Can I use Time Machine for data recovery?

Hi All,
This might seem a bit confusing at first, so please be patient - and thanks in advance.
I'll try to make this as simple as possible:
1) I had an external HDD that (i stupidly didn't back up) that I used to free up memory on my MB Pro. I knocked it off my desk and it's now unrecoverable - there is a 'might be able to get some data back. but it will cost up to $2000' option.
2) To free up said memory, I moved all the big stuff - photos, movies, documents, iTunes libray to this HDD.
3) Now, before I did this, I was already - and still am - using ANOTHER HDD for my Time Machine back ups.
4) Does anyone have any idea as to whether I could salvage the above mentioned data from an old TM snaphot (?) - assuming it hasn't been over written already?
5) And, if it's possible, can it be done without rolling back the MB to the appropiate date??

Hi Thomas,
Thanks for the quick response! But I didn't think I explained myself very well :s
I originally had everything on the MB internal HDD, and only had 1 HDD which was / is still, my TM HDD.
I then moved all the photos, music etc to the 2nd HDD, to free up memory on the MB HDD.
I dropped the 2nd HDD and it's beyond recovery.
What my thought is - given that originally all the data would have been backed up on the TM HDD, can I recover it from there? (If it hasn't been over written of course)
I'm unsure if the 2nd HDD was included in TM backups. It was usually connected to the MB when TM was running...

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Possible, but not advisable.
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What OS X does your newer MacBook have running in it? (Not linux?)
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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5872
•OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mountain Lion 10.8 and Earlier:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4889
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Sorry for any confusion.
I'll more carefully reply in the future.
Good luck & happy computing!
PS: a different direction on archives, time machine, clones, and other devices:
•About Time Machine - Time Machine vs. Clones and Archives:
http://pondini.org/TM/Clones.html
•Apple OS X and Time Machine Tips:
http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
{edited to add link details}

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P.

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http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/14.html
Back to Snow Leopard from Lion install method
Read and print out these instructions, your computer is going to be offline and you wil be cutoff from help until your machine is restored.
Clear the Desktop, Downloads and Trash of anything you wish to keep by placing their files in the respective Documents, Music, Pictures, Movie folders.
Disconnect other drives except the sole backup drive.
Backup ALL your Users folders (Documents, Pictures, Movies, Music etc) manually (drag and drop methods) to a (not TimeMachine) external powered drive (HFS+ journaled formatted in Disk Utility) and disconnect, your going to be wiping the entire boot disk of ALL DATA.
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Here we go!
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http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399
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My MacBook Pro hard drive filled up with movies, pictures, and music, so I bought a 2TB Time Capsule. I have a external hard drive that is about the same capacity as my MacBook hard drive. Sine the Time Capsule is by far the largest drive I have, I moved all my movies, music, and pictures to the Time Capsule and am using it as an external hard drive. I attached a 500GB external hard drive to the Time Capsule and I use that as the backup drive for Time Machine. However, the problem I am encountering is that I can't seem to direct Time Machine to include all of my files on my Time Capsule in the back up on to the other external hard drive.
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Thanks,
David

You need to use a different utility .. eg CCC or Chronosync to backup from the TC to yet another drive.. the problem is, that drive should be connected to the computer.. if you use a USB drive on the TC.. the file copying will be slow as slow as you will not believe.. all files are copied to the computer, then back to the TC.. it cannot copy directly to the TC..
As Neil said.. one way or another you need to use an external drive on the computer, even if you don't use it all the time.. the danger of course is not doing regular backups.. and forgetting their importance.
A true NAS will have automated backup incrementally of the files stored.. The TC is not a NAS in that sense.. it is a backup target for TM above and beyond anything else.

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Can I use Time Machine to retrieve mail that was in Trash on my MacBook Air OS X Yosemite, after I Emptied that Trash?

Interesting question. I don't think you can because Time Machine would have deleted the data in subsequent backups because it was removed from the computer. But you never know about these things until you actually try it, which I've never done. So, why don't you give it a try. Worst that can happen is it's not there and you're no worse off than now.
If you need help with restoring mail from Time Machine: Please visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine. Also open Mail and select Mail Help from Mail's help menu. Search for 'restore mail' and see if you don't find some instructions there, too.

Can i use time machine instead of restore discs

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John.Kitzmiller wrote:
Time Machine backups are not necessarily computer specific, however TM does not back up the OS
Yes, it does, unless you've specifically told it not to. That's how you can do a full restore of an entire system from a TM backup, even if it's a previous version of Leopard.
, so there's really no way to do what you're trying to accomplish.
That's not the practical issue. As pointed out earlier, the practical issue is, the TM backup for one type/model of Mac won't run on another, as the hardware drivers, etc., are different. Worse, the 2009 Mac Mini has an Intel processor; a G4 has a PPC processor.
Plus as already pointed out, it would be a violation of the EULA.
Correct.

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Only if you have a full backup of Mountain Lion on your Time Machine backup drive. Then you can boot to the Recovery HD that is on the Time Machine backup drive, erase your drive, then do a full Mountain Lion restore. But if you have already used Time Machine to backup your Mountain Lion system, then this won't work. You will need to erase the drive and reinstall Mountain Lion separately. Then you can restore your Home folder from the Time Machine backup.
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Try these in order testing your system after each to see if it's back to normal:
1. a. Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
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2. Restart the computer in Safe Mode, then restart again, normally. If this doesn't help, then:
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How can I use time machine to back up and play media?

I just bought an external hard drive that I wanted to back up some media files onto (music and photos). I also want to stove videos/movies on the hard drive and play them from there. A few questions:
1. Is that the same as backing up with time machine or is it referred to as something else?
2. Can I use time machine to add new files, or should I do that manually?
3. Once the files are on my hard drive, can I remove them from my computer or should I keep them there?
I know that these questions may seem obvious, but I'm concerned about losing files because I don't understand what time machine actually does. Please feel free to ask me questions if you need to understand my question better. Thanks!

Time Machine makes a backup of your hard drive, which you can restore from, but not use as a repository of data.
Time Machine automatically makes incremental backups as you change things on the Mac HD.
Time Machine is not an archive, meaning if you make a backup, and then delete the originals from your Mac, Time Machine will eventually delete the copies it has made.
However, if you copy the files directly to the external, then you can remove them from the computer. But, those will be your only copies. If that disk dies, they'll be gone. So, that's really not a backup. It's the only source.
You can back up to Time Machine and also store other files on the same disk.

Can I use Time Machine for data recovery?

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