Chris111111111111111111
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Time machine Deleted old computer backups

Hey,

I have been using a mac pro for about a year and a half now and as all computers get it has become slow and full of garbage. So i used my time machine back up and successfully backed up all my files. I put in the OS disk and wiped the computer clean and reinstalled the OS. I plugged the time machine back up in and began to copy over only the files that i wanted. A few days later I had not yet copied over all of the files that I needed, i was prompted me to set up this computer with a time machine back up. I began the process thinking that it would create the backups in a new file on the drive or append it to the current list of back up images. It stopped half way though saying there was not enough free disk space. on the 1 TB HD there was only 5 GB remaining. So I just canceled it and was going to finish copying over all of the files i wanted and they delete the old backups. However when I went to get my old backup files, they had all been deleted.

I was using this hard drive to store other media files as well as time machine backups. taking the HD into the local computer shop i was informed that that is a terrible thing to do and perhaps the reason that my backups have been lost. the tech said there was nothing to be done but reformat the drive and start again. I am hoping this is not the case. the drive still says there is only 5GB of free space however I can only fine 300GB of files on the drive. so i believe that the files are still there. Does anyone know a solution to this issue. There are many valuable things on this hard drive that i would hate to loose.

I have tried holding the option key and clicking on the icon to view other backups, but my original backups are not there.

Thanks in advance.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Apr 10, 2011 10:50 AM

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Chris111111111111111111

Q: Time machine Deleted old computer backups

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  • by dechamp,

    dechamp dechamp Apr 10, 2011 11:00 AM in response to Chris111111111111111111
    Level 4 (3,495 points)
    Apr 10, 2011 11:00 AM in response to Chris111111111111111111
    I'd say the backed up files are gone. The reason that the drive still shows that it's using so much space is because of a quirk in Time Machine where removing files doesn't lower the space allocation that Time Machine was using.

    This isn't a problem for smaller TM backups because as the backup begins to fill up again TM uses the allocated space until it's full, then it looks to expand, which it can't do on your drive as it's already allocated all of the available space.

    If you want to store files on a TM volume it's best to use *Disk Utility* to partition away part of the drive so that TM will not use the storage partition. It's already too late to partition this drive as the TM backup has already claimed it entirely.

  • by Pondini,

    Pondini Pondini Apr 10, 2011 4:19 PM in response to Chris111111111111111111
    Level 8 (38,747 points)
    Apr 10, 2011 4:19 PM in response to Chris111111111111111111
    Chris111111111111111111 wrote:
    . . .
    I was using this hard drive to store other media files as well as time machine backups.


    You may be able to recover some of those files. See [Data Recovery|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Recover.html].

    By the way, for future reference, erasing and starting over is rarely required on OSX, and also rarely accomplishes anything. (Well, nothing good, anyway.) That's likely why there's no +Erase and Install+ option in Snow Leopard, as there was in older versions.

  • by thomas_r.,

    thomas_r. thomas_r. Apr 10, 2011 6:34 PM in response to Chris111111111111111111
    Level 7 (30,944 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 10, 2011 6:34 PM in response to Chris111111111111111111
    In addition to what others have already said, note that having only one backup is an abysmal idea. Why? As soon as you erased your hard drive, your backup became the only copy. You should *NEVER, EVER* be in a position of having only one copy of important data. You should have a minimum of two backups, preferably more, and preferably using two different backup programs to guard against bugs or limitations in one or the other.

  • by Chris111111111111111111,

    Chris111111111111111111 Chris111111111111111111 Apr 14, 2011 5:24 PM in response to Pondini
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 14, 2011 5:24 PM in response to Pondini
    Thanks everyone. Especially Pondini, Data Rescue 3 is my new favorite application. it did cost $100 but it allowed me demo the software before the purchase and was able to see what could be recovered. I now have several days of sorting through thousands of files to select out the ones i am looking for. It will be a pain, but far better than loosing them completely.

    Yes, having only one copy of important data is a bad thing, brain fart there.

    The reason I did the clean instal is because the performance of the computer had decreased to the point of it taking upwards of 30 seconds to open Google Chrome, Mail, iCal, or a number of other simple applications. OSX or not, computers get bunged up with garbage after a while.

    Thanks again for the help!

  • by thomas_r.,

    thomas_r. thomas_r. Apr 14, 2011 7:08 PM in response to Chris111111111111111111
    Level 7 (30,944 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 14, 2011 7:08 PM in response to Chris111111111111111111
    The reason I did the clean instal is because the performance of the computer had decreased


    That's like saying that the electrical problem in your house was fixed by tearing it down and building a new house. True, but quite unnecessarily drastic. Macs do not need periodic clean reinstalls. If this happens again (quite possible since you don't know what caused it the first time), check out the [Mac OS X speed FAQ|http://www.index-site.com/Macosxspeed.html] for some less dramatic solutions.

  • by bennettvonbennett,

    bennettvonbennett bennettvonbennett Jul 19, 2013 9:45 AM in response to Chris111111111111111111
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 19, 2013 9:45 AM in response to Chris111111111111111111

    this exact thing happened to me as well and I must say that I find it totally unacceptable... in my case I had to purchase a new machine (old one was stolen) and I went to restore from TM I found that ALL of my backups were suddenly unaccountably just missing. however the disk was like in the OP - almost completely filled up with invisible files or whatever and I have been completely unable to access this data in any way.

     

    paying $100 for Data Recovery is a totally lame solution to fix a problem that should never have arisen in the first place. By what logic does TM just suddenly decide to ERASE or MAKE INVISIBLE AND LOCKED *all* my backups at once????

     

    Carbon Copy Cloner seems like a much better solution at this time.

  • by thomas_r.,

    thomas_r. thomas_r. Jul 19, 2013 4:08 PM in response to bennettvonbennett
    Level 7 (30,944 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 19, 2013 4:08 PM in response to bennettvonbennett

    Before I make any reply, note that you are responding to a topic that has been inactive for more than two years, on a system two versions out of date. In the future, you would do better to start your own topic in an appropriate forum, specifying what system you're running and what hardware you're running it on, among other things.

     

    this exact thing happened to me as well and I must say that I find it totally unacceptable...

     

    Well, without more information, it's impossible to say what might have happened or how you can recover. You may find some answers on Pondini's excellent site:

     

    http://pondini.org

     

    However, it's important to understand that this may or may not have anything to do with Time Machine. Perhaps your backup drive is dying, perhaps its directory structure became badly corrupt, perhaps one of any number of other things could have happened. Because there is no such thing as storage that is completely stable, it's important to keep more than one backup, as noted previously on this topic.

     

    Carbon Copy Cloner seems like a much better solution at this time.

     

    Carbon Copy Cloner is an excellent solution. Is it better? No. It is simply different, and that makes it better in some aspects and worse in others than Time Machine. The best backup strategy will involve two different backup programs. I frequently recommend using both Time Machine and CCC. I use TM with a Time Capsule for one backup, which has certain advantages over CCC. I use CCC for a couple other backups, one of which is in a safe deposit box at all times, and that has some advantages over TM. Using both, with multiple backups, means that I'm extremely unlikely to lose much data, if any at all... unless a meteor hits and destroys both my home and my bank, in which case I've got bigger problems!

     

    Anyway, with regard to recovery, take a look at Pondini's site. If that doesn't help, or you need assistance with something, start your own topic in the appropriate forum for your system and provide additional details that may help us better assist you.