.purgeable file on time capsule

You must have gotten this message earlier:

See #C13 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting. As it notes, there is no safe choice; the backups are damaged and TM must start fresh.

There might be a problem with the TC or your network (which could explain why your backups got corrupted).

Try just re-selecting the TC as your backup destination, via TM Preferences.

If that doesn't help, try connecting via Ethernet cable.

If still no help, try resetting Time Machine, per #A4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

And/or, reset the Time Capsule, per http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3728

If any one know how to recover data from ."purgeable" files. there are bands of data there, but I am unable restore it.

After apple repaired my faulty Mac Mini (new hard drive) TWICE ... and I reloaded only a portion of my data back onto it. I wanted to make a new backup of the new Mac mini and keep the old mac mini backup to access old files.

I renamed the sparsebundle backup to Mac Mini Old and then proceeded to start the backup. It came up with that box and without reading it properly and pesuming it would make a new backup named Mac Mini I pressed "start new backup"

It had not even started a backup and I noticed the Mac Mini Old sparsebundle had changed to "purgeable". Now I cannot access the backup but it is still the same size GB as what it was before so I presume the data is all still there.

Is there anyway at all of accessing this data ????? PLEASE !!!!!!

brianfrombirkdale wrote:

. . .

It had not even started a backup and I noticed the Mac Mini Old sparsebundle had changed to "purgeable". Now I cannot access the backup but it is still the same size GB as what it was before so I presume the data is all still there.

It's the same size because of the way a sparsebundle works -- it doesn't shrink automatically when things are deleted. So some, or a lot, of the backups may have been deleted. 😟 Is the deletion still running? If so, kill it immediately.

Where is this sparsebundle? On a Time Capsule's internal HD, or a shared drive on another Mac, or a NAS?

What happens if you double-click it via the Finder to mount it? Does it mount (and the disk image it appear on your desktop and/or Finder sidebar), or do you get an error message -- if so, what?

Is there anyway at all of accessing this data ????? PLEASE !!!!!!

Possibly, but it won't be cheap or easy. 😟

Thanks Pondini

I killed the time machine backup as soon as I saw it changed format.

It is on the Time Capsule's internal HD

If I double click it a window pops up asking what application to use.

I did try to force the fomat back to .sparsebundle and it went to mount but nothing appeared in the mount.

So do you think I should take it to Apple or to a data recovery company?

brianfrombirkdale wrote:

. . .

If I double click it a window pops up asking what application to use.

Ouch! Not a good sign -- OSX can't even tell what it is. 😟 If you can't mount it, Disk Utility can't repair it.

So do you think I should take it to Apple or to a data recovery company?

You can try Apple, if you're near an Apple Store, but as I understand it, most can't or won't help.

You may be able to find a service that can do it (it won't be cheap), or even get an enclosure and buy a data recovery app and do it yourself. Neither way will be easy. The AppleStore might know of one. See Data Recovery. Note especially the colored boxes there.

Good luck!

LUCK !!!!! It must be luck.

In a strange turn of events I was able to mount the file and access the files.

Here was my exact process from start to finish:

After pressing "Start New Backup" on the above pop up box Time Machine changed the format of my Mac Mini.sparsebundle file located on my Time Caspule to Mac Mini.purgeable.

I noticed the change literally 30 seconds after and the actual new Time Machine backup had not started yet, but it was counting down to start.

I turned Time Machine OFF straight away.

I then changed the file name of the Mac Mini.purgeable to Mac Mini.sparesbundle

Confirm the file name change.

Then double click the file to mount the disk.

Finder may become very slow and appear to not respond.

The Time Machine Backup mount will appear in the Finder sidebar but upon opening there will be not data.

I then used Disk Drill Media Recovery and after pressing "Don't see your disks? the Apple Disk Image disk poped up (this should be around the size of you TC, in my case 1.82TB).

I clicked that and selected Time Machine Backups

I then clicked on "Deep scan for lost data"

I let it do its thing all day.

When finished there was a list of files which did not equate to what was on the TC, just random old stuff.

I then clicked on the Time Machine Backup mount in the Finder sidebar and boom .. there was the Macintosh HD folder and all my backups. WOOO!!!!

Now I do not know if the Disk Drill Media part of the process is nessesary so if you want to try just leave the Time Machine mount for like a day .. your files may appear.

I by no means understand what I did or what happend so please don't expect me to answer complex questions.

Cheers

B

www.brianhookphotography.com

www.kissstudio.com

Your backups are still damaged, and you won't be able to continue backing-up to them.

You may be able to restore selected files or folders, and possibly even an entire backup, as long as you don't happen to hit any damaged spots, but the backups are unreliable at best.

I'd strongly recommend getting an external HD and backing-up to it ASAP.

Then erase the Time Capsule's internal HD, per the green box in #Q5 of Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule. It will take quite a while, but do a Zero Out Disk as noted there -- if that fails, the HD has failed; if it succeeds, the disk may be ok (they don't last forever). Then start a new backup. That will, of course, be a full one, so will take quite a while.

Once this is sorted out, use the external HD to make "secondary" backups, preferably with a different backup app. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #27 for an explanation and some suggestions.