Michek wrote:
Hi,
I recenlty stored my computer through time machine with an external hard drive. After the back up was complete I decided to delete some stuff to increase the available space in my computer. But I realized that the stuff that I deleted from my computer was also deleted from the external hard drive. Is there any explanation for this?
Yes. Time Machine is a backup app, not an "archive" app, or a place to store things that won't fit on your Mac.
It doesn't keep it's backups of things you've changed or deleted indefinitely -- depending on the circumstances, they'll be deleted in as little as 24 hours, or kept as long as there's room on the backup drive.
See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #20.
And I couldn't just copy the files from the trash to the hard drive, it says it cannot be modified or something.
If the files are in your trash, you should be able to copy them, but not to the Backups.backupdb folder on the external HD. That's reserved for Time Machine backups.
While you can copy them to that drive, outside of the backup folder, that's not a good idea. See #3 in the FAQ.
Your best bet, by far, is:
First, move the files out of the trash, so Time Machine will back them up again (it automatically skips trash). You may be able to right-click them and select Put Back. If not, just move them.
Second, get a second external HD for the "overflow" of stuff that won't fit on your Mac. Be sure to format it for a Mac (see #1 in Using Disk Utility), and move the data to it. Then let Time Machine back up both your Mac and the new external HD. See #32 in the FAQ for details.
