs? They are almost certain to be futile due to the nature of both Time Machine and the particular (as well as proprietary) file format it uses.
Before you go too far down that road, do you have reason to believe certain backups will be available anyway? Time Machine guarantees an absolute minimum of one and only one fully restorable system backup, so it is quite likely old and "expired" backups are already gone. Besides, the only way to restore specific items (apps, files, folders etc) is through the Time Machine interface as Apple describes in Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support. Attempting to accomplish that goal through any means other than that has an extremely low likelihood of success.
Although you did not ask, data recovery services use proprietary methods that range from simple to enormously complex and expensive. They never guarantee success. If your TM backups are encrypted as they should be (because an unencrypted TM backup can be used to create an exact duplicate of the Mac it backed up) then even that low likelihood of success is reduced to zero.
Did you resolve the inability to get the Time Machine backup drive to mount? If so then follow the instructions I posted. If something in one of those four steps doesn't work or doesn't make sense, please identify that step. Be sure to select your Mac's operating system version in the dropdown menu at the top ("Select version") so that you get the instructions applicable to that system.
You appear to be laboring under a few misconceptions. There is no need nor is there any benefit to disconnecting from the Internet at any time, and encryption is not relevant. If you want to exclude certain items (files, folder) from being backed up, you can do that too.
To use Time Machine, we do this:
Be sure to review my previous post, as well as Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support, which explains how TM works in greater detail.
I don't need a full backup. I'm looking for some Audiobooks (and a few other files) that seem to have disappeared from my computer's iTunes files over the years and I'm looking for the originals. I don't ever have my computer hooked up to the internet when I'm backing up so I do not need to encrypt it further than it might get encrypted by Apple always. I get the distinct impression that every backup is a distinct layer on top of the previous backup and preserving each one, That's the only way I can see calling it a Time Machine if you are supposed to be able to go back and look to a particular time to look for something. So I would need them to go back to when the missing audiobooks were still on it!
bdphourde wrote:
I don't need a full backup. I'm looking for some Audiobooks (and a few other files) that seem to have disappeared from my computer's iTunes files over the years and I'm looking for the originals.
If they disappeared a long time ago, then they may no longer be in the TM backup. Once the TM backup drive fills up, TM will begin deleting the oldest TM backups to make room for the new ones. If your TM is large enough to have never been filled, then perhaps files that disappeared long ago would still be in the TM backup.
I don't ever have my computer hooked up to the internet when I'm backing up so I do not need to encrypt it further than it might get encrypted by Apple always.
The purpose of having encrypted backups is to ensure if your TM drive is lost or stolen that the person who has the drive won't be able access your personal data. Plus while the TM drive is connected to the computer it is visible to the system even if the TM backup is encrypted....after all macOS must be able to see & access the TM drive in order to perform the next backup.
I get the distinct impression that every backup is a distinct layer on top of the previous backup and preserving each one, That's the only way I can see calling it a Time Machine if you are supposed to be able to go back and look to a particular time to look for something. So I would need them to go back to when the missing audiobooks were still on it!
TM allows you to see different revisions of files from older dates as long as the TM drive has sufficient storage to do so. It is not guaranteed though. If the file is gone from your computer, then only the previous backup immediately prior to losing the file from the computer will be guaranteed to contain that missing file (if the TM drive is large enough, then the missing file will likely remain in the backup until the backup must be pruned).
TM is not an archiving type of backup solution. If you want to have backup archives, then you need to implement another backup solution.
Do other external drives show on your Desktop?
Have you tired the drive on another Mac?
Have you tried a different cable?
If it's connected via a hub or dock try it connected directly to your iMac.
It it not possible to examine files on a device that cannot be mounted.
Any idea how it is done by data recovery programs?
My Time Machine Back up HDD won't mount.
