Time machine deleted everything!!! HELP!!

Okay so maybe I'm just an idiot but I really need help...
I had a mybook external hard drive that I was using to store pictures, movies, songs and documents before I got Leopard. When I got leopard I decided that I would use this as an external hard drive as well as for time machine so I plugged it in and set it up. Much to my dismay, several months later when I went to look for a picture on the external hard drive none of them were there...
There is other random stuff there just not the stuff I need. When you install time machine onto the external hard drive does it overwrite the drive or just hide the files?? HELP!! I really need these pictures!! It was like 100 GBs of stuff dating wayyy back!!
Thanks!
Alyssa

Hello Alyssa:
Welcome to Apple discussions.
When you first set up Time Machine, an option is to erase everything on the external HD and format it. If you selected that, the data is gone. I have never tested TM to see if it overwrites. I have my external HD partitioned as I keep a bootable clone of my systems on the external HD.
This is probably not helpful to you, but.....
Try to look for other things that you stored - hopefully something will be there.
You are not an idiot, we all do things at times that we regret later.
I am assuming that you deleted the "stuff" from your HD after you stored it on the external HD.
Barry

Similar Messages

Panic... Time Machine deleted everything, restored nothing!

My Imac internal HDD was severely damaged, so I rebuilt it using the last SuperDuper clone I had. Unfortunately, it was rather old, but my Time Machine is current. I started a restore on the contents of my user account, and it informed me I didn't have space for both the current and restore contents. I selected 'replace'. The first thing it did was delete the desktop icons, then told me I didn't have sufficient privalages to restore it. Another strange thing is it selected 350GB worth of files that needed replacing. No way that much has changed since my last SuperDuper clone. I'm assuming its not going to attempt to replace files that haven't changed.
Anyway, my first problem is that I have insufficient privileges. I only have the one user account. Perhaps it is looking for 'admin', but as far as I know I never set a password for 'admin'. Is there a default? Bottom line, I'm in deep trouble. Any advice would be appreciated.

Scott's answer is a bingo! As for your other question...
I don't see why your Keychain should have anything to do with your privileges, since all it is is a utility to manage your passwords. As long as you remember the password that your administrative account has, Keychain doesn't make a difference.
If you go to Applications:Utilities and open up the Disk Utility, you should be able to select your Mac OS X boot drive and Verify / Repair Disk Permissions, which may help out with Time Machine. It sounds like a lot of your files have gotten screwed up and if Time Machine isn't getting the right access it needs to one of its important files, that may be why it can't restore your back up. Give Repair Disk Permissions a try, and if you still can't get it to work, I'd go with a clean install and a restore from Time Machine.
The reason why Time Machine might be trying to fix 320 GB of files is that your machine may have made teensy weensy changes to your files, as Mac OS X's Unix base is prone to do to keep your machine running well. Since Time Machine is looking for your files exactly the way it backed them up, you confused it by restoring with SuperDuper, which made the files look like they did before your Mac system changed the files and Time Machine registered those changes, so Time Machine wants to replace the files with the "newer versions", or it may be so confused as to want to simply ADD the new files and keep the existing ones too. Backing up with two backup systems is fine, but trying to restore from both can definitely complicate things!

Time Machine deleted all backups

Just got a TM error message saying my 3TB drive needed 1.68TB and there was only 1.3 TB available. I thought this unlikely as my target drive should only require an incremental backup (1.68TB being a full backup). So I clicked 'back up now' (daft, I know) and Time Machine deleted everything and started a brand new backup which I immediately stopped. The TM drive still says there's only 1.3TB available which means my older backups are still in there somewhere, right?
While I don't think I've anything on the backup that I need, I'm worried how this could happen - 4 months of backups just vanished instantly.
Any ideas?
Cheers,
SNaP

Thanks for the reply, Linc,
First thing is there's no 'Starting standard backup' string, but I'm assuming the 'starting automatic backup' is our boy. I've deleted most of the texts where it says its 'deleting expired backups' (about 35 in all), and I've deleted other repetetive lines but I'm reluctant to delete more as I might be throwing out the baby with the bathwater. The string finished with my creating a new Time Machine backup on a separate drive ('Storage 3'). The original Time Machine backup was named 'Mac Companion'. The two drives being backed up were 'SSD' and '2TB HD'.
Log text:
03/09/2012 11:34:29.581 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Starting automatic backup
03/09/2012 11:34:30.103 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Mac Companion/Backups.backupdb
03/09/2012 11:34:35.484 com.apple.quicklook.satellite[863]: Failed to communicate with qtkitserver: Connection invalid
03/09/2012 11:34:35.484 com.apple.quicklook.satellite[863]: Failed to initializeServer(), returned 5
03/09/2012 11:34:35.678 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Using file event preflight for SSD
03/09/2012 11:34:37.364 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Will copy (644.7 MB) from SSD
03/09/2012 11:34:37.374 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Using file event preflight for 2Tb HD
03/09/2012 11:34:48.819 com.apple.quicklook.satellite[863]: Failed to communicate with qtkitserver: Connection invalid
03/09/2012 11:34:48.820 com.apple.quicklook.satellite[863]: Failed to initializeServer(), returned 5
03/09/2012 11:35:01.533 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:35:02.281 com.apple.quicklook.satellite[863]: Failed to communicate with qtkitserver: Connection invalid
03/09/2012 11:35:02.281 com.apple.quicklook.satellite[863]: Failed to initializeServer(), returned 5
03/09/2012 11:35:18.766 sandboxd[1413]: ([1412]) mdworker(1412) deny file-read-data /Users/snapmac/Dropbox/MDK/Adobe Photoshop CS65832565636961/..namedfork/rsrc (pre-ls-info fstype:hfs fsflag:480D000 flags:240000005E diag:0 uti:public.jpeg plugin:/Library/Spotlight/Image.mdimporter - find suspect file using: sudo mdutil -t 1127969)
03/09/2012 11:35:18.000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(1413) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
03/09/2012 11:35:34.790 com.apple.quicklook.satellite[863]: Failed to communicate with qtkitserver: Connection invalid
03/09/2012 11:35:34.790 com.apple.quicklook.satellite[863]: Failed to initializeServer(), returned 5
03/09/2012 11:35:45.111 sandboxd[1418]: ([1412]) mdworker(1412) deny file-read-data /Users/snapmac/Dropbox/MDK/Adobe Photoshop CS65832565702527/..namedfork/rsrc (pre-ls-info fstype:hfs fsflag:480D000 flags:240000005E diag:0 uti:public.jpeg plugin:/Library/Spotlight/Image.mdimporter - find suspect file using: sudo mdutil -t 1128024)
03/09/2012 11:35:45.000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(1418) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
03/09/2012 11:35:49.627 com.apple.quicklook.satellite[863]: Failed to communicate with qtkitserver: Connection invalid
03/09/2012 11:35:49.628 com.apple.quicklook.satellite[863]: Failed to initializeServer(), returned 5
03/09/2012 11:35:57.957 sandboxd[1418]: ([1412]) mdworker(1412) deny file-read-data /Users/snapmac/Dropbox/MDK/Adobe Photoshop CS65832565768075/..namedfork/rsrc (pre-ls-info fstype:hfs fsflag:480D000 flags:240000005E diag:0 uti:public.jpeg plugin:/Library/Spotlight/Image.mdimporter - find suspect file using: sudo mdutil -t 1128070)
03/09/2012 11:35:58.103 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Will copy (102.4 MB) from 2Tb HD
03/09/2012 11:35:58.103 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Found 458385 files (1.57 TB) needing backup
03/09/2012 11:35:58.114 com.apple.backupd[1401]: 1.88 TB required (including padding), 1.15 TB available
03/09/2012 11:36:01.837 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Mac Companion/Backups.backupdb/Macintosh/2012-09-02-104622 containing 2.2 MB; 1.15 TB now available, 1.88 TB required
03/09/2012 11:36:01.838 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Removed 1 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room
03/09/2012 11:36:02.535 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:36:09.872 mdworker[1311]: CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary on line 1. Parsing will be abandoned. Break on _CFPropertyListMissingSemicolon to debug.
03/09/2012 11:36:11.574 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Mac Companion/Backups.backupdb/Macintosh/2012-08-21-002126 containing 613.1 MB; 1.15 TB now available, 1.88 TB required
03/09/2012 11:36:11.574 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Removed 2 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room
03/09/2012 11:36:14.818 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Mac Companion/Backups.backupdb/Macintosh/2012-08-22-000409 containing 5.8 MB; 1.15 TB now available, 1.88 TB required
03/09/2012 11:36:26.606 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Removed 7 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room
03/09/2012 11:36:49.689 com.apple.usbmuxd[431]: _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x100dc2180): sending attach for device cc:08:e0:3c:19:ef@fe80::ce08:e0ff:fe3c:19ef._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
03/09/2012 11:36:49.885 usbmuxd[431]: _AMDeviceConnectByAddressAndPort (thread 0x102e81000): IPv4
03/09/2012 11:37:03.537 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:37:03.855 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Mac Companion/Backups.backupdb/Macintosh/2012-08-27-003829 containing 952.1 MB; 1.15 TB now available, 1.88 TB required
03/09/2012 11:37:10.282 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Removed 9 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room
03/09/2012 11:37:25.228 com.apple.usbmuxd[431]: _SendDetachNotification (thread 0x100dc2180): sending detach for device cc:08:e0:3c:19:ef@fe80::ce08:e0ff:fe3c:19ef._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _BrowseReplyReceivedCallback got bonjour removal.
03/09/2012 11:38:04.539 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:38:07.334 com.apple.launchd[1]: (com.apple.coremedia.videodecoder[866]) Exit timeout elapsed (20 seconds). Killing
03/09/2012 11:38:14.150 Adobe Bridge CS6[1424]: CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary on line 1. Parsing will be abandoned. Break on _CFPropertyListMissingSemicolon to debug.
03/09/2012 11:38:31.740 mdworker[1311]: CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary on line 1. Parsing will be abandoned. Break on _CFPropertyListMissingSemicolon to debug.
03/09/2012 11:39:05.541 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:39:17.723 WindowServer[128]: CGXSetWindowBackgroundBlurRadius: Invalid window 0xffffffff
03/09/2012 11:40:06.543 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:40:40.603 com.apple.usbmuxd[431]: _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x100dc2180): sending attach for device cc:08:e0:3c:19:ef@fe80::ce08:e0ff:fe3c:19ef._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
03/09/2012 11:40:40.802 usbmuxd[431]: _AMDeviceConnectByAddressAndPort (thread 0x102e81000): IPv4
03/09/2012 11:40:52.993 com.apple.usbmuxd[431]: _SendDetachNotification (thread 0x100dc2180): sending detach for device cc:08:e0:3c:19:ef@fe80::ce08:e0ff:fe3c:19ef._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _BrowseReplyReceivedCallback got bonjour removal.
03/09/2012 11:41:07.545 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:44:02.751 com.apple.usbmuxd[431]: _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x100dc2180): sending attach for device cc:08:e0:3c:19:ef@fe80::ce08:e0ff:fe3c:19ef._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
03/09/2012 11:44:02.967 usbmuxd[431]: _AMDeviceConnectByAddressAndPort (thread 0x102e81000): IPv4
03/09/2012 11:44:10.551 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:44:16.032 com.apple.usbmuxd[431]: _SendDetachNotification (thread 0x100dc2180): sending detach for device cc:08:e0:3c:19:ef@fe80::ce08:e0ff:fe3c:19ef._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _BrowseReplyReceivedCallback got bonjour removal.
03/09/2012 11:45:09.730 com.apple.usbmuxd[431]: _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x100dc2180): sending attach for device cc:08:e0:3c:19:ef@fe80::ce08:e0ff:fe3c:19ef._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
03/09/2012 11:45:09.919 usbmuxd[431]: _AMDeviceConnectByAddressAndPort (thread 0x102e81000): IPv4
03/09/2012 11:45:11.553 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:45:27.662 WebProcess[1473]: Failed to communicate with qtkitserver: Connection invalid
03/09/2012 11:45:27.663 WebProcess[1473]: Failed to initializeServer(), returned 5
03/09/2012 11:45:50.812 com.apple.usbmuxd[431]: _SendDetachNotification (thread 0x100dc2180): sending detach for device cc:08:e0:3c:19:ef@fe80::ce08:e0ff:fe3c:19ef._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _BrowseReplyReceivedCallback got bonjour removal.
03/09/2012 11:46:12.555 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:47:13.556 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:47:40.539 com.apple.usbmuxd[431]: _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x100dc2180): sending attach for device cc:08:e0:3c:19:ef@fe80::ce08:e0ff:fe3c:19ef._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
03/09/2012 11:47:40.766 usbmuxd[431]: _AMDeviceConnectByAddressAndPort (thread 0x102e81000): IPv4
03/09/2012 11:48:12.322 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Mac Companion/Backups.backupdb/Macintosh/2012-08-29-003613 containing 114.46 GB; 1.27 TB now available, 1.88 TB required
03/09/2012 11:48:12.323 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Removed 10 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room
03/09/2012 11:48:14.559 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:48:32.980 Safari[1471]: CGContextClipToRect: invalid context 0x0
03/09/2012 11:48:48.131 com.apple.usbmuxd[431]: _SendDetachNotification (thread 0x100dc2180): sending detach for device cc:08:e0:3c:19:ef@fe80::ce08:e0ff:fe3c:19ef._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _BrowseReplyReceivedCallback got bonjour removal.
03/09/2012 11:49:15.561 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:50:16.562 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:50:52.172 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Mac Companion/Backups.backupdb/Macintosh/2012-09-01-004618 containing 22.05 GB; 1.3 TB now available, 1.88 TB required
03/09/2012 11:50:52.172 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Removed 12 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room
03/09/2012 11:50:57.965 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Mac Companion/Backups.backupdb/Macintosh/2012-09-02-004621 containing 2.4 MB; 1.3 TB now available, 1.88 TB required
03/09/2012 11:51:39.148 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Removed 35 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room
03/09/2012 11:51:39.148 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Deleted 35 backups containing 152.08 GB total; 1.3 TB now available, 1.88 TB required
03/09/2012 11:51:39.148 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Backup date range was shortened: oldest backup is now Sep 3, 2012
03/09/2012 11:51:49.910 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
03/09/2012 11:51:51.535 com.apple.usbmuxd[431]: _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x100dc2180): sending attach for device cc:08:e0:3c:19:ef@fe80::ce08:e0ff:fe3c:19ef._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
03/09/2012 11:51:51.707 usbmuxd[431]: _AMDeviceConnectByAddressAndPort (thread 0x102f04000): IPv4
03/09/2012 11:52:18.080 System Preferences[1547]: Cannot setMachineString without first being authenticated
03/09/2012 11:52:18.140 System Preferences[1547]: *** WARNING: -[NSImage compositeToPoint:operation:] is deprecated in MacOSX 10.8 and later. Please use -[NSImage drawAtPoint:fromRect:operation:fraction:] instead.
03/09/2012 11:52:18.142 System Preferences[1547]: *** WARNING: -[NSImage compositeToPoint:fromRect:operation:] is deprecated in MacOSX 10.8 and later. Please use -[NSImage drawAtPoint:fromRect:operation:fraction:] instead.
03/09/2012 11:52:18.145 System Preferences[1547]: *** WARNING: -[NSImage compositeToPoint:operation:fraction:] is deprecated in MacOSX 10.8 and later. Please use -[NSImage drawAtPoint:fromRect:operation:fraction:] instead.
03/09/2012 11:52:18.147 System Preferences[1547]: *** WARNING: -[NSImage compositeToPoint:fromRect:operation:fraction:] is deprecated in MacOSX 10.8 and later. Please use -[NSImage drawAtPoint:fromRect:operation:fraction:] instead.
03/09/2012 11:52:18.567 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:52:37.450 com.apple.usbmuxd[431]: _SendDetachNotification (thread 0x100dc2180): sending detach for device cc:08:e0:3c:19:ef@fe80::ce08:e0ff:fe3c:19ef._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _BrowseReplyReceivedCallback got bonjour removal.
03/09/2012 11:52:49.571 System Preferences[1547]: Could not connect the action warnCullingPressed: to target of class TMOptionsSheetController
03/09/2012 11:52:49.572 System Preferences[1547]: Could not connect the action backUpOnBatteryPowerPressed: to target of class TMOptionsSheetController
03/09/2012 11:53:18.715 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Starting manual backup
03/09/2012 11:53:18.718 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Mac Companion/Backups.backupdb
03/09/2012 11:53:19.569 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:53:29.481 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Using file event preflight for SSD
03/09/2012 11:53:33.864 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Will copy (823.1 MB) from SSD
03/09/2012 11:53:33.879 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Using file event preflight for 2Tb HD
03/09/2012 11:53:59.470 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Backup canceled.
03/09/2012 11:54:02.534 sandboxd[1563]: ([549]) Mail(549) deny file-read-data /Users
03/09/2012 11:54:02.000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(1563) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
03/09/2012 11:54:02.541 sandboxd[1563]: ([549]) Mail(549) deny file-read-data /Users
03/09/2012 11:54:02.963 WindowServer[128]: Display 0x1849b840 captured by conn 0x1396b
03/09/2012 11:54:12.496 Mail[549]: CGSSetWindowLevel: Invalid window 0x0
03/09/2012 11:54:13.140 sandboxd[1563]: ([549]) Mail(549) deny file-read-xattr /Volumes/Mac Companion/Backups.backupdb/Macintosh/2012-09-03-103801/SSD
03/09/2012 11:54:14.654 Mail[549]: find_shared_window: WID 996
03/09/2012 11:54:14.654 Mail[549]: CGSMoveWindow: Invalid window 0x3e4
03/09/2012 11:54:14.918 WindowServer[128]: Display 0x1849b840 released by conn 0x1396b
03/09/2012 11:54:20.570 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:54:40.796 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Starting manual backup
03/09/2012 11:54:40.799 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Mac Companion/Backups.backupdb
03/09/2012 11:54:45.549 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Using file event preflight for SSD
03/09/2012 11:54:49.568 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Will copy (835.6 MB) from SSD
03/09/2012 11:54:49.583 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Using file event preflight for 2Tb HD
03/09/2012 11:55:21.572 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:56:15.773 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Will copy (102.4 MB) from 2Tb HD
03/09/2012 11:56:15.774 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Found 458580 files (1.57 TB) needing backup
03/09/2012 11:56:15.803 com.apple.backupd[1401]: 1.88 TB required (including padding), 1.3 TB available
03/09/2012 11:56:15.814 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Mac Companion/Backups.backupdb/Macintosh/2012-09-03-113431.inProgress/D5E33B8C-90FD -408E-939E-C8D559EBAC56 containing 8 KB; 1.3 TB now available, 1.88 TB required
03/09/2012 11:56:15.815 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Mac Companion/Backups.backupdb/Macintosh/2012-09-03-113431.inProgress/D93A9AE4-E50A -422A-BC05-A540DB00F417 containing 8 KB; 1.3 TB now available, 1.88 TB required
03/09/2012 11:56:15.815 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Removed 2 expired backups so far, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room
03/09/2012 11:56:15.816 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Deleted 2 backups containing 16 KB total; 1.3 TB now available, 1.88 TB required
03/09/2012 11:56:15.816 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Backup date range was shortened: oldest backup is now Sep 3, 2012
03/09/2012 11:56:17.477 com.apple.launchd[1]: (com.apple.coremedia.videodecoder[1514]) Exit timeout elapsed (20 seconds). Killing
03/09/2012 11:56:22.575 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:56:26.544 com.apple.backupd[1401]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
03/09/2012 11:56:27.481 com.apple.usbmuxd[431]: stopping.
03/09/2012 11:56:27.521 com.apple.usbmuxd[1586]: usbmuxd-268.5 on Apr 5 2012 at 15:33:48, running 64 bit
03/09/2012 11:57:17.937 System Preferences[1592]: Cannot setMachineString without first being authenticated
03/09/2012 11:57:17.980 System Preferences[1592]: *** WARNING: -[NSImage compositeToPoint:operation:] is deprecated in MacOSX 10.8 and later. Please use -[NSImage drawAtPoint:fromRect:operation:fraction:] instead.
03/09/2012 11:57:17.983 System Preferences[1592]: *** WARNING: -[NSImage compositeToPoint:fromRect:operation:] is deprecated in MacOSX 10.8 and later. Please use -[NSImage drawAtPoint:fromRect:operation:fraction:] instead.
03/09/2012 11:57:17.985 System Preferences[1592]: *** WARNING: -[NSImage compositeToPoint:operation:fraction:] is deprecated in MacOSX 10.8 and later. Please use -[NSImage drawAtPoint:fromRect:operation:fraction:] instead.
03/09/2012 11:57:17.987 System Preferences[1592]: *** WARNING: -[NSImage compositeToPoint:fromRect:operation:fraction:] is deprecated in MacOSX 10.8 and later. Please use -[NSImage drawAtPoint:fromRect:operation:fraction:] instead.
03/09/2012 11:57:23.576 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:57:39.677 System Preferences[1592]: Could not connect the action warnCullingPressed: to target of class TMOptionsSheetController
03/09/2012 11:57:39.677 System Preferences[1592]: Could not connect the action backUpOnBatteryPowerPressed: to target of class TMOptionsSheetController
03/09/2012 11:58:24.579 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 11:59:25.581 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 12:00:11.658 com.apple.usbmuxd[1586]: _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x100dc2180): sending attach for device cc:08:e0:3c:19:ef@fe80::ce08:e0ff:fe3c:19ef._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
03/09/2012 12:00:11.866 usbmuxd[1586]: _AMDeviceConnectByAddressAndPort (thread 0x102e81000): IPv4
03/09/2012 12:00:26.583 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 12:00:52.742 com.apple.usbmuxd[1586]: _SendDetachNotification (thread 0x100dc2180): sending detach for device cc:08:e0:3c:19:ef@fe80::ce08:e0ff:fe3c:19ef._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _BrowseReplyReceivedCallback got bonjour removal.
03/09/2012 12:01:27.584 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 12:02:28.587 NetBarrier[127]: [NB5ForbiddenAdsManager checkForUpdate] The file "/Library/StartupItems/NetBarrierKPI/NetBarrier Daemon X5.app/Contents/Resources/CommonPatterns.plist" is corrupted.
03/09/2012 12:02:53.089 com.apple.backupd[1626]: Starting manual backup
03/09/2012 12:02:53.114 com.apple.backupd[1626]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Storage 3/Backups.backupdb
03/09/2012 12:02:54.518 com.apple.backupd[1626]: Forcing deep traversal on source: "SSD" (mount: '/' fsUUID: 54176992-49A5-3BCC-BA6F-0E62A70536F3 eventDBUUID: 33324136-426B-40D2-9B6A-55DE25B037E5)

Time Machine deletes all but latest two backups

Hello,
Today I was backing up my macbook, with about 38 GB of space left on my harddrive, and Time Machine deletes everything but the latest two backups (from Feb 2012 to May 2012).... I had things on there from 2009. TM preferences now says I have 27 GB of free space, after the latest backup. I didn't have anything big enough on my computer to be backed up that justified deleting years of data, over 200 GB, in order to compensate for the new data that had to be backed up. Is there any way to recover the files that were erased off of my external hard-drive that were deleted during Time Machine's semi-routine back up?
Thank you

Sebastian Kuhn wrote:
Is there no way to set up Time Machine such that it will ASK before destroying a (potentially valuable) "old" backup
That's how it worked at first, on Leopard. But many users either didn't understand it, or never got around to doing anything, so had no backups at all when disaster struck. It was fairly common, so Apple changed it with Snow Leopard.
Why does Apple assume that it is always the OLDEST backup (which will be hardest to retrieve) that people would be willing to loose?
That's usually correct. Time Machine is not a traditional archive-type app; if you need archives, make archives.
If you frequently need things from your backups, you may have a deeper problem. But most likely, you just need a larger backup drive.
That all applies to the vast majority of users -- they have a single internal HD with less than 1 TB of data, so a 2 TB backup drive is ok, 3 TB large enough for most everybody.
If that's not enough for your setup, you probably need a different strategy anyway. You may have some data that changes frequently and should be backed-up hourly by Time Machine, plus something like a large media drive that's best backed-up only once a day or so by a different app, such as one of the "cloning" products.
there should be the option to exclude different items when backing up to different disks. Is there?
No. Apparently Apple wants to keep it as simple as possible, with few options that may confuse some folks, so instead of making a decision, they do nothing (that's not just Time Machine, either). Remember, most of the folks using Time Machine have never used any backup app at all.
Apple's resisted all suggestions (and there have been many) for things like the ability to limit the size or age of backups, reduce the 10-day warning when no backup has been done, etc. Like it or not, that's Apple's approach to pretty much everything -- streamlined, simple, easy to use. Very successful for the majority.
Is there any workaround other than the cumbersome procedure of turning Time Machine off, and under "options" re-select the correct set of folders to exclude every time I move from one disk to another? Not exactly what I would call a user-friendly interface...
Best of course, is get a larger disk. Is your data worth the price of a 2 TB disk?
There are some elaborate workarounds involving automatically swapping destinations and exclusions, but they're very "iffy" as they do things that TM (and OSX) don't anticipate so don't react well to.
Effective with Lion, however, there's a new tmutil command that in theory would allow you to write an AppleScript to set a destination, add or remove exclusions and run a backup. Many things could go wrong, of course, but I know of no way to detect which destination is available.
Much safer, easier, and more reliable to get a larger drive (or better strategy).

Help! Time Machine Deleted My Oldest Backup!

So, time machine deleted my oldest backup (because it ran out of room)
I know it's supposed to do this -- but I didn't want it to.
On my oldest backup, I had a folder with lots of pictures and documents. Does time machine delete files that can't be found anywhere else?
I don't know what to do! Those pictures meant a lot to me!

Time Machine isn't meant to be used as an archiving utility, as you've now noticed.
If a file isn't on your internal hard drive, eventually TM will delete the copy in its backups.
If you wanted an archiving utility, you needed to look elsewhere
You may be able to use a data recovery software to get the files back--I suggest you turn off TM until you get this sorted.
Take a look at Data Rescue II here:
http://www.prosofteng.com/
~Lyssa

Concerns ALL Time Machine Users. HOW TO MOVE Time Machine backups. Help !

Concerns ALL Time Machine Users :
MOVE (or COPY) Time Machine backups from a "x"To Disk to an "y"To greater disk.
Hello and thank you all for reading me,
First, excuse me if I make language errors (I'm French).
Secundo, I don't know if you'll find something interesting for you
in what I write about Time Machine and my own problems,
but there's a possibility also that YOU could perhaps help me.
I'm talking about Time Machine and his **** Backups.backupdb folder,
containing "*Name of your Mac*" folder,
this folder containing Time Machine backups, format : YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS
Time Machine doesn't recognize the backups it made *IF YOU MOVE THEM*.
I have perhaps a solution in this message.
You'll see below what kind of problem I (and you could) have.
Since 12/01/10, an Apple Adviser Level Two (and me)
are trying to understand how to move backups from TM1To Disk to, let's say, a bigger one.
My case is TM1,5To.
*Purpose :* Move 19 backups from Time Machine X disk to Time Machine Y disk.
Delete TMX disk Time Machine backups after that.
Make TMY disk the current used Time Machine Disk.
I don't remember exactly what we did before
(we even created a "root" account with password (dangerous to do),
but it didn't solve the problem),
but we finally copied :
TM1To > Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro* folder (containing 19 backups) into :
TM1,5To > Backups.backupdb folder.
The Copy application announced *16 hours !* (without antivirus, to remove absolutely).
So I said goodbye and thank you to my Apple Adviser. After *8 hours*, Copy failed.
BUT it had succeeded to copy *4 backups ONLY* (why ?) in TM1,5To.
I immediately verified and checked each of these with Get Info.
They had EXACTLY the same size (Byte to Byte) as in TM1To.
➔ BUT HERE IS MY OBSERVATION :
After designing TM1,5To as Time Machine Disk, I ordered it to Backup (now).
And what did Time Machine do in TM1,5To > Backups.backupdb ?
It created a *NEW folder*, named *MacBook Pro 2* !
➔ *I HAVE NO ACCESS* to TM1,5To > Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro* (4 backups copied from TM1To, remember) ;
➔ while I still *HAVE ACCESS* to TM1To > Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro* (19 backups) ;
➔ *AND I HAVE ACCESS* to TM1,5To > Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro 2*,
where Time Machine makes actually his backups.
*NOTE :* If you *change the name* of your computer,
Time Machine *changes automatically the name* of the folder who is in Backups.backupdb folder.
➔ ① I have *never seen* such protections (Sharing and Permissions).
You are not allowed to do anything. I've tried to change permissions,
first : "R+W", after that : "Make (Me) the owner", I can tell you : DON'T DO IT !
➔ ② It's impossible to install an OS on a Time Machine disk
(I thought it would allow better permissions).
OS Installer detects the existence of a Backups.backupdb folder
and refuses to install on this disk or partition.
I have now the bad intent to install minimal OS X
1) after deleting (how ?) this folder (but not its contents, how to move it ?)
and 2) declare *after that* the disk as Time Machine disk.
➔ ③ Time Machine doesn't backup OTHER Time Machine backups
(who are in an ancient-not-choosed-for-backups Time Machine disk) NOR backups this disk
(detects, once again, the existence of a Backups.backupdb folder).
AND you can't *absolutely not remove backups from the folder the're in*
(for me, *MacBook Pro* or *MacBook Pro 2*).
➔ ④ I didn't have time to do it, but I think there would perhaps be a solution
in restoring backups in partitions specially created to receive them (having the same name,
that sort of thing) and then re-backup these partitions (vicious and complicated).
There is a function on Mac OS X Install DVD : start with it, and then (do not install)
choose "*restore from Time Machine backup*" from the menu bar (it's called "Utilities", I believe).
➔ ⑤ I *absolutely don't understand* what follows :
— If I add (in my TM1To disk) the bytes of the 19 backups
in Backups.backupdb > *MacBook Pro* folder, I obtain about *1,8 To*.
— It's impossible (and not french).
— When I check the size used with Disk Utility (NOT with Get Info),
I find a correct (?) size : *about 750 Go*.
— What are Time Machine backups made of ?
It can't be aliases (because of their size, and because *aliases suppose originals,
and where could they be ?*), or am I wrong and becoming crazy ?
➔ ⑥ If you refer to the numbers shown at the end of this text (*4 backups*),
you'll see I could *delete duplicate elements* inside these 4 backups,
to win space (but *what kind* of space *if I delete aliases* ?).
Back-In-Time (see below) says he does it.
BUT is it really the OLDEST items I have to destroy (see ⑤),
when I don't know with what kind of ARTEFACT I'm acting ?
What does Time Machine delete to create more backup space ?
Is it REALLY the OLDEST backups it treats, or duplicates, OR ?
*What you can do :*
Find and go to Tri-Edre.fr or Tri-Edre.com/fr site (it's a french company
that creates small Mac applications since fifteen years at least,
I think I already bought them several programs in 1990) ;
Their program *Back-In-Time 1.4.4* is free (Trial) and complete to download (with PDF docs too).
It is *ENTIRELY DEDICATED* to Time Machine and *things you can't do* with.
Price is about 30 €, I think it's worth.
The TRIAL version you will obtain can only work on the LAST Time Machine backup,
but you will see what's featured *AND :*
You will ACCESS to ANY Time Machine backup you want
(It has to be the last of a serie of backups, but the serie you want.
I've bought the application and own an activation key, but you understand I can't give it to you
(it would not be ethic) and anyway you would be obliged to disconnect AirPort, Ethernet etc.
•➔ I have bought the application because I thought (it's said in PDF FAQs) I could IN THE END move Time Machine backup files, but it cannot, (I'm afraid).
*BUT ANY ACCESS PROBLEM IS SOLVED.*
•➔ Back-In-Time 1.4.4 can *delete :* duplicate backups, complete backups,
or duplicate items inside one or several Time Machine backups,
things that I believe impossible with Time Machine itself
(I've seen it offers to delete ALL occurences of an item) ;
•➔ The application can also restore anything you want, where you want
(but I think Time Machine does it too ?)
•➔ Believe it or not, but since I've bought it on 15/01,
I've only worked about 2 hours (no, much more) on it
and didn't make sufficient progresses (enhancements ?)
to talk of it with sufficient experience (I'm a bad guy, don't you think ?)
•➔ Tri-Edre offers on-line support, e-mail support (and so on),
and I EVEN didn't manage to join them, because I did many other things,
and also somewhat have been disgusted *not to be able to move* or copy
*(accessible by Time Machine after that)* backups,
and I also didn't succeed (*another Time Machine inconvenient*) to DESTROY an ".inProgress"
Time Machine (package) which doesn't work anymore (several interruptions while active),
date (and name) 2010-01-27-164345.inProgress, but is used (*with failure results*)
by Time Machine (it's turned off till I find how to destroy its **** ".inProgress" package.
•➔ I've asked my Apple Adviser Level 2 to wait for news from me
before working himself on the problem, and I think I will send him this message
to prove I haven't forgotten him.
•➔ I'll send it to Tri-Edre too, in the same move.
I hope those remarks to be useful for somebody, tell me if it has helped.
I will also publish this in any Time Machine topics I find here, and in MacRumors site too.
As you can see, I need help too … Does anybody have an idea ?
Perhaps if I used a specific Copy software, it could work ?
You'll see below an example of some time I've spent to study my problem
(you will think I'm crazy).
With my kind regards, and good luck if you have other Time Machine problems !
Olivier Herrbach
<Edited by Host>
Le but du jeu est de transférer toutes les sauvegardes Time Machine
d'un volume/partition que nous appelerons "1 To"
sur un volume/partition que nous appelerons "1,5 To".
*Je rappelle que les 4 sauvegardes effectuées par Time Machine sur le 1 To
n'ont pas été reconnues comme siennes par Time Machine sur le 1,5 To,
bien que strictement identiques en taille après leur copie.
J'ai remarqué dans Back-In-Time des fichiers invisibles (tels que "TimeMachine.log"
ou quelque chose de genre), et je soupçonne fort qu'ils n'ont pas été copiés et que Time Machine,
ne les trouvant pas dans le 1,5 To, a ignoré à cause de leur absence les 4 sauvegardes décrites ici.*
*Sauvegardes effectuées par Time Machine sur 1 To :*
Path : MacBook Pro > Volumes > 1 To > Backups.backupdb > MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro contient 19 items (dont un alias appelé "Latest") :
1°) 2010-01-02-045758 Size : 913.207 B for 41.888 items comprenant :
• Hitachi 1 To Size : 907.664 B for 41.887 items 7 folders
Différence avec 1°) = - 5.543 B - 1 item (1 folder)
2°) 2010-01-03-001957 Size : 982.211.325 B for 67.490 items comprenant :
• Hitachi 1 To Size : 901.516 B for 41.886 items 6 folders
Différence avec 1°) = - 6.148 B - 1 item - 1 folder
• Samsung 500 Go Size : 981.302.510 B for 25.602 items 4 folders
Total • + • = Size : 982.204.026 B for 67.488 items
Différence avec 2°) = -7.209 B - 2 items (2 folders)
— *Supprimer • Hitachi 1 To* dans 2010-01-03-001957. Comparer les dossiers.
3°) 2010-01-04-222709 Size : 5.241.032.819 B for 26.509 items comprenant :
• Samsung 500 Go Size : 5.187.330.874 B for 19.392 items 8 folders
Différence avec 2°) = + 4.206.028.364 B - 6.210 items + 4 folders
• StartUp Disk Size : 53.692.703 B for 7.115 items 4 folders
Total • + • = Size : 5.241.023.577 B for 26.507 items
Différence avec 3°) = - 9.242 B - 2 items (2 folders)
— *Supprimer Samsung 500 Go* dans 2010-01-03-001957. Comparer les dossiers.
4°) 2010-01-05-125449 Size : 9.428.705.396 B for 204.915 items comprenant :
• HD 250 Go Size : 9.374.308.265 B for 181.575 items 7 folders
• Samsung 500 Go Size : 692.898 B for 16.222 items 8 folders
Différence avec 3°) = - 5.186.637.976 B - 3.170 items
• StartUp Disk Size : 53.692.703 B for 7.115 items 4 folders
Total • + • + • = Size : 9.428.693.866 B 204.912 items
Différence avec 4°) = - 11.530 B - 3 items (3 folders)
— Supprimer • StartUp Disk dans 2010-01-04-222709. IDENTIQUE.

Dear James Pond,
Thank you once again, and, don't be afraid, I will be as short as possible,
but I need to use your last reply (I've cut all what was already said).
JP ➔ You can copy an entire set of backups, but you cannot copy part of it successfully. See #18 etc.
JP ➔ Read this from the first paragraph: "you cannot copy only selected backups,
or merge two (or more) sets of backups." The structure of the backups simply will not allow it.
I've read it, and found it regrettable. And I've also read, after that, what were the solutions under Leopard and Snow Leopard, and my conclusion is that it's a *dead end* for me. In short,
— I can't move (by drag and drop) the 1To's Backups.backupdb folder (containing MacBook Pro, 19 backups, access) to 1,5To, because there exists already the Backups.backupdb folder created by copy on 12/01 with Apple Assistance (containing [MacBook Pro, 4 backups of 19, no access] and [MacBook Pro 2, 15 backups, access]). I don't even know if it could be deleted by the copy (and I don't wanna do that anyway) ;
— I can't rename (and what for, I already forgot it) any Backups.backupdb folder nor delete it ;
— I can't copy any Computer'sName folder (entire set containing backups), being in a Backups.backup.db folder, into another Backups.backupdb folder ;
— I can't copy any (or all of an entire set) YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS backup(s), being in a Computer'sName folder, into another Computer'sName folder (even if it would be empty).
— Saying NONE in Time Machine Preferences and putting it to OFF is simply no use.
All is said. What I can try to do is :
— Delete (not with Finder, but with Back-In-Time) all duplicate things I find in all backups and also entire duplicate backups (I have full access to all with the software) ;
— Restore each of the reduced-to-minimum backups obtained in specially right-sized partitions wearing the YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS name of each restored backup. Time Machine doesn't backup his backups, but will backup these partitions.
I'm afraid to be actually completely running out of the target, when I read what I write … It's time to go to bed !
Reminder (OH) : Where did you find these amazing informations ?
JP➔ Some of it is detailed here: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/12/roadto_maco[]sx_leopard_timemachine.html
➤ Thank you ;
JP➔ and here:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2007/10/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14
➤ Thank you too ;
JP➔ You have to understand the structure. When TM does the first backup, yes, it copies everything.
On subsequent backups, it copies what's new or changed, but also makes "hard links" (sort of like aliases) to the copies of the things that didn't change. That's how it can only back up a few things each time, but show you a complete "snapshot" of the way your entire system looked at the time of every backup.
➤ I'll do my best to understand.
JP➔ Time Machine deletes backups under two conditions. See the first part of #12 in the Frequently Asked Questions User Tip, also at the top of this forum.
Under normal circumstances, you should not have to delete any backups. See the rest of #12.
➤ I understood why Time Machine didn't delete oldest backups : they were not weeklies ones.
Reminder (OH) : How can I destroy the (corrupted ?) not working "2010-01-27-164345.inProgress" in 1,5 To, which causes Time Machine to abort any backup of any size I ask ?
JP➔ Why do you think it's corrupted? TM is designed to "recover" a partial backup.
➤ I'll verify that with the little Tools/Apps I discovered in your FAQ User Tip document and downloaded immediately.
Why didn't Apple tell me anything ? It's my fault, I'm perhaps not clear and not demanding enough more from them.
JP➔ You cannot install OSX on a disk containing TM backups. That's because they need to be on separate disks.
Technically, you could put them on separate partitions of the same disk, but that would not be a good idea.
➤ I never told you that (there would be no interest at all). I talked about the same location, to see if it would allow me more permissions, but if all works without doing it, it's really no use.
JP➔ Sorry, I don't know what that means.
➤ I'm sorry, I didn't explain : "but if all works" meant : Copy Backups.backupdb, "without doing it" meant : Install OSX.
➤ If I install an OSX BEFORE, Time Machine will REFUSE completely to backup on it, it's understood.
JP➔ Correct. The partition you're running from will not be an option in TM Preferences > Select Disk. That prevents TM from backing-up it's own backups!
➤ Would it be so absurd ? Maybe it could resolve my actual problem ?
I think you are right, but I don't know why. I trust you.
Reminder (OH) : "I will not bore you again except if I don't find a specific answer to an unknown-never-seen-incredible malfuction."
JP➔ Don't worry about that -- thats what this forum is for, especially if you're still having problems.
➤ It's seems in fact that there is no possible solution, except what I said above and is certainly crazy/out of subject.
Just try to be as clear and concise as you can.
And please don't post the same things repeatedly -- it wastes your time and ours, and can confuse other folks.
➤ You're absolutely right and I tried to do so this time, and I'm sorry because I see it's still (far) not enough (short).
Thank you once more. I wish you a good evening and week-end. Here it's 01:40 AM.
With my kind regards
Olivier Herrbach
[email protected]

I recently changed from a Mac Pro to an iMac. A large chunk of emails have disappeared. Time Machine is no help. Any ideas as to how I can get them back?

I recently changed from a Mac Pro to an iMac. Despite using Migration Assistant, a large chunk of my recent emails and nearly all of my wife's emails have disappeared in transit. Strangely, emails from my distant past are still there. Time Machine is no help; the messages may be on my backup disc but they're behind an invisible icon. Any ideas as to how I can get them back?

Quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.
Back up all data. That means you know you can restore the Mail database, no matter what happens.
Triple-click the text on the line below to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope Index
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C). In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder
from the menu bar. Paste into the box that opens (command-V), then press return.
A Finder window will open with a file selected. Move the selected file to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have names that begin with "Envelope Index". Move those files, if any, to the Trash.
Log out and log back in. Relaunch Mail. It should prompt you to re-import your messages. You may get a warning that the index is corrupt and that Mail has to quit. Click OK.
Test. If Mail now works as expected, you can delete the file you moved to the Desktop. Otherwise, post your results.

Exposé hot keys disabled after Time Machine "Delete all backups of file"

I have been having the same problem that was initially mentioned in this topic:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5850265#5850265
Namely, sometimes after I restart all of my Exposé and Dashboard hot keys have been turned off (but not the Spaces hotkey, just F9-F12). My hot corners for turning off or on the screensaver work just fine, but I have to manually go in and turn back on my Exposé hot keys. Some people said it was associate with WoW, but I am not running World of Warcraft. This last time it happened (this morning), I had removed all backups of a few files in Time Machine (what's the point of having a backup of a rented movie after the 24 hour viewing period has expired?). I have been looking for a way to report this to Apple, but have been unable thus far.
I just tested it to see if you have to restart, and you do not. About thirty minutes ago I turned all the Exposé hot keys on, and just a minute ago I deleted a backup of a file on my Desktop in Time Machine (by selecting, "Delete all backups of file ______") and the hot keys had been disabled again.
Does anyone know if there is a way to fix this?

Mechanist wrote:
At some point I told Time Machine to get rid of backups of a particular file using the "Delete all backups of ..." option. Time Machine duly deleted the backups of the file and stopped making new ones.
Not exactly. It did delete the existing backups, but didn't make any new ones because the file hasn't changed since then.
The easiest way to get it to back it up is to make a minor change to it (the name or something in the contents), then change it back. Time Machine should back it up on the next backup.
Alternatively, you need to force a "deep scan," where Time Machine compares everything on your system to the backups. Usually, just starting up from your Recovery HD will do that, although sometimes you have to start from it and Repair your internal HD to trigger it.
If you're not sure how to do that, see Using the Recovery HD and/or #6 in Using Disk Utility.

Doesn't Time Machine delete old backups when it needs more space?

I've had time machine running for a long time now. It worked flawlessly for quite some time.
Today it gave me the error that there was not enough free space on the disk to complete the backup (the error message says something like there is 360 GB of data on the Time Machine drive already, 140 GB of free space and it would require more than that to complete my backup). I have a 500 GB Time Machine disk and my Mac has a 500 GB hard drive, so I should technically never run out of space.
The Time Machine almost acts like this is the first time I've ever backed up, which is not true. Shouldn't Time Machine delete old backups to make space for the new? What's even weirder is that if I open the "Star Wars" window of Time Machine I only see one backup from March 31, 2011, but I have been running Time Machine for well over a year now. I'm totally confused as to what happened. Any advice on how to get my Time Machine back up and running (without buying a new drive) would help!

You see only one backup in the Time Machine window because Time Machine has deleted the older backups to make space to do the current backup.
Time machine needs some working space to do its backups, and so backing up a 500GB drive onto a 500GB time machine volume is not ideal.
However, I do essentially the same thing, and what I do, when I have this problem, is exclude things from the backup.
First off, figure out what you changed. If you moved things from one partition to another, then that will cause a backup of the size of the thing that was moved. This may be why you have a large backup.
When I have this problem, I exclude large things that have changed recently from the backup. This makes the backup smaller, and means that there is less working space needed. I do this until I get a successful backup. Then I remove things, one by one, from the exclusion list, and back up after each one.
So, for instance if you just put 4 new folders on your drive, each of which s 20GB of data and they are named A, B, C and D, add all four to the exclusion list, do a backup, then remove A from the exclusion list (leaving B, C & D on it) and do a backup, and continue like this, adding 20GB of backup data each time until none of the new data is on the exclusion list and you get a completed backup.
Another possible issue, if you use multiple partitions, is that Time Machine may be keeping an obsolete backup of a partition that you previously reformatted. To see if this is the case, go into time machine (The universe interface) and go back to the most recent backup it shows. Click on your computer and see what partitions show up-- are any of them old ones that have been reformatted and renamed? You may be storing a duplicate backup because Time Machine does not realize that the disk that went away isn't coming back (because it has been reformatted as a different partition)
You can right-click on these items and remove them from your backup by sleecting "Delete all backups of...." This will free up space as well.

Time Machine deleted my old backups and crapped out midstream

I had just gotten my failing hard drive replaced, and restored from Time Machine backup. So far so good.
So a week later, I wanted to upgrade to Mountain Lion, but figured I should be responsible and run Time Machine backup again before doing the upgrade just in case something goes wrong.
The Mac has a 4TB drive, which has 2TB free. The backup drive is a 4TB external drive, which has (or had) Time Machine backups going back two years or so. It still had over a TB of space left. I clicked on Backup Now and let it run overnight. I noticed it said "Deleting old backup to make room" or something like that, which I thought was normal.
I woke up in the morning to find that Time Machine had crapped out in the middle, and said that it couldn't complete. I realized that it had deleted all my old backups. It didn't need to do that, since the only files that had changed would have been less than a GB, and it had over a TB of space to work with.
It must have thought that everything on the drive had changed since the last backup, and it wanted to backup the entire drive. As such it tried deleting all my old backups! But it failed, and stopped in the middle.
Now I have a drive that still says there is only 1.2 TB of space on the drive, but I can't see the files! Even with Tinkertool, I can't see anything beyond the one most recent backup.
Can these files be recovered? I am totally ticked that there isn't some kind of confirmation like "Are you sure you want to delete X?"
I actually need to have some of these older backups, as they include files that had been deleted before the latest backup that I may need to retrieve. Any hard drive experts out there? Any terminal commands that can make these files accessible, even if I have to retrieve them manually?

To clarify, this all happened under Snow Leopard as I had said. My profile lists Tiger, since I haven't cared to update my personal profile since using that OS, and in fact I still use Tiger among other versions. I manage a lot of users. And I never got to upgrade to Mountain Lion on this system, as explained in the post above. So I don't see the confusion.
I don't think the model of Mac makes a difference for this type of problem, but in case it does, the incident was on a 2010 Intel iMac with a 4TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM. I would have mentioned that if this was a problem with hardware specific to the model of Mac. But this is more of a universal issue.
But to stay on topic, I'm guessing my old backups are toast. But if anybody has any experience with recovering from Time Machine deleting their old backups, I would be happy to hear from them. In the meantime, I am going to try to do some old fashioned file recovery, and see what I can salvage.

HT3275 TIme Machine deleting files I deleted from my home drive

This seems like a very basic problem but I cant find an answer and am no longer able to use Apple Support. I am trying to erase files from my very crowded home drive. I bought an external drive and backed up all fikles there. However, now when I delete files from my home drive and plug in the external drive, Time Machine delets the files I deleted from my home drive on the external drive which defeats my purpose. Can anyone help a hopelsessly tech savvyless stranger.
Thanks So much

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.
Time Machine backups are designed for recovery of accidentally or inadvertently deleted files. They aren't meant for primary storage of files you don't want on any other drive. In any case, drives eventually fail; anything you want to keep shouldn't be on only one drive.
(70364)

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.
Please help. Thanks

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.
Sometimes it might be best to not force quit but let it run for what may seem a extraordinarily long time. Were you about to use any other application during that time? If it happens again run Activity Monitor to see what's taking up the computer's effort. It just might be chugging along and not actually hung. TM is CPU heavy.

Time Machine deleted my first backup to make space for a new one, is there anyway to recover it?!?!

So I had all my stuff backed up to December 23 on an external hard drive with Time Machine, then I deleted it all so that the next automatic backup didn't have any of these older files. Today Time Machine deleted my original backup to make space for a new one and so I lost Decemer 23, now I am screwed..HELP?? I accidently let it delete or something, I don't really know, I know this was just a series of mistakes and now I'm desparate ):

Have a look at this article http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427 and section "backup drive fills up".
It's a normal behavior that Time Machine is deleting oldest backups when drive is filling up.

Undo Time Machine "Delete all backups of..."

At some point I told Time Machine to get rid of backups of a particular file using the "Delete all backups of ..." option. Time Machine duly deleted the backups of the file and stopped making new ones.
I've since changed my mind but I can't figure out how to get Time Machine to start backing up the file again. I know the old backups are gone, that's fine, but I want to start getting new backups.
The file is not in the exclusions list in Time Machine preferences.
Renaming the file isn't an option-- this file is used by a certain app that expects it to have a specific name.
Any ideas?

Mechanist wrote:
At some point I told Time Machine to get rid of backups of a particular file using the "Delete all backups of ..." option. Time Machine duly deleted the backups of the file and stopped making new ones.
Not exactly. It did delete the existing backups, but didn't make any new ones because the file hasn't changed since then.
The easiest way to get it to back it up is to make a minor change to it (the name or something in the contents), then change it back. Time Machine should back it up on the next backup.
Alternatively, you need to force a "deep scan," where Time Machine compares everything on your system to the backups. Usually, just starting up from your Recovery HD will do that, although sometimes you have to start from it and Repair your internal HD to trigger it.
If you're not sure how to do that, see Using the Recovery HD and/or #6 in Using Disk Utility.

Time Machine deletes oldest backups?!

So I'm starting to use Time Machine, now that my tape drive went south. I decided to rotate drives and use Time Machine.
I'm reading threads about rotating drives and it seems straight forward. Swap drive, tell Time Machine to use the drive that you swapped in.
Two questions:
1. Does Time Machine know that the 2nd and subsequent backups are incremental?
2. Is there a way to set Time Machine to ask *BEFORE* it starts deleting files?
Time Machine is cool. No doubt. What's not cool is how we have to jump through hoops to get decent backups, with very little "best practice" guidance from Apple.
I want to swap drives and hot have to poke through System Preferences > Time Machine each time I do.
I don't want to worry about being told *AFTER* the fact that Time Machine "deleted files to make space" which is absurd.
System Preferences > Time Machine > Options > [x] Notify after old backups are deleted
It's unacceptable that Time Machine does not warn *BEFORE* deleting oldest backups. That's a decision only the user should make.
Don

don montalvo wrote:
If you swap drives, Time Machine SHOULD be intelligent enough to know where to begin (based on what's on the drive). But it's not.
Yes, it is. A new drive will, of course, get a new full backup. Thereafter, if you swap drives, Time Machine will back up the changes made since the last backup to that particular drive, independent of any others.
If you swap, say, once a week, the first backup after the swap will be relatively long, of course, as there's a lot to "catch up." Time Machine might even have to do a "deep traversal," comparing everything on your system to the backups, which takes a while, too, but it will catch up.
So the issue of data being deleted automatically (where users are only told AFTER data is deleted) is still unresolved.
And it will remain the way it is; Apple clearly changed it because the downside to having backups fail was much larger than the after-the-fact notification. There were many, many threads in the Leopard forums where folks didn't understand or didn't heed the messages, and ended up with outdated backups when their HDs failed or were hopelessly corrupted.
And the issue of swapping drives being quite tedious is STILL an issue.
Yes, and there's no indication that will be changed, either. Apple seems to want to keep things as simple as possible. There are some workarounds, none entirely successful. Here's one: http://www.gearz.de/howto/OSX5/changeTMvol-sh-X6
can't wait for Lion to be released so we can see if things got any better.
There's no indication of anything like the things you're looking for in any of the published documents or even the rumor sites. That's all I can say.
While Time Machine has some elements of a traditional "Archive" type backup app, it just basically isn't one. Never has been, never will be. The main audience is the novice to casual user, or even the power user, who either won't, or doesn't want to, manage backups.
If you really want an traditional archive type system, get one. You can't make Time Machine into one.
See Kappy's post on Basic Backup for links to a number of various types.

Time machine deleted everything!!! HELP!!

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