Cant access time machine sparsebundle - "not recognized"

Question

Here is the situation:  My wife's MBP was recently reformated at an Apple Store to resolve some performance issues.  She has been running Time Machine backups for a few months now, and ensured before the reformat took place that a backup was performed so that all files would be recoverable.  I'd like to now selectively recover files from that backup (itunes, mail, documents, etc).
Here is what I've tried
(1)
First, the "normal way" doesn't work:  I enter TimeMachine and can see all the old backups in the timeline on the right, but can't browse back to them.  Oddly, the newer backups (since the day it was reformated) are there with grey ticks and dates and are browsable - the older ones are visible in the timeline in purple, but I can not click on any of them.  Despite the grey, I'm fairly certain that these recent backups are being stored remotely.
(2)
So, I tried to connect to the drive directly and open the sparsebundle file. Double-clicking this file does not work.  It tells me that the disk image couldn't be opened because it's not recognized. I can right click and "Show package contents", which shows the band folder and other seemingly useless stuff.
(3)
I tried repairing the file using DiskUtility.  I drag the file into the DiskUtility sidebar, and click repair.  It returns very quickly w/ no error or status.  I look at the logs and it says:
Unable to attach “XXXX’s MacBook Pro.” (not recognized)  (XXXX is my wife's name, removed for privacy )
(4)
I tried mounting the sparsebundle file using the command line:
$ hdiutil attach -nomount -readwrite /path/to/backup.sparsebundle  (again, /path/to/backup.sparsebundle was replaced w/ actual path and file name)
it returns:
hdiutil: attach failed - not recognized
(5)
I hold down alt/option while clicking on the time machine icon and click Verify.  That seems to run fine and reports no errors!
This is my first time messing with this stuff, other than configuring the machines to backup to begin with.. so I feel like I must be doing something wrong.
Here is what is especially weird:  my Macbook Air also has time machine on and is backing up to the same drive.  I can view *all* my old backups (purple or grey) by "entering" time machine in the interface... but have all the same failures on steps 2-4 above.  In otherwords, I can't open it's sparsebundle either, despite no indications of any issue in the "starwars like" GUI interface.
I've dug through the forums, and read through a lot of Pondini's posts/troubleshooting guides on the subject.  I'm getting nowhere.. any help?
Thanks!
-Ben

Answer 1

Benjamin192 wrote:
First, the "normal way" doesn't work:  I enter TimeMachine and can see all the old backups in the timeline on the right, but can't browse back to them.  Oddly, the newer backups (since the day it was reformated) are there with grey ticks and dates and are browsable - the older ones are visible in the timeline in purple, but I can not click on any of them.  Despite the grey, I'm fairly certain that these recent backups are being stored remotely.
Yes, the white/gray ones are "Local Snapshots" stored on the internal HD, and the pink/purple ones are on the external drive.
The reason you can't see them normally is, the internal HD was reformatted.  That gives the drive a new UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier), which OSX uses to keep track of drives, and means it's treated as a different disk for most purposes.  If the data is put back properly, Time Machine should automatically treat it as the same, but sometimes it doesn't.
See if you can view the backups from the MBP via the procedure in #E3 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting
(2)
So, I tried to connect to the drive directly and open the sparsebundle file. Double-clicking this file does not work.  It tells me that the disk image couldn't be opened because it's not recognized.
That usually means it's damaged. 
I tried repairing the file using DiskUtility.  I drag the file into the DiskUtility sidebar, and click repair.  It returns
very quickly w/ no error or status.  I look at the logs and it says:
Unable to attach “XXXX’s MacBook Pro.” (not recognized)  (XXXX is my wife's name, removed for privacy )
So does that. 
(4)
I tried mounting the sparsebundle file using the command line:
$ hdiutil attach -nomount -readwrite /path/to/backup.sparsebundle  (again, /path/to/backup.sparsebundle was replaced w/ actual path and file name)
it returns:
hdiutil: attach failed - not recognized
And that. 
(5)
I hold down alt/option while clicking on the time machine icon and click Verify.  That seems to run fine and reports no errors!
That's pretty strange.  Are you doing that from the MBP?  If not, it may be verifying the wrong sparse bundle.
Here is what is especially weird:  my Macbook Air also has time machine on and is backing up to the same drive.  I can view *all* my old backups (purple or grey) by "entering" time machine in the interface... but have all the same failures on steps 2-4 above.  In otherwords, I can't open it's sparsebundle either, despite no indications of any issue in the "starwars like" GUI interface.
There are two rather important tidbits you haven't mentioned:
*  Exactly what are you backing-up to?  It doesn't sound like a Time Capsule, as you mention that you "tried to connect to the drive directly".
* What version of OSX are both Macs running?