how can i retrieve data from time machine back up?

Question

how can i retrieve data from time machine back up?

What have I done 😟

Was running Leopard on 10.6.8; downloaded Mavericks; System bogged and froze several times. Showed my Mac buddy and after exam found no problems with hardware. He suggested I try to back up from time machine ( already had several on external drive ) and reinstall Leopard. Backup proved slow and laborious but seemed to work. Reinstalled Leopard and all was fine, till I went to retrieve backup. External drive now shows only one save, and nothing will open or restore any individual files; I didnt want to reinstall the backup as I might import the original problems. I saved a copy of the backup to my desk top incase hard drive failed. When I try quicklook it sits spinning in 'calculating size' as if leopard cant read anything about it. I'm hesitant about reinstalling mavericks for obvious reasons, but wondering if that is the problem.

I had worked months on buildind a website on the old iWeb and would lose hours of data entry if I cannot retrieve.

Anyone else have a similar problem?

Thanks; Tim

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Apr 11, 2014 3:49 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

tug-

Level 3

685 points

Apr 12, 2014 1:31 AM in response to whiskeyflatman

does your ext. backup disc show in finder, if so open it, then open your "backupdb" folder. all previous backups will be there.

if using time capsule/base station then this will be called "sparsebundle"

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Answer 2

Apr 12, 2014 9:41 AM in response to tug-

Thank you for response; I'll give er a try.

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Answer 3

Apr 12, 2014 10:18 AM in response to tug-

Well...... Your answer helped me determine I messed up on the back up. I was able to access the back up and found several saved files, but apparently only the iWeb application; all data was erased. AND no previous backups on the drive. I probably formatted the the drive and lost what time capsule stored. I also read somewhere that just dragging and dropping the iWeb program into the drive does not mean your saving the files attached to the program.

It's a hard lesson learned, beware fellow novices. Right now iCloud doesn't sound like a bad idea.

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