Need help understanding Time Capsule file structure and how to get it back

Question

I have the original Time Capsule on which I backup both my Mac Pro and my wife’s Macbook. When Snow Leopard came out, I successfully used the ‘Restore from Time Machine’ feature on my Mac Pro so I know it has worked. However, my wife’s MacBook harddrive died the other day and I was trying to do the ‘Restore from Time Machine’ and all it would find was a backup from April (when I put her in a new larger drive). Time Machine would not find any backup files newer that April. She stated that she had seen the the Time Machine backup notices regularly and as recent as the day the haddrive died (Nov. 23) so I figured that I should have no problem. Here is what I have found in my trouble shooting and what leads to my questions below.
This is the file structure I found: (note that our ID’s are ‘Denise’ and ‘John’)
*Time Capsule* (the drive as listed in my Finder window sidebar under ‘shared’)
>Folder called ‘Time Capsule’ (when logged in as either ‘Denise’ or ‘John’)
>>Denise Sparsebundle
>>>Backup of Denise’s iBook (mounted image)
>>>>Folder called ‘Backups.backupdb’
>>>>>Folder called ‘Denise’s iBook
>>>>>>Single folder with old April backup (not the right files)
>>John Sparsebundle
>>>Backup of John’s Mac Pro (mounted image)
>>>>Folder called ‘Backups.backupdb’
>>>>>Folder called ‘John’s Mac Pro’
>>>>>>Folders containing all my backup files
>Folder Called ‘Denise’ (if logged as ‘Denise’)
>>Denise’s Sparsebundle (a disk image)
>>>Backup of Denise iBook (the mounted image. Name from old machine)
>>>>Backups.Backupdb
>>>>>Denise’s iBook (Contains the backup I need)
>Folder Called ‘John’ (if logged in as ‘John’)
>> (empty)
For some reason, my wife’s backup files are stored within a folder located at the top level of the Time Capsule drive called ‘Denise’, however, mine are within a folder called ‘Time Capsule’ which is at the same level as the ‘Denise’ folder.
For some reason, when trying to use Time Machine to recover, it bypasses the top level ‘Denise’ folder which contains the correct files and goes into the ‘Time Capsule’ folder and finds the outdated backup files.
I would assume that both my backup files and my wife’s should be at the same level of the Time Capsule.
I was eventually able to use Migration Assistant to recover the files after installing a fresh OS and mounting the correct Sparsebundle image.
So, my question, how do I get this fixed so that if I have to recover a drive with Time Capsule, it will find the correct files.
Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1

John Ormsby wrote:
What I was trying to determine is why different backups for one particular machine are located at different file structure levels on my Time Capsule and why the most resent one for that machine is at a different level that for my other machine. Also, what is the correct level that both machines backups should be at.
well John, first can you clarify if you are on 10.4.8 as your profile suggests ? if so, i'm wondering how you can use TM at all because TM was introduced with Leo. if you're not on 10.4.8, please update your profile. if you could, please also indicate details of your machine such as available RAM, processor, etc.
second, what OS is your wife's machine running ?
third, i frankly don't know too much about TM's file structure or if there indeed is such a thing as the correct one. however, i do know that it is best to leave TM to do its thing (as long as it's working). FWIW, though off-topic, you may want to have a look at this read for further information.
last but not least, i see TM backups to my TC only as a part of my backup strategy. the backbone of my strategy is to create bootable clone of my startup disk(s) using e.g. Carbon Copy Cloner on a regular basis. while TM is capable of doing a full system restore, i don't trust it as much as a working clone. i use TM to retrieve a file i accidentally trashed a week ago but you cannot boot from a TM backup if your startup disk goes belly up.
If I have missed this information in either the FAQs or the Troubleshooting article, I would greatly appreciate being pointed to it .
i expect you didn't miss anything and i'm sorry you didn't find any help there. perhaps if Pondini (author of the FAQ and troubleshooting user tips) reads this thread, you will get the necessary advice on the file structure and more besides.
good luck to you !