I was using Time Machine to back up files to a WD Elements hard drive. Lately I started to get error messages the back-up failed. Previously Finder would list back-up files for that drive, but now it only shows empty folders. Get Info still shows 60 GB of used space on the external drive. Can I retrieve those files, or is all lost and I must reformat the hard drive?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.
Thanks for the link to the FAQs, but I did not find my situation addressed there.
If the FAQs don't have the answer, then neither do I, since I don't use TM. Hopefully, someone who does can pop in.
I would connect the Time Machine HDD to your Mac and open Disk Utility and select First Aid, Verify the disk and run a Repair if necessary. If that does not solve the problem, I suspect that the HDD is failing. Then I suggest transferring the backup data to another HDD, or perhaps just start from square one with a new HDD and back up the entire internal HDD.
Ciao.
This is what I did, and now it appears Time Machine is happy again; it's doing the initial back-up on the reformatted external HDD. I was not able to salvage the previously backed-up files, but the originals are all on the internal HDD.
Thanks, all, for your input.
Time Machine can no longer back up files
