Has time machine deleted my files?

I'm a Windows user and plugged my external hard drive into my friend's MacBook the other day. They speak a different language, and so I didn't understand anything on the Mac.
Anyway, as soon as I plugged it in, the standard "Time Machine" message popped up, asking me if I wanted to back up the Mac files (I can only assume it said that). So I tried pressing No thank you, but obviously made a mistake! I think it started doing something, so I stopped the process.
Now when I plug my hard drive back into my PC, I get the regular "chime" suggesting it has been plugged in, but Windows will no longer recognise it!
I'm not a techno expert, but I have heard MAC use different partitions that cannot be read by Windows. But my question really is: has my data been lost, and is there a way of getting it back?

I'm using root as the lowest level of the directory. In Windows you have to start at "My computer" and then navigate to the external drive vs. Macintosh which will mount the external drive on the desktop. I asked what OS you are running, because if you are running Vista, Time Machine would not merely have asked if you wanted to use the drive as a backup volume, but also that Time Machine would need to re-format the drive in order to use it as the backup volume. Not knowing what flavor of Windows you are using, and you not remembering how you formatted your drive, I can't say whether or not you may have also instructed Time Machine to reformat the drive. At this point, you may want to go back to your friend, turn off time machine in the system preferences and then plug the drive back into his machine. From the Finder (indicated in the upper left corner of the menu bar) hit shiftcommandU on the keyboard and open Disk Utility. Select your drive in the left window and check the format at the bottom of the window. If it is Mac OS Extended, then you instructed Time Machine to re-format and your material was erased. If it is still formated as FAT32 then your files are still there and you can access them from the Mac, and if need be move them to Optical Disc, so that you can re-format the drive on your computer if it still can't see the drive and them move them back. I'm sorry about the trouble.
HTH
-P

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Time Machine deletes "unchanged" files at some point?

I am worried with the fate of old files backed up with Time Machine and that are not changed, like old pictures.
I was told that after the first backup, Time Machine works by making links to unchanged files to avoid copying everything not changed.
_My question_: when Time Machine automatically deletes old backups to make save for the new backups - is it possible that these unchanged files (such a specific old pictures file) be also deleted ? In other words, some of _my old pictures might vanish of Time Machine if its file is not changed_?

Mikus wrote:
I am worried with the fate of old files backed up with Time Machine and that are not changed, like old pictures.
I was told that after the first backup, Time Machine works by making links to unchanged files to avoid copying everything not changed.
Correct.
_My question_: when Time Machine automatically deletes old backups to make save for the new backups - is it possible that these unchanged files (such a specific old pictures file) be also deleted ? In other words, some of _my old pictures might vanish of Time Machine if its file is not changed_?
No. As Malcolm says, Time Machine always has copies of everything currently on your Mac. Every Time Machine backup is, in effect, a full one -- a complete "snapshot" of your entire system.
See How Time Machine works its Magic for an explanation.

Has time machine deleted the other files on my external hard drive?

i used a la cie external hard drive for time machine and now i can't find the files that i had stored on the drive previously, there is only the time machine bck ups - are the files gone forever?

V.K. is entirely correct.
For future reference, the way to keep "other" files on a TM drive is to partition it. TM will, eventually, fill the space provided to it with backups.
Also, if other data is in the same partition and you ever need to delete all your TM backups and start over, you'll be in something of a pickle (technical term). If it has it own, exclusive partition, all you have to do is erase the partition with Disk Utility.

Drive no longer being used by time machine: delete some files?

Tried unlocking and allowing myself to read and write. Nope. Tried holding down the option key. Nope.
This drive is no longer being used by time machine and I want to delete some files on it.
Is there a way to do it without wiping the entire drive?

nowsthetime wrote:
It wasnt a dedicated backup and there's other material on it that I need to keep.
That's a problem (as you've discovered). Time Machine works best if it has it's own, exclusive partition. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #3 for details.
Aha! Just found THIS. I'll post if it works. http://www.celiamania.com/wordpress/?p=1038
That will let you delete individual backups, or all backups of selected items.
If you don't have room to copy the "other" stuff elsewhere while you erase the disk, you can delete the Backups.backupdb folder. Emptying the trash will take a very long time, and may give you permissions and/or locked file problems. If so, see #E6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Retrieve Time Machine deleted backup files

Today Time Machine somehow didn't recognize my computer anymore and started a new full backup - and in order to free up space it deleted older backups. When I found out, it has already deleted ALL the history, and reported to me that there is not enough space. It's a mistake. I need the backup history. Anyone can help? Is there a software that can retrieve/recover those backup files/links made by Time Machine in the past months? Thanks much.

Wanderzhuanyou wrote:
No I couldn't find any clue there. I also searched the web with Google. I don't know what was the reason TM tried a full backup today (it says it needs 1.2TB space while my backup volume has only 600G).
unfortunately, TM has different ways of backing up to directly attached HDs vs. networked drives. my BUs go to a time capsule so i'm a bit on a limb here. however, it definitely looks like TM started a completely new BU. perhaps you should manually remove the latest BU.
then, try deleting this file HD/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist and restart your machine. next, go > system preferences > time machine > change disk and re-select your drive. start a backup.
what happens ?
Could be I had a IP conflict within my home LAN and the network seemed to reset the name of my iMac to "iMac-2".
this is easily remedied. go > system preferences > shared and edit your computer name back to iMac there. FWIW, this seems to happen when you have ethernet and airport connections going at the same time

Time Machine deleted data files

I just set up time machine with a back up hard drive. When I went to open "Quicken" the data file opened is almost two years old. I cannot locate the latest file anywhere on the computer or back up drive. Any ideas where it could be hiding?

stheyn wrote:
Thanks for the reply. Time Machine must have deleted the file.
No. It's possible that for some reason Time Machine didn't back it up, but it cannot delete a file from your system.
The last time I saw the file was 1 day before I turned on time machine
I never mess with the data file (Quicken automatically backs up the files - they are all missing since early 2009)
Quicken backs them up? Where? (Obviously I don't use it).
I have tried Spotlight and Finder to look for any newer Quicken type files, with no luck.
I really don't know what happened and the file is probably gone. But, I was hoping somebody has had this issue and found some solution.
Have you looked in the trash?
If you're really sure the file was there yesterday, and it's important, +*Stop using your internal drive immediately+* to stop further loss due to files being overwritten. The longer you use it, the more files will be overwritten and lost forever.
You need specialized +Data Recovery+ software, or a service that performs the function. It's not cheap, and there are no guarantees.
The app mentioned here most often is +Data Rescue 3,+ but I haven't used it myself, so can't recommend it over any of the others.
Some of these have a free "trial mode," that will tell you if there's anything to be recovered, and perhaps recover a single file. For more, you have to pay the $$.
You'll also need another drive to receive anything it can recover.
Look for apps or services under +Data Recovery+ via Google, VersionTracker.com, or MacUpdate.com.

Time Machine deletes old files without notice

Once in a month I intiate the Back Up Now command
Time Machine works about 30 minutes and then anounces it could not backup
Then I see most of my old backups in the Trash. I could not recover them.
There is now 40 Gb space on the external hard disk but it seems not enough
The computer has about 70 Gb data.
Does it mean htat Time Machine backs up 70 Gb each time I initiate the Back Up Now ?
I also looked into Preferences: it is checked to receive a warning before old backups are deleted
But I did not get a warning.
WHat can I do now ?

Bomiboll wrote:
I had to trash all the backups. Then I had to empty the Trash or otherwise the external hard disk was still not empty and so TM asked for more space. It was quite time consuming, took more than 2 hours
To trash all the backups, all you have to do is erase the partition -- takes seconds.
But we still don't know what's going on. Again:
What message did you get when it failed earlier? Post the messages for that backup from the widget.
How much data is on your Mac, and how large is the backup drive?
Then I made a backup of about 55 Gb and that took another hour.
That's about right for USB2 or FireWire 400. How is your drive connected?
I would like to make it speedy but how ?
The first backup will take a while, as it copies nearly everything; subsequently, only additions and changes will be backed-up, so should be fairly quick under normal circumstances -- a few minutes at most.
But if you only back up once a month, it will be much longer, and sometimes Time Machine will do a full backup. It's designed to back up changes hourly.
Now that I have my backup, I wonder where is the mail app which has mails on My Mac, where is Reminders and Notes etc. I cant find them on the Backup.
For Mail and Notes, see the blue box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #15.
I'm not sure where Reminders are.

Will Time Machine delete existing files on hard drive

A coworker is running OS X 10.6.8 on a MacBook Pro, and the computer is running very slow. I told her she should back up all her files with Time Machine, wipe her drive, upgrade to 10.10 and reimport all her files once that's done and see how things run then.
The problem is her existing hard drive has a lot of files on it already, that she doesn't want to risk losing.
So if I back up her hard drive with Time Machine to this hard drive, will it automatically erase all the existing files on the hard drive? Or can the Time Machine back up coexist with those existing files?

If the drive's already formatted as Mac OS Extended or Xsan, the files will remain as is. If not, they'll be erased.
In any case, all of the files you want to keep should be on at least two drives so that they won't be lost in the event that one of them fails.
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HT3275 TIme Machine deleting files I deleted from my home drive

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Copy the files to the external drive in the Finder instead of going through Time Machine. If you want that drive to have a bootable OS, you'll need to use software such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper.
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Note from Time Machine Help files:
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Time Machine deleted old backups as disk filled up. Now I'm confused

Hi guys,
My backup disk was full, and hence Time Machine deleted my old backup. The most important data on my Mac (for me) is my iPhoto library. As I know it, Time Machine deletes backups for files which are used less frequently. In my iPhoto library, there are some photos which I haven't opened for years. So has Time Machine deleted them?
Thank you

As I know it, Time Machine deletes backups for files which are used less frequently. In my iPhoto library, there are some photos which I haven't opened for years. So has Time Machine deleted them?
Time Machine won't delete files that are still on your Mac, regardless of how long since you view them.
What it trashes are files that have been removed from your Mac. So, it's not an archive app. For instance, if you backed up with TM and then deleted the pics from iPhoto on your Mac (to save space or whatever) then eventually they will be deleted from TM.
Regards
TD

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down eliminate

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down menu with the gear box symbol to eliminate

I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library. Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

Deleting Time Machine Back-up Files - HELP!

I tried to delete a time machine back-up file from my external drive (to clear space), I dragged it into the trash ... when I tried to empty trash it looked like there were 1000s of files being deleted. That scared me so I stopped the trash from emptying. Now I can't get the file out of the trash. I try to drag it out and it just copies. So two questions: 1) how do I get this file out of the trash? 2) how do I delete all of these back-up files - well, I don't need to delete all of them but there are so many? Do I really need all of these time machine back-ups? If I do delete them - what am I actually deleting? Are they just copies of my harddrive or is it a problem to delete them (when I look in the file that is in my trash it seems like it is my whole system ...). Sorry for all of the questions but I am in a bit of a panic. Also, I did try to delete the files by going into time machine, clicking on the gear icon, selecting a file and clicking on delete, nothing happened. Any thoughts, suggestions, advice most welcome!

wcaroliner wrote:
So two questions: 1) how do I get this file out of the trash?
See #E6 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
2) how do I delete all of these back-up files - well, I don't need to delete all of them but there are so many? Do I really need all of these time machine back-ups? If I do delete them - what am I actually deleting? Are they just copies of my harddrive or is it a problem to delete them (when I look in the file that is in my trash it seems like it is my whole system
You shouldn't have to delete old backups. Time Machine will do that automatically when it needs space for new ones, unless you have the +Warn when old backups are deleted+ box checked in +Time Machine Preferences > Options.+ Just remove the check.
If you have other data on your Time Machine drive, in the same partition, that's not a good idea. It needs to be moved elsewhere, so Time Machine has it's own, exclusive space. See #3 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
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I did try to delete the files by going into time machine, clicking on the gear icon, selecting a file and clicking on delete, nothing happened.
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Time Machine deleted all the files on my external HD

I have started a new Time Machine backup on a larger external HD.
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This means that the drive was formatted incorrectly for use with TM and it had to reformat it. it warns you before doing so. your chances of recovering your data are not great as it may have been overwritten by TM backups. stop using the drive ASAP (turn TM off) and try data recovery software like Data Rescue II or Filesalvage.

Recovering files time machine deleted

Is there a way to recover files from a back up that time machine deleted? I was in the middle of recovering files then the computer just hanged so I had to force shutdown. When I booted up again, I can't find any of my documents in ALL of the time machine backups previously created.
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You might be able to use SubrosaSoft FileSalvage to recover the files. You can run it in demo mode first to see what files, if any, it will be able to recover from the disk. With the restricted privileges of the TM disk I'm not sure if it will work but worth a try.
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Has time machine deleted my files?

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