Time Capsule continues on wrong sparse image

This is the second Mac I have seen this happen to and on two different Time Capsules (new feature?) Both Macs are brand new (so new MAC addresses) and were migrated from old 10.5.x machines (so they kept their Sharing names and accounts). Both new macs are running 10.6.x as they were purchased within the last month. In fact on one Mac's Time Machine even ask if we wanted to continue with the same back up file (sparse image) even tho the MAC address is different.
However, after a reboot from Bootcamp, one Mac's user files had completely vanished. The Time Capsule back up has data but it is not all there (or accessible). The time line in Time Machine goes back six months with is not possible since the Mac was only manufactured in October. It seems that Snow Leopard has continued to use the same backup file - only we cannot access the earlier backups.
The sparse image is 425 gigabytes and yet when we try to migrate it reports that only 9.5 GB is migrate-able. Does anyone have a clue how to access the earlier data (short of mounting the sparse image and manually recovering the data?

Tim Mitra wrote:
So in conclusion, Snow Leopard does continue with an existing back up sparse image (in spite of the MAC address difference.)
Yes, this is a new feature in Snow Leopard. See #B5 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum.
Also you can pick any restore point by booting from the Installer disk. Using Migration Utility only will work with the last back up version.
Correct. That's how they're both designed. See #14 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip.*
Still no explanation of why the user Documents directory got empty. However he did install Bootcamp which does repartition drive -so that could explain the loss.
It certainly shouldn't do that!

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