Time Machine does not backup the HD, but an old version on itself!

I had to find a file in a Time Machine backup of my Macbook Air running Lion, to transfer it to my desktop computer.
To my horror, the entire TM backup was NOT of my Air as it was when I did the backup yesterday, but of 5 months earlier! So I checked a whole string of TM backups over the last couple of months and they were all the same! Even though 100's of files have been added, deleted and edited  since then. TM seems to be copying old backups from its own folder on the backup drive! I've had to manually copy my Air onto a new folder in the backup drive, to be safe.
I cannot find anything about this problem in the forums or on http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Can anyone help please?

Time Machine will only back up HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) formatted drives. Reformatting will erase the drive so make sure everything on it is safely copied elsewhere and verify a few test files before erasing the drive. Getting rid of the FAT32 formatting has been problematic for quite a few people. The directions in this article are for good for getting rid of the FAT32 formatting. They are for formatting a Time Machine disk but the directions will work just as well for your purposes.

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  • Time machine does not backup anymore

    Hello all,
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    cukerko wrote:
    Hello all,
    I've been using my time machine for a month now, I kept it turned off and only connected the disk when I wanted to make a backup. Then I just hit Back Up Now from the menu and it always backed up everything (I used to check it afterwards). FYI, I've got a 500GB drive and for backups I use a 500GB partition on an external disk, where about 100GB is still free.
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    . . . it only lasts a split second as though there is nothing to backup and when I enter the time machine, the files are really missing.
    That sounds like the year-old unfixed bug detailed in red in #D5 of [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

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    Hi,
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    These commands solved the problem for now:
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    Message was edited by: Thomas_xp

    Time Machine will only back up HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) formatted drives. Reformatting will erase the drive so make sure everything on it is safely copied elsewhere and verify a few test files before erasing the drive. Getting rid of the FAT32 formatting has been problematic for quite a few people. The directions in this article are for good for getting rid of the FAT32 formatting. They are for formatting a Time Machine disk but the directions will work just as well for your purposes.

  • Time Machine does not backup home folder

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    No one with a clue?

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    Restore from time machine does not list all my backups.  I know they exist but their dates are not present on the restore list.  Any help appreciated.  If I must use one of these older dates to restore, how do I then get the more current data off time machine?

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  • HT3275 My time machine does not back up and giving me this error message: The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data-1/Amiel's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use. Pls help.

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