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Time Machine: please don't delete my old backup!

Hi, i do not want time machine to delete my oldest backup, because it hast data included i did not migrate to my current system..


Thank you!

Posted on Mar 22, 2015 2:01 PM

Reply
41 replies

Mar 22, 2015 2:12 PM in response to PurpleSpresso

Time Machine is not meant for 'archives' of data you want to keep forever. Eventually Time Machine WILL DELETE DATA. I would restore the data you think is important to another disk & keep that safe somewhere else. Disconnect this disk to be safe (reboots can sometimes cause TM to start again).


Time Machine only notifies you AFTER deleting the data in which case it is too late unless you are willing to spend time & money on data recovery.


Make several copies if you value the data.

Mar 22, 2015 2:14 PM in response to Drew Reece

Drew Reece wrote:


Time Machine is not meant for 'archives' of data you want to keep forever. Eventually Time Machine WILL DELETE DATA.

As will every backup system in existence once the drive is full, only 2 choices, delete old backups or stop making new ones.


The OP should get another drive if he wants to preserve the content of this one.

Mar 22, 2015 2:33 PM in response to Csound1

Csound1 wrote:


Drew Reece wrote:


Time Machine is not meant for 'archives' of data you want to keep forever. Eventually Time Machine WILL DELETE DATA.

As will every backup system in existence once the drive is full, only 2 choices, delete old backups or stop making new ones.


The OP should get another drive if he wants to preserve the content of this one.


Every 'backup system in existence ' does not run on an hourly basis.

Many other backup systems warn BEFORE deleting old data and request confirmation.

Other backup apps allow users to choose if old data will be purged too. Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper!, Chronosync … will not overwrite without informing you first.


Time Machine is particularly bad when it comes to preserving old data since it is so willing to re-enable itself and re-assoiciate with a previously used backup disk.

The OP has a Time Capsule - getting another disk is not necessarily trivial (and preventing the old backups from being used in any future backup jobs is also non trivial), moving the data to another external disk is a better option IMO.

Mar 22, 2015 2:38 PM in response to Drew Reece

Drew Reece wrote:


Csound1 wrote:


Drew Reece wrote:


Time Machine is not meant for 'archives' of data you want to keep forever. Eventually Time Machine WILL DELETE DATA.

As will every backup system in existence once the drive is full, only 2 choices, delete old backups or stop making new ones.


The OP should get another drive if he wants to preserve the content of this one.


Every 'backup system in existence ' does not run on an hourly basis.


Totally irrelevant, once the drive is full there are but 2 choices, same ones I posted earlier. If you wish to disagree please do so, it's a quiet day here.




CCC, SuperDuper and others do not keep any old backups, they are clones

Mar 22, 2015 2:46 PM in response to Csound1

Thank you guys, this answered my question, i think the rest is off topic.


Apple, i don't think this is user friendly.

It should be really easy to insert a button to safe special backups from deletion imo.


But til then i need different time capsules? €€€ stupid consumerist ****; no i don't need this.

i'll just reorganize my data.


Thank you for helping!


<Edited By Host>

Mar 22, 2015 2:48 PM in response to PurpleSpresso

PurpleSpresso wrote:

Apple, i don't think this is user friendly.

It should be really easy to insert a button to safe special backups from deletion imo.


If the drive is full how do you expect to save the old backups while adding new ones? did you think this through?


Once the bucket is full you can't put more water in it, same with HDD's

Mar 22, 2015 3:00 PM in response to Csound1

Sorry but you just didn't understand what my problem is.


Its only about THE OLDEST BACKUP, not about every backup. I'm not that ********. I really understood that a 2TB can be full, and if so i have to delete :-*


well i managed the problem. It was easy.

I opened the device, opened "Backups.Backupdb" and deleted all except the oldest and the newest.


Problem solved - discussion end


ttfn

Mar 22, 2015 3:11 PM in response to PurpleSpresso

I opened the device, opened "Backups.Backupdb" and deleted all except the oldest and the newest.

And, when you see the screen below appear, you will not feel so smart.


User uploaded file



The message will appear, the only question is when....not if.

It's your call, but if you want to keep what you have on the Time Capsule, back it up now, before the message appears.

Mar 22, 2015 3:19 PM in response to PurpleSpresso

PurpleSpresso wrote:


Sorry but you just didn't understand what my problem is.


Its only about THE OLDEST BACKUP, not about every backup. I'm not that ********. I really understood that a 2TB can be full, and if so i have to delete :-*


well i managed the problem. It was easy.

I opened the device, opened "Backups.Backupdb" and deleted all except the oldest and the newest.


Problem solved - discussion end


ttfn


I do understand you issue 🙂, TM is not intended for keeping older files, it is intended to keep as many 'recent' files as possible. Apple are not catering for your use case, but other providers do. You need an 'archive', not a 'rolling backup'. The design of TM will get you into this situation unless you have unlimited storage to dedicate to it's backups.


Please take care deleting items in the Backups.backupdb - it is complicated by many layers of permissions & linked files. It can make the entire backup corrupt if you purge items via the Finder. It can also cause the backup index to be rebuilt taking many hours - after which it can backup the Mac again - purging old data! The safest way is to use the 'Browse backups' menu item to remove any backup history.


Post feedback to Apple if you want them to know or stand any chance of altering it - I can't see that happening though.

http://apple.com/feedback/


This site also has a lot of info on Time Machine, it's worth a read …

http://pondini.org/

Mar 22, 2015 3:27 PM in response to PurpleSpresso

For less (a lot less) than $100 you can add another HDD to your TC and solve the problem, Time Machine will use both drives.


AirPort base stations: About USB disks - Apple Support


This is a list of TC's that support external drive attachment.


AirPort Time Capsule 802.11n (1st Generation)

AirPort Time Capsule 802.11n (2nd Generation)

AirPort Time Capsule 802.11n (3rd Generation)

AirPort Time Capsule 802.11n (4th Generation)

AirPort Time Capsule 802.11ac

Time Machine: please don't delete my old backup!

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