HT201250: Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac

Learn about Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac
barbarbox

Q: "oldest backups are deleted" Okay, but to where?

I back up to my hard disc, which I configured to Mac and Time Machine.

During backups, it occasionally tells me it's full.

I checked, it isnt, the partition is 150GB large and the backups now (5 of them) together are 50Gb.

However, Time Machine did delete backups about 7 of them.

1. So where to?

They are not in my Mac Trash I checked.

2. It shouldn't have deleted anything, right?

 

Also, Time machine says it will keep daily, weekly or monthly backups.

3. Where are those? Cause I only see the last those 5, which were all from yesterday.

(I am using a time machine scheduler to plan backups now, hope it will improve the situation, but questions remain the same.)

 

In general:

4. Why does it automatically delete the old(est) ones? I really don't need the ones from an hour ago! 24 times a day.

5. Why doesnt it ask me or tell me I should delete some backups, give me some options, or preferences or something like that?

 

FYI:

I'm running 10.10.3 right now, will upgrade to 10.10.4 soon, but haven't yet because of this. Don't know if it will disturb something.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), Time Machine

Posted on Jul 15, 2015 6:29 AM

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Q: "oldest backups are deleted" Okay, but to where?

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  • by greg sahli,

    greg sahli greg sahli Jul 15, 2015 7:14 AM in response to barbarbox
    Level 7 (25,395 points)
    Jul 15, 2015 7:14 AM in response to barbarbox

    So, is your backup partition on the internal Mac HDD?

    That's not a real backup - if the HDD fails, you'll probably lose everything.

    Your backup drive needs to be separate and larger than your boot drive.

     

    Time machine deletes the repeated stuff when it deletes - the entire backup should still be available.

  • by AdrianHunter,

    AdrianHunter AdrianHunter Jul 15, 2015 7:21 AM in response to barbarbox
    Level 2 (285 points)
    Jul 15, 2015 7:21 AM in response to barbarbox

    First Time Machine is not just a folder filled with files, it's a system. It does not simply copy all your stuff and be done with it. It looks at the changes in files and only saves the changes, not the entire file again and again.

     

    You can't simply "browse" you backups for they are not normal files. It deletes backups by removing the index to that backup I think. Just like removing the index of you HDD does not "remove" the files they just "seem" not to be there anymore.

     

    TM tries to keep an accurate backup for all files on your system and is not build to be "customisable" in a good way. There are other solutions if you want to have complete control of you backups.

     

    For more info on how Time Machine works: http://pondini.org/TM/Works.html

  • by BobHarris,

    BobHarris BobHarris Jul 15, 2015 7:23 AM in response to barbarbox
    Level 6 (19,410 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 15, 2015 7:23 AM in response to barbarbox

    1. So where to?

    They are not in my Mac Trash I checked.

    When Time Machine deletes older backups, the file names are removed from their respective backup directories and the storage is given back to the file system as free space.  Time Machine does not do Finder -> File -> Move to Trash.  It really Really deletes the backup files it said it was deleting.

  • by barbarbox,

    barbarbox barbarbox Jul 15, 2015 7:23 AM in response to greg sahli
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 15, 2015 7:23 AM in response to greg sahli

    Hi Greg,

    Thanx for your quick reply!

     

    No all backups are on the Hard Disc.

    The partition is bigger: 150Gb compared to 128Gb on my Mac.

     

    The entire backup? What/Where would that be?

     

    Time machine deleted older backups that stored other info which is not in the recents backups.

    One particular backup where from april, which had pictures in the library that are not in the recent beackups.

    I was so glad to find out that I still had those (couple days ago), but by the time I got to restoring them (yesterday) all the old backups were gone

     

    Any tips?

    thanx!

    Barbara

  • by AdrianHunter,

    AdrianHunter AdrianHunter Jul 15, 2015 7:25 AM in response to greg sahli
    Level 2 (285 points)
    Jul 15, 2015 7:25 AM in response to greg sahli

    She does what? OK, that's a BAD solution and in case of HDD failure 100% useless. That's like writing your password on the back of your password in case you loose it.

  • by barbarbox,

    barbarbox barbarbox Jul 15, 2015 7:26 AM in response to AdrianHunter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 15, 2015 7:26 AM in response to AdrianHunter

    Adrian,

    Not true, u can find pictures in the photos library, in the masters directory.

    Right click 'show packaged contents'.

    Which I did in the backup from april.

     

    Trick form the guy at iCentre :-)

  • by barbarbox,

    barbarbox barbarbox Jul 15, 2015 7:30 AM in response to BobHarris
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 15, 2015 7:30 AM in response to BobHarris

    Bob,

    Bummerrrrr!

    thanx for ur quick response.

    Gr Barbara

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jul 15, 2015 7:35 AM in response to barbarbox
    Level 9 (50,412 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 15, 2015 7:35 AM in response to barbarbox

    FYI. The normal recommendation for a Time Machine drive is 3 times the size of the drive being backed up. Your Time Machine drive is very small and because of that you may expect fairly frequent deletions. Buy a bigger drive.

  • by AdrianHunter,

    AdrianHunter AdrianHunter Jul 15, 2015 7:45 AM in response to barbarbox
    Level 2 (285 points)
    Jul 15, 2015 7:45 AM in response to barbarbox

    That is only because pictures are not backed up by changes to them but by entire complete files...

  • by barbarbox,

    barbarbox barbarbox Jul 15, 2015 8:00 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 15, 2015 8:00 AM in response to Csound1

    Csound,

    not very clear why you are replying if you dont even take the time to carrifely read what I wrote about the backups?

    About the size of the PARTITION and the TOTAL size of my 5 recent backups.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jul 15, 2015 8:03 AM in response to barbarbox
    Level 9 (50,412 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 15, 2015 8:03 AM in response to barbarbox

    Then carry on with the unexpected deletion thing.

     

    Have a nice day.

  • by AdrianHunter,

    AdrianHunter AdrianHunter Jul 15, 2015 8:15 AM in response to barbarbox
    Level 2 (285 points)
    Jul 15, 2015 8:15 AM in response to barbarbox

    The only important thing to know is that you don't have any backups!

     

    You are putting a spare key for your safe...inside the safe...which is completely useless for when you loose your key.

    Backups are meant to save your data when your drive fails. So backing up onto that same drive is pointless and won't save your data. You might as well use the space for actual data.

     

    Get a 59,- USB3 Western Digital 1TB drive and use that for TM.

     

    http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Portable-Drive-Storage-WDBUZG0010BBK-NESN/dp/B00C I3BLPA

  • by barbarbox,

    barbarbox barbarbox Jul 15, 2015 8:29 AM in response to AdrianHunter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 15, 2015 8:29 AM in response to AdrianHunter

    Adrian,

    im backing up to an external drive!? The hard disc, thats the external one

    And i still have some backups, only not the ones i want

    Thanx for the tip tho, but im already doing that


  • by AdrianHunter,

    AdrianHunter AdrianHunter Jul 15, 2015 8:35 AM in response to barbarbox
    Level 2 (285 points)
    Jul 15, 2015 8:35 AM in response to barbarbox

    That's probably because your TM drive is too small. It factors in future backups. Even tho the backs are only 50GB it looks at the size of your Mac drive to determine the schedules / deletion settings.

     

    For 128GB Mac it's advised to have at least 500GB Backup drive. It will keep you old backups as long as it can. My 1TB TM goes back 2 years I think.

     

    (I back up to my external hard disc, which I configured to Mac and Time Machine.) Would have saved us from the confusion for the future. ("My hard disk" means your primary drive.)

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