How retrieve Time Machine purple backups?

How retrieve Time Machine backups older than now? Am using Lion (10.7.2). In Time Machine, all my backups that are older than 'Now' have purple date/time stamps and bars, and no 'populated' finder-like window to enable access to my older-than-now backups. My TM backups are on a Drobo S.

Kadege wrote:
Hello Pondini, I've got the same problem, nearly all dates are purple, older than some days. This moves with the time, some days ago, 25-Dec was available, today it isn't (but 26-Dec is).
Do you mean the Dec 25 backup is no longer shown in the TimeLine at all? If so, either it's been deleted, or your backups are corrupt. If you didn't delete it, try to repair your backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Or, if you mean the Dec 25 backup is there, but is faded-out and you can't select it, that's because whatever's in your Finder window before you Enter Time Machine wasn't included in that particular backup -- select something else before entering Time Machine, or in the Finder sidebar once you're there. See #15A in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions for details, especially the pink box there.
When accessing the Backup on TimeCapsule via Finder directly, I can see the volume (500 GB) has left 19,37 GB free. I can see, too, all the backups, which are purple in Timemachine, exist (beginnin in July 2011 when I bought the computer).
Yes, eventually, Time Machine will fill all the empty space available to it. Before that, it will periodically "thin" your backups, per the schedule on the Time Machine Preferences window -- all but the first of the day are deleted after 24 hours; those are kept for a month, then reduced to one per week.
Once the drive gets near full, it will start deleting the oldest backup(s) to make room for new ones. Since you have your first backups, that hasn't started yet, but probably will before long.
including system-sofware and applications, which I don't backup by Timemachine.
That's usually not a good idea. It saves relatively little space (perhaps 10-20 GB), and no time (after the first backup), but it means you can't do a full system restore from those backups, or use them with either Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant to set up a new Mac, or to transfer your stuff if you have to erase or replace your internal HD. Once you get this sorted out, I'd strongly recommend removing those exclusions.
Message was edited by: Pondini

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Retrieve Time Machine deleted backup files

Today Time Machine somehow didn't recognize my computer anymore and started a new full backup - and in order to free up space it deleted older backups. When I found out, it has already deleted ALL the history, and reported to me that there is not enough space. It's a mistake. I need the backup history. Anyone can help? Is there a software that can retrieve/recover those backup files/links made by Time Machine in the past months? Thanks much.

Wanderzhuanyou wrote:
No I couldn't find any clue there. I also searched the web with Google. I don't know what was the reason TM tried a full backup today (it says it needs 1.2TB space while my backup volume has only 600G).
unfortunately, TM has different ways of backing up to directly attached HDs vs. networked drives. my BUs go to a time capsule so i'm a bit on a limb here. however, it definitely looks like TM started a completely new BU. perhaps you should manually remove the latest BU.
then, try deleting this file HD/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist and restart your machine. next, go > system preferences > time machine > change disk and re-select your drive. start a backup.
what happens ?
Could be I had a IP conflict within my home LAN and the network seemed to reset the name of my iMac to "iMac-2".
this is easily remedied. go > system preferences > shared and edit your computer name back to iMac there. FWIW, this seems to happen when you have ethernet and airport connections going at the same time

HT201250 How does Time Machine allocate backup data.

I have over 150GB to back up with time machine and only 256GB HD to use, does Time Machine back up all files each time or only files updated after the last backup?

Time Machine first makes a full backup, and then, it makes incremental backups backing up only the files that have changed since the last backup. When the Time Machine drive gets full, Time Machine will start deleting old backups in order to be able to make new backups. If you want more information about Time Machine, see > http://pondini.org

Confused about how Time Machine merges backups

Okay, I understand how TM works and that it merges many daily backups into one days worth by the next day. I've been doing some experimenting with creating a file on my desktop, backing up with TM, and then deleting it and emptying bin. I try to access this file the next day with Time Machine but it is if it never existed. Time machine shows no sign of it. It's there when I have access to the hour by hour updates. But by the next day, when everything from the previous day merged, it's gone. Am I missing the point of Time Machine? Wasn't it created for situations when you delete a file accidentally and want to bring it back sometime in the near future? What am I missing here? Thanks for your help!

mikemac22,
The last hourly backup in a given day is kept as the "daily" backup. The last daily backup in a given week is kept as the "weekly" backup, and these are kept as long as possible.
Time Machine is mainly intended to be a backup and recovery tool. Yes, if you mistakenly delete a file, it can be retrieved. However, the importance of a file is based on the length of time it remains on your "source." I doubt Apple set out to make it this way, but rather made the decision to go with this paradigm as opposed to the alternative.
You see, there is an inherent trade-off in any backup solution that works as Time Machine does. It probably would have been easy to make Time Machine "consolidate" backups, but then disk space would be consumed at a much faster rate. At some point, some decision must be made concerning the question, "when can a file be deleted from the backup?" In the case of Time Machine, as it is, a file becomes important enough to keep when it has remained on the "source" for at least one week. If it is kept for a shorter duration, and not restored, it will be deleted at some point.
On the other end of the spectrum, files that exist only in the backup will be deleted entirely when the oldest remaining backup that contains them is deleted. This "thinning" must be done in order to make room for new backups. If this action was not taken, Time Machine would just keep filling up drives, and quickly.
Time Machine is not an "archive" utility, in any sense of the term. It is not intended to maintain multiple versions of a given file for your convenience. What it is intended to do is to allow for the (almost) immediate recovery of your entire installation- user files, applications, and all- in the event you must format (erase) your source, replace your internal hard drive, or even swap computers completely. As a bonus, it will allow you to choose from several (perhaps many, depending on the size of the backup volume) backups going back in time when you do have to resort to a "Restore."
Another bonus, of course, is the ability to restore individual files that you might mistakenly delete.
Scott

On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..

On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..

Go into Time Machine (the program not the bundle on the extrnal disk) and using Time Machine's browser go to the Folder where the library lives. You could look in the library bundle in Time Machine but that won't really tell you much,
If you want to make sure it truely has backed up your library you will need to restore it and open the restored library with Aperture.
If all this still has you confused you need to read up on Time Machine in order to get a feel for how it works, for what it is doing and for how to restore files from it.

How do I use time machine to backup to an external hard drive plugged into my airport extreme

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First thing to do is go to the Pondini tips page, then follow the link to his full TM site for all the details.

How can Time Machine be configured to backup external drives?

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External drives are automatically added to the list of items excluded from Time Machine backups. To remove the exclusion, open the Time Machine preference pane, click the lock icon to unlock it if necessary, and then click Options.

HT1175 How do I get Time Machine to backup Documents and Photos?

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Hi,
How to save SOME time machine Mac backups from the TM disk to other disk WITHOUT formatting the destination disk?
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Thanks for the reply. I do not think that is messy, anway. I simply used the same external disk as Time Machine disk for different Macs. And that worked OK all the time for years.
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Mac1
Mac2
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How do I upgrade to snow leopard and then restore my files from my time machine HDD backup...without losing any data or reinstalling leopard (10.5)?

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Retrieving Time Machine Files with Windows or Other Mac

Hi everyone. I'm using a MacBook 4,1 running 10.6.8 and I also have an external hard drive in order to use Time Machine for backup.
If my MacBook dies then all I'm left with is the aforementioned external drive. However since my files have been backed up via Time Machine – and not the usual copy/paste method – what happens then? Do I need to buy a new Mac or is it possible to retrieve those files with a computer running Windows?
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Pretty much how one might use Time Machine, where you browse backups by date, find the folders and files that you want and restore them back. You don't restore the entire backup.

Can I use Time Machine to backup ONLY an external drive?

I am having problems with the internal HD on my iMac and Disk Utility is telling me I need to reformat the drive and restore from backup. Only problem is that my 3TB Lacie Thunderbolt drive I was using for Time Machine recently failed (think it may have happened during an electrical storm brownout). Yep, I know, ***** to be me
The issues with the internal HD are preventing the iMac from booting and I would prefer not to have to purchase various repair software to find one that really works such as Disk Warrior or similar ((despite it getting very good reviews). I suspect it make be HFS corruption but no way to really tell that I am aware of.
I have setup an external drive with Yosemite and booted from that so now my old internal drive is seen as an "external drive".
I am using Disk Utility to make an image copy to a new 3TB external drive I purchased. Writing the DMG is going to take some time.
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Is this possible and if so can anyone advise how to do this. Does not seem I can exclude the system drive I am now booted from so that it is not backed up. (This makes sense that TM would be designed this way given its primary purpose is to backup a system).
If TM cannot be configured in this way, is there another option I can use?
Thanks
Andrew

Thanks for that advice. I have heard of it but a friend who does IT support at a University nearby suggested using Disk Utility to save an image - hence this is currently underway at present. Once this is finished I will try Carbon Copy Cloner.
I have another friend who has an older version of CCC - do you know if an old version will work ok or if only the latest supports Yosemite?
Also once I have the clone completed from CCC, is the process then to reformat the old internal drive and then clone from the CCC external drive back to the internal and then reboot and trust all is well?
Appreciate your help Csound1.
Regards
Andrew

Can I set Time Machine to backup both my hard drive and an external hard drive?

Hi. I've been working with a lot of family video lately and my internal hard drive has filled up significantly. iMovie doesn't seem to have a good archiving facility like Adobe InDesign which I use at work were all the relevant files are gathered together into one folder. Apple advised me to relocate my movie files to an external hard drive and herein lies my query.
Is there a way for me to set Time Machine to backup both my iMac's internal drive and the external hard drive that would contain my movie files? I've been using Time Machine for my backups for a few years now, but backing up the external as well has me stumped. If Time Machine could be used then all the necessary file accociations etc would be safely backed up as well - that's why I don't want to have to manually backup the external.
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7string48 wrote:
Thanks so much Pondini!! You just quickly answered a question that none of the Mac people in 3 stores or Apple Care have been able to answer.If you can format it HFS+ (any variation of Mac OS Extended), it will work. If not, it won't.
I'm not too surprised about the Apple Stores, as they don't get much training on Time Machine. But AppleCare sure ought to know.
Oh...what about if the external drive is an array...like a Drobo with it's own proprietary formatting...I guess that would not work...??
I've never used a Drobo. A number of folks here have used them as their Time Machine drives, but I don't recall seeing anyone try to back one up with TM, so can't say for sure. But if you can format it as HFS+ (any variation of Mac OS Extended), it will work. If not, it won't.
At least part of the reason is, Time Machine uses the File System Event Store, a hidden log of changes that OSX keeps on each Mac-formatted disk/partition, to figure out what's changed and needs to be backed-up. See How Time Machine works its Magic for details.
See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #32 for details and considerations of backing-up multiple volumes with Time Machine.
However, even if it will work, that may not be your best strategy, depending on your circumstances:
Since Time Machine keeps copies of things you've changed or deleted, the destination needs to be considerably larger than the data being backed-up. How much larger varies widely depending on how you use your Mac, but a general "rule of thumb" is, it needs at least twice the space to be able to keep a reasonable "depth" of backups for you.
If you have a large internal HD, fairly full, plus a large external HD, and the files on the external don't change frequently, you might want to use Time Machine for the internal, and a different app to a different disk or partition, on a different schedule, for the external. Especially if space is a consideration, you might not need to keep previous versions of files on the externals. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #27 for some alternatives.

How retrieve Time Machine purple backups?

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