How to get back missing files - time machine problems

3 weeks ago, I bought a new iMac (let me call it A) and put everything from my old iMac onto it using Migrate Assistant via WLAN. It worked fine, but when I found out 2 days later that my 'new' iMac (A) had just been replaced by the 2013 iMac, I was really annoyed and contacted the store. They agreed to change it and so today, after the hourly time machine backup, I disconnected the external hard disk and deleted what I could off the machine that was going back to Apple. Plugged in the brand new iMac (B) today and when prompted, got it to transfer data from my time machine backup. However, although the programmes are there etc. the 'last backup' it used was the one from 20 September, the day before I first connected it to the (A) iMac. And so a lot of documents are missing. When I go onto time machine, it just has a lot of blanks inbetween 20 September and today, although it had been backing up on that 'new' iMac (A) every hour it had been on, but it seems that none of these have been saved. Now it has done a couple of backups today, so there are some new backups under today, but before that, just blanks until 20 September. Firstly, can I get the missing files back?  And secondly, what has gone wrong and what should I do to time machine to make sure it doesn't do this again? Thanks!!!

Hi Guys,
I would really like to know, if anyone has an answer to this because I would like to be able to re-download some of my podcasts that I deleted to clear up some disk space.
Thanks very much,
John

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