Help: Can no longer see old time machine backups

Hello everyone and thank you for your help.
I have two computers, a Power Mac G5 tower and a Mac Book Pro both backing up using time machine to a USB drive connected to my Time Capsule. Previously my backup drive was connected via usb to my airport extreme, however when I moved the drive my Power Mac G5 stopped being able to see its old backups. However my Mac Book Pro can still see its backups. Both have always connected via WIFI for backups.
Also my G5 tower takes a very long time to "prepare" its backups (usually much longer than 30 minutes) while my mac book pro does not, any insight into why this might be?

Dude, was having the same problem; just saw this solution in the FAQ listed below you. It worked for me, just hold down the Option key while you click on the TM button and select "Other backups".
I had the same setup as you, an external drive that's been used as both an Airport disk and a locally mounted drive. TM gets confused when you switch it up like that.
17. What if I can't see my backups, or the Backups for a different Mac, via Enter Time Machine ?
TM keeps the backups for each Mac separate, and normally only shows the ones for the Mac it's running on, even if there are other Macs' backups on the same disk/partition.
Also, sometimes TM will start a new "sequence" of backups, as if they were from a different Mac.
To see these "other" backups, you need the (badly named) Browse Other Time Machine Disks option. It's available by holding down the Option key while selecting the TM icon in your Menubar, or by control-clicking (right-clicking) the TM icon in your Dock.
You'll see a selection screen showing all the disks/partitions that have TM backups on them. Select the one you want, and you'll be taken to the normal TM "Star Wars" interface, where you should see all the backups on that disk/partition.
This is the 3rd version of this tip. It was submitted on July 05, 2009 by Pondini.

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