Hi, I have a 2 TB time capsule that has deleted my wife's computer back up and replaced with 2 new sparse files (one for my old macbook, and one for my new macbook... my wife's backup though is no longer there). Can anyone help on how to restore a deleted sparse file?
Thanks,
J
Time Capsule 2TB-OTHER, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)
Almost impossible.
The Time Capsule did not delete the backup.. Only Time Machine can do that unless you manually opened the disk in Finder and deleted it. TM can delete backups for all sorts of reason but the most common is corruption. The backup failed a verification and was found corrupted beyond the point of usefulness.
If you opened the disk in Finder and the TM sparsebundle is gone then restore could only be done by removing the disk from the TC and using undelete software like diskwarrior or data rescue.. since this would also break any warranty and is extremely unlikely to work as the space used is probably now allocated to the new macbook sparsebundle.. I would not bother.
Start a new backup after ensuring the TC has sufficient space for all 3 computers.
Time Machine does not delete complete sparsebundle files unless it detects that the backups are corrupted. In that case, the entire sparsebundle file is erased and a new backup is started.
This message appears before the files are erased and a new backup is started. Ask your wife if she recalls seeing a message like this:
Unfortunately, the bottom line is that if you open the Time Capsule drive....named "Data".....unless you have changed the name of the drive.....and there is not a sparsebundle file for your wife's Mac.....then there are no backups for your wife's Mac and you will need to start a new backup again.
Time Capsule deleted old sparse file
