Lost faith in Time Machine

I've lost faith in Time Machine and am looking for a better solution.
I had used TM, but found what I feel is a serious flaw. I tried some searches, but haven't found any info on it. What is happening is this...
Create a file
Time machine backs it up
After some time the backup gets corrupted
When the drive is close to full backup archives are deleted so only the corrupted version is left. Going 'back in time' doesn't help since the uncorrupted version has dropped off.
So, when one figures out that the file is corrupted, there is no uncorrupted version left on the drive. I would like a system that can compare the backup to the original and either automatically repair or ask me which is correct.
I've checked RAID levels, but from the descriptions I've read they don't seem to actively compare files and repair corruption.
Any ideas? I imagine something is out there that could create parity bits from the file data and occasionally checks the parity for errors.
Thanks in advance.

I haven't used TM in years myself.
Carbon Copy Cloner...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Is a much better way, just un-check Erase Destination, under Target Disk, choose New Disk Image, under Cloning Options choose Incremental Backup.
Look into something like SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
Or the most expensive one & my favorite, ...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html

Similar Messages

Aperture Lost Masters after Time Machine restore

Hello, everybody.
I have such problem. I experience some problems with mouse freeze after 10.6.3 update and tried to solve this problem by restoring my backup copy of system from Time Machine. I restored full hdd. All working ok, but Aperture lost links to Masters. I did not save pictures in Aperture library all of them imported to library as linked to original files (save in current location). I see files using Finder, I could find each file through check reference files in Aperture. But it almost impossible to do it for each file in Aperture Library (more than 20000+ files) manually. How i could fix this problem? OS 10.6.5, Aperture 3.1.1

If I'm reading your post correctly these are *referenced masters*, correct? And Aperture has lost the connection to them but you still can see them on the drive. Now you want to reconnect them.
# Select all the images in Aperture that Aperture has lost its link to. You can use a *Smart Album* to so this. In the *Smart Album* select *Add Rule* then in the rule select missing. This will give you an album of all missing files. Select them all.
# Goto *File->Locate Referenced Files*. All the missing files will be listed. You can reconnect them from here. It can be a bit tricky so it would be best if you read the section on this in the Aperture Users manual.
Good luck

Lost Events from Time Machine

I've lost some Events from a Time Machine backup and I'm pretty sure that I'm never going to get them back but I wondered if anyone else has had this experience and whether you were able to explain what happened. I want to make sure it doesn't happen again.
I regularly make time machine backups, and last year the following happened:
12 July 2012 - Time Machine Backup
29 July 2012 - Import a new event to IPhoto
30 August 2012 - Import a new event to IPhoto
29 September 2012 - Time Machine Backup
19 October 2012 - Time Machine Backup
I know the two events imported successfully because I used them to upload a select few photo's to FB and I also ordered a few from photobox.
This week I viewed the 19 October backup and the two events are missing, they are also missing from the September backup. I have noticed that both the iphoto backup files in Sep and Oct say last modified on 12 July 2012 which is a bit wierd.
I've tried TestDisk and PhotoRecovery, and also bought DiskDrill, I recovered over 60,000 jpegs but these two events have completely disappeared. I ran the software recovery on the MacBook HardDrive, the TimeMachine Harddrive and my camera. No luck on any of them.
The camera is a Lumix Panasonic DMC-FZ38 in case that matters.
If anyone has any idea whats gone wrong, I'd be grateful of some help so I dont lose any more photos. I've tried the Genius Bar at Apple but my helper didn't know what to suggest.
Cheers

A couple of things as you note TM is not an archive system. It is a back up system and anything removed from the computer will eventually be removed from the backup
Also TM is not designed to be run occasionally. It should always be running doing hourly backups. Running it the way you do totally defeats it purpose and because each run has so many changes makes it much more likely to have problems are for you to lose track of what you have. Based on your dates I'm guessing that for some reason a number of your runs failed and you missed or ignored the failure notices
And note that TM could not delete an event. It could fail to complete a backup so the latest library is not backed up or it can delete so older library so old events go away but is can not parse the iPhoto library and remove an event
I strongly suggest you use TM the way it was designed and leave it always running
LN

How do I restore lost emails with Time Machine?

I would like to know how I restore lost drafts that I had on my mail program 6.6 with Time Machine.
I forgot that when you restore the mail program (was buggy) it saves all your emails except for your drafts. So now I need to find all the drafts that were deleted with my Time Machine.
Where are the drafts store prior to when I have to delete my mail program because of bugs in it?
How do I find them once I launch Time Machine. Can't recall where they are stored in my systems folder?
Thanks for any help regarding this.

From Apple support article: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
To restore individual files see Restoring specific files or folders.
Restoring your entire system from a backup
Hold down the Command and R keys at startup to start the computer from the Recovery system. The Recovery menu that appears includes the option to restore from a Time Machine backup. If you are using Mac OS X Snow Leopard, start your computer from the installation disc. Then use the "Restore From Time Machine Backup" utility.
The Recovery system explained: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

Hard Disk Data lost due to time machine back up

My external WD hard disk initially has my files in it.
After agreeing on the mac to use it as time machine backup for it,
the files got erased.
Any idea if I could get the hard disk data back???/

Data Recovery Programs
Data Recovery – Best
Data Recovery – Disk Drill
Data Recovery – Data Rescue
Data Recovery – File Salvage
Data Recovery – Stellar Phoenix
Data Recovery - uFlysoft
Data Recovery – Best
Data Recovery – Disk Drill
Data Recovery – Data Rescue
Data Recovery – File Salvage
Data Recovery – Stellar Phoenix
Data Recovery - uFlysoft
Data Recovery - Recovering Deleted Files
Data Recovery - Recovering Deleted Files (2)

How can I retrieve a lost file in Time Machine?

Hi,
I'm using a Western Digital Elements 1TB external hard drive to back up my MacBook Pro.
One day, I noticed that one of my fiels were missing, so I went in to the time machine looked for it (roughly the time period when I created it),
but it wasn't there.
Is it possible to loose files in time machine?
Is there any way to retrieve them?
Please help.
Thanks

Note: the User's Library is hidden by default. It's also hidden in Time Machine. You have to be in the User's Library in order to restore items from Time Machine.
Under Go in the Menu bar hold down the Option key and select Library.
Scroll down to the 'stickiesdatabase'
If you don't see the file, open Stickies and create a new test sticky. This will create the 'stickiesdatabase' file.
Once you see the file, select the file.
Enter Time Machine.
You should enter in your User's Library showing the file.
Go back in time to when your actual file existed with your data.
Select Restore.

Lost events after Time machine restore of IPhoto library.

My external hard drive failed. On it was my primary iPhoto library. My motto has been "In Time Machine I trust." I restored the contents of the external drive on to another external drive and the last month and a half of events are empty. The events were restored with file names etc, but no photos only a grey exclimation mark. I looked in the original folder and found those events do not have a folder. How did the IPhoto "database" get backed up , but not the contents?

Check inside the iPhoto Library package in the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder or the Originals (iPhoto 09 or earlier) folder to see if their subfolders actually are empty or do contain the original files. DO NOT RENAME, DELETE OR MOVE ANY ITEM INSIDE THE PACKAGE USING THE FINDER.
If the original files are there apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

Searching for lost files in Time Machine

I save all of the E-mail messages to and from selected friends. I had thousands of such messages in the MAIL folder that was labeled, "Local E-mail (I also have a similar file entitled "Overseas E-mail)". Anyway, one moment, my entire "Local E-mail" file was gone, and I couldn't find it again. I believe this happened when I was deleting some MAIL files that I no longer wanted, and I might have accidentally clicked on the wrong file. I have to assume that all of the missing files can be found in Time Machine, but I have never found searches there to be particularly productive. I would apprecIate ideas on how to go about retrieving the missing file)s).

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
          Services ▹ Open
from the contextual menu.* A folder should open. Inside it are subfolders representing your Mail accounts. The names refer to the email addresses you use.
Enter Time Machine and scroll back to the snapshot you want. Select the account folders you want and then select Restore ... to... from the action menu (gear icon) in the toolbar of the snapshot window. Restore the folders to the Desktop, not to their original location.
From the Mail menu bar, select
          File ▹ Import Mailboxes...
Choose Apple Mail as the format and import from the mailboxes in the folders you restored to the Desktop. The imported messages will appear in a new mailbox. Move the ones you want to keep wherever you like and delete the rest. Then delete the folders on the Desktop.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
          Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Lost In The Time Machine - Help!

Hello,
I sincerely apologize, in advance, if I am repeating old history here and for all the questions.
Time Machine has got me confused… I’ve read the FAQ’s/Threads but still not sure about how to proceed. I’m a ex Microsoft Windows guy and Mac newbie. And I am completely in love with this MacBook. I’m never going back to Microsoft land.
The Setup is - External 1TB LaCie HD with two partitions to backup a MacBook Pro and a Macbook (250 GB HD’s each). Both MacBook’s are on home wireless network using the Airport Extreme (not Time Capsule).
Time Machine is optimized to do hourly backup's (which I personally think is crazy...). The documentation I read strongly suggests not to change the backup time since the Time Machine SW is optimized to work that way. However, there is reference to a "Time Machine Editor" software (assume third party SW?) to modify the time settings of these backups. But, it seems the literature does not recommend using it or better yet, use it at your own risk type of thing. I don't do enough "stuff" to merit hourly backups. I think daily would be optimum.
My initial thinking was, if I have to do hourly backups then it seems that the external HD would have to be directly connected to my MacBook Pro. Which means the other MacBook is not being backed up. However, that was my most likely flawed initial thinking.
So, some questions (tried to limit it to five):
1. I first need to do an initial full backup on both MacBook’s. So, assume I would direct connect the ext. HB to each machine to accomplish that?
2. Then, I am assuming, the only way to properly set this up is to connect the ext. HD to the Airport Extreme? That way the hourly backups can be done for both machines over the wireless network. Personally, I would prefer to directly connect the drive to each machine, at the end of the day, and do a daily backup. But, I guess that would not be the best way to proceed and probably a bit painful to do.
3. The Airport Extreme has one USB port which is being using for sharing a printer. So, again I am assuming I would need a USB hub to connect the printer and the ext. HD?
4. If backup's have to be done hourly, how does that work when the computer is in Sleep mode? How does it work if I am working on something when it tries to backup? For instance, I read that iPhoto needs to be closed when doing backups. And I use iPhoto a lot. Do, I have to stop everything, every hour, for it to do its incremental hourly backup?
5. Is the “Time Machine Editor” SW a safe way to change the time of backups?
I really don’t get the hourly backup thing. I know these HD’s are mechanical hardware and can fail. But I’ve got to believe they are more reliable than needing to be backed-up every hour.
I would greatly appreciate any help in getting this setup correctly. Thanks, in advance, for the help!
DMerz

Hello, TeenTitan, Csound1 and Pondini:
Thanks all for taking the time to provide excellent and thorough replies!
Ok, so I think I'm getting it straight now but just a couple more questions to completely cement this in my head.
TeenTitan wrote:
When you setup timemachine, one of the things your telling time machine is how to get to the hard drive. If it's directly connected, then it's going to continue to look for the drive being directly connected.
If you want to have time machine work over the network; then you should configure the drive to be on the network, and then do you first backup over the network. It's a good idea to connect the computer to the network by ethernet, with wireless off, so the first backup happens over 1000 mb/s ethernet instead of 5-50 mb/s wireless.
Having the drive on the network would make it easier and more convenient to do backups. It would take less work out of making backups. You wouldn't have to remember to 'plug-in.' If some thing stops working there is more to trouble shoot.
Direct connecting the drive is more stable, there is less to troubleshoot if some thing breaks. this also give you a very easy way to control when backups will happen. if you only want to backup ones a day, then only plug-in the drive ones a day.
*Excellent! And also straight inline with what Pondini wrote below. Plus, I was missing the fact that, if I chose the Airport Extreme method I would need to first configure the wireless network with the ext. HD and then do the initial backup via the ethernet port on the Extreme.*
*Also, please see my summary below/final questions to check if I am going on the right path now.*
Csound1 wrote:
Please ignore any advice about connecting TM drive to the USB port on an Apple Extreme, that method is neither reliable or supported by Apple!
*I appreciate your comment but it seems contradictory to what Pondini and TeenTitan have said. Plus, if memory serves when I first bought the MacBook's and Extreme, I seem to remember the Apple store dude telling me I could connect a ext. HD to the USB port and do backups (though he didn't provide details on how to do that). So, I don't want to dismiss your comment but it was a fairly strong statement. Do you have a document link that expressly says that or is it from personal experience?*
DMerz wrote:
Personally, I would prefer to directly connect the drive to each machine, at the end of the day, and do a daily backup.
Pondini wrote:
Yes, you can do that. It's faster and more reliable than any wireless backup, and much better than via an Airport Extreme. Time Machine won't object to it, either. Just be sure to eject the drive before disconnecting it. Then Time Machine will just wait patiently until you connect it again to do a backup (using no CPU).
*Ok, so Time Machine will sense that the ext. backup drive (used for initial backup) is not connected and wait until it "sees" it is connected again. This is a major point I was hoping was the case. This, in essence, let's you avoid the hourly backup time constraint.*
*So, when I properly eject the ext. drive, do I need to adjust any settings in Time Machine? I noticed there was this big "On/Off" button. Or do I just leave it alone and let it look for the ext. HD? If it can't find the ext. HD (when it goes for the hourly backup), will it hang up the system? I think you answered that by saying it will "wait patiently" until I hookup the ext drive again. When I hookup the ext. drive, will I need to start Time Machine or will it do it on its own?*
I'm not crazy about the wireless Extreme method (though it sounds like it would work), so I think I will go the direct connect route.
*Here is my summary of what I propose to do based on the excellent responses you all provided (please correct me if I'm going in the wrong direction):*
a. Do direct ext. HD connects for initial backups to both MacBooks.
b. Leave the ext. HD connected to my MacBook pro, at all times, when I am on it. Which it will do the hourly backups. And this is even more appropriate since I use my MacBook Pro more hours in the day.
c. The second MacBook, which my 87 yr. old Mom uses (LOL), is most definitely not needed to be backed up hourly. She just uses the internet (Facebook, online bridge) and iPhoto once in awhile. So, I can backup her's once a day after I am done using mine and it is shut down.
Does, that sound like a good plan?
Please let me know if a., b., and c. are ok to do and any comments to the other questions I had.
*You all have been FANTASTIC and I immensely appreciate the help!*
DMerz

Lost Backups in Time Machine - Time Capsule

Last week I decided to upgrade to Mountain Lion. I was running low on space on my harddrive so I decided I would delete some things in order to upgrade & after I installed Mountain Lion, I would put the files I needed back on using Time Machine. I have a 500GB Time Capsule & my computer backs up at least 3-5 times a week, so I thought I'd be safe.
I went ahead with the install & then went into Time Machine. When the backups showed up, I have most of my backups there, dating from 2009 to about 2011, but from 2012 up until the present there is nothing. I can see the dates on the side where it backed up, but I can't click on them like I can the others.
Does anyone know anything that would help me get these files I need back from the blackhole that seems to be my Time Machine or am I just screwed?

Manually mount the backup and search with finder..
Use the method Pondini gives here.
http://pondini.org/TM/15.html
Look through all the stuff on restore.. Q14-18..
You did not just copy the files or folders.. to TC.. ??

Lost data from time machine

hi. I have a good old MacBook. Around 6years I've owned it without it ever putting a foot wrong right up until a free upgrade to mavericks.
Having used mavericks for for a couple of weeks I was disappointed. everything had slowed down and it became very frustrating. (Why does apple give upgrades to machines that can't handle them?) I decided to go back to snow leopard. Oh wait, I can't downgrade! Thanks apple. So after looking at these forums I deleted the hard drive and reinstalled from my boot discs. Excellent I thought. I attached my time machine drive and went back to a date just prior to mavericks recover. Clicked restore. Waited for 3 hours to find basically nothing had restored. No music on itunes. No photos on iPhoto. And on and on. I decided to try again and use the option to restore from TM during the install. Got my log in screen. Thought bingo! Password rejected! What?!? It's the only password I ever used!! Read these forums. Got some advice. Tried again. Reset my password in disc utility. Got to the screen. Excellent. Logged in. Where are the photos. Where are the applications. Where is my music. Things like iPhoto iTunes FaceTime all greyed out. During all of this debacle on one attempt I had a message telling me time machine was full and it had to delete old back ups. fair enough. So now I check the TM drive and there are only 3 files. THREE!! There were hundreds before I started this debacle. One happens to be the one just before the upgrade so I thought that's ok. Still got everything I need.

Somehow - I don't know how I have all my data. I sorted out the log-in loop by re-installing the OS-X snow leopard. even though iPhoto doesn't work the files are there in the 'all pictures' folder in finder.
Now, here is another problem - I have also re-installed the bundled applications disc but I cannot use iPhoto, contacts, facetime,iTunes, iMovie. this I do not understand. Everything has been installed as intructed but the icons are grayed out with a circle with a line through it over them, I don't want to download iPhoto at cost as I already paid for it once.

Finding Lost Bookmarks in Time Machine

So I just backed up my computer, and I used time machine, my hard drive was wiped, and I am trying to recover my bookmarks for chrome, but I can't find the "Default" folder in the time machine Under "Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome"

Hello ek:
As I recall, the only way to backup iCal is to use the backup feature from the menu bar>file. That will place a backup of iCal data that may subsequently restored into iCal. There is an older post someplace that explains this in more detail. Since I do not have any critical calendar items, I have not bothered to do this. I have tested what i described, however, and it does work.
If iCal is not retaining your data after you close it, you have a different problem (I could not tell from your post).
Barry

Can I restore a lost note from Time Machine?

I had a note "document" on my macbook air that dissappeared. I have been regularly backing this mac
up with Time Machine and figured that I should be able to find an old copy, but I can't figure out
how to search Time Machine for notes. Any suggestions?

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes
Right-click or control-click the line and select
Services ▹ Reveal
from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item selected. Quit the application if it's running. Restore the selected item from the most recent backup that predates the unwanted changes.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C). In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Lost folders after time machine backup

I have been moving my office and did not do a time machine since 2/09. Finally found the drive while unpacking and plug it into my laptop...took a bit but finished with no issues. This morning I turned the laptop on and every folder that had a 2009 label is GONE!...missing, everything from photo folders to work and customer folders with everything inside too. Even my 2009 Quickbook program is gone alone with the data!
I finally got back from the office and plugged in the time machine backup and there is nothing there either!
HELP, any ideas?

SLee_Meridian wrote:
The drive is portable and hard wired when running TM. Both backups are in a folder called Backups.backupdb. There are a few other folders on the drive, but I looked through them and nothing there either.
What is strange is that many recent files and folders are still on my computer and on yesterdays backup. It is only folders that started with 2009 (and the contents) that are missing.
Are you talking about the +backup folders+ or your +data folders?+
Via the Finder, in List mode, you should see something like this (dots representing indentations):
(note: be *extremely careful not to move, change, or delete anything via the Finder.)*
Backups.backupdb
....Your Computer Name
........Date/Time
............Your HD Name
........Date/Time
............Your HD Name
. . . etc . . .
...Your Son's Computer Name
........Date/Time
............His HD Name
........Date/Time
............His HD Name
. . . etc . . .
Each of those Date/Time folders represents one backup. What are the last three dates & times shown for your Mac?

How to restore a lost picture from time machine

Can I restore a photo that i have misfiled from time machine?

Select Help Center from the Finder's Help menu. Search for "restore" which should find several articles on how to use TM to restore individual items from a backup.
Also,
A whole lot about Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.

Lost faith in Time Machine

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for