Missing 4 years of TM backups after associating drive with new Mac

I have been running time machine backups since 2009 without a single problem on my 1 TB WD mybook drive. I recently bought a new iMac and got rid of my old Macbook. I was able to restore the iMac from my latest backup without issue. The problem started when I attempted my first backup from the new iMac. I don't remember the exact wording, but I was asked if I wanted to clean up the backups to work with the new computer. I said yes. About 20 mins in, the backup fialed because the disc was full, which was the first time I had ever seen that error. It said my backup was 500 GB, but I only had 460 GB available. When I opened up the time machine, I was shocked to see all my backups from 2009 - present were gone. The only backup showing was the very last one I did (and the one I restored my new iMac from).
Things to note:
I didn't do backups regularly (maybe once every few months), so I truly did have backups from 2009 on the disc.
I changed my "computer name" from "My Macbook" to "My iMac". When I open up the time machine drive, it only shows one backup from "My iMac"
I did repair the disc in the disc utility
I thought TM deleted old backups to make room. Why am I seeing this error?
I KNOW the backups are there somehwere. In fact, I was browsing through them just a few hours ago before I agreed to clean up the backups. I want to avoid wiping the drive because I do have things from those old backups I need.
I searched the forums and the web, but haven't been able to find an answer which has helped.
Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Exactly how did you put your data on the new Mac?
• Did you use Setup Assistant (preferred) when it first started up?
• Or did you create a new User Account, then use the Migration Assistant app later on?
• Or did you do something else -- if so, what?
• Did any home folder names change, even slightly?
Yes, I did use Setup Assistant when the new mac booted for the first time.
No
No
Yes. The OLD HDD was called Macintosh HD1. The iMac HDD is called Macintosh HD. Not sure if this matters though
I don't remember the exact wording, but I was asked if I wanted to clean up the backups to work with the new computer.
Could it have been this one:
If so, see #C13 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for the bad news.
Yes, I think that was the message I saw and I did indeed select "Start New Backup". So I suppose that means the data is corrupt.
Ok, so my old macbook disc was 500gb and the TM backup is 1TB. If everything was deleted, why am I running out of space when I try to create a new backup? This leads me to believe the data is still there and possibly still recoverable.
Thanks so much for all your help. Everyone here is awesome!

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Hi forum,
I bought a new aluminium MacBook to replace my "old" black MacBook, and migrated all data and settings with the assistant via Ethernet-cable. Worked fine.
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.mhuber wrote:
Now, I want to continue using the over 1 year of TM-backups created with the old mac, because there are some files that are archived in these backups.
To achieve that, I found some terminal-voodoo on the internet to update the MAC-numbers within the old backup-files and tried those. Now, TM continues to backup into the same folder on my TM-hdd.
That may have been a major error. That's for the same computer with either a new hard drive or new logic board, not a different computer. You've "fooled" TM into mixing backups from two different computers, and it likely has made the old ones un-usable.
BUT whenever I try to access a folder backed up with my old MacBook, I get an error-message saying that the folder cannot be opened, because I do not have the rights to do this.
Are you doing this via the Finder, or the TM interface?
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