Time Machine ext. HDD bad. Can files be saved?

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Level 1

4 points

Time Machine ext. HDD bad. Can files be saved?

I am running 10.6.8 on a MBP and using an external HDD Firewire 800 connection for TM. Noticed that TM was taking a long time to BU and ran DU to repair but wasn't able to. Error message was rebuild catalogue B index invalid record count .. Ran it several times, same error message. Ran Disk Genius latest version 3.2.2 same error.

So hard drive is corrupted but I can open up TM and see the files to recover etc. Files date back to 2011, 1GB HDD using only ~350GB so no issue in running out of space.

My question is can I save these files and still be able to use them once I rebuild the drive?

I have a 2TB drive that I have connected to the MBP and can copy the files over and in fact the whole directory, but is this all for naught i.e., I can't use the files once i set up TM on the rebuilt disk. I can see the hidden files on the drive and don't believe it will be a problem to copy them all over. I am concerned that I also may be copying a file that is causing the problem..

TIA

Paul

Posted on May 16, 2013 5:32 PM

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Answer 1

ds store

Level 7

30,725 points

May 17, 2013 3:13 AM in response to paolor1

Install Data Rescue and run it against the TM drive and output the files to another extenal drive.

Mind you there are a LOT of same name "placeholders" with no data, basically files with names, but no data.

Data Rescue works by accessing the drive directly and looking for files, even deleted ones.

It's going to be a chore and cost you $100, why I never user TimeMachine. Multiple bootable clones is superior, they are direct accessible and not via some goofball gimmicky software.

Most commonly used backup methods

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