Has TM lost years of backups?

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Level 1

88 points

Has TM lost years of backups?

This warning appeared: “There was a problem connecting to the server ‘lacie-2big-nas.local’. The share does not exist on the server. Please check the share name, and then try again.”

Checked and no more backups on TM. Then, today a backup completed. TM shows one backup completed this morning, but no backups in TM before that.

I’ve been using my Lacie 2Big 4TN 2.0 NAS as my backup disk for 20 months w/o previous problem. It backs up my directly connected iMac, MBA (via next network), and a 1 TB backup disk with iPhoto Library and other photos.

The Lacie appears in Finder window. So, not sure why I am getting this warning.

More important, have I really lost all previous back-ups? How did that happen?

Almost year ago, I posted here about warning that TM having trouble copying files and that should run disk utility. Response to that problem was to dump LaCie, and get apple products that can’t do a wire and wireless backup and no RAID. This isn’t same problem, but i hope this isn’t a similar conflict between apple and LaCie.

Thanks for any help.

OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), iMac (10.9.5) and MBA (10.9.5)

Posted on Apr 26, 2015 3:56 PM

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Answer 1

MichelPM

Level 10

80,968 points

Apr 27, 2015 11:04 AM in response to ArmandoWyo

I have never trusted OS X Time Machine. Especially using it as my only source for backup. It has failed me on 3-4 separate occasions when I really needed it.

I have stopped using TM completely for quite a long time, now.

I have no idea what has happened to you in your current situation, but I would NOT solely rely on Apple's Time Machine app, alone.

I would start looking for using a second backup strategy using much more reliable and robust data cloning apps, such as CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create bootable backups of both your system and data to your external drive.

Also, for better redundancy, extra good quality external hard drives should be used.

Your Mac system should have a minimum of two external hard drives for backup and maybe consider putting just important data on either good quality, large capacity USB Flash Drives and/or DVD optical media and store these offsite, like in a security box at your local bank.

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