Time Machine has deleted all backups except one..?

(Snow Leopard 10.6.8) Mac Pro.
I've been backing up for at least 2 years using Time Machine on an internal 500Gb drive. Today I get a message saying the drive is full and when I check all backups over the last 8 months (approx) have gone. The only backup surviving is the one it did just before the message popped up. Have tried Repair disk and Disk Warrior, but they're still gone. Is this most likely to be a failing drive issue? And is there any chance I can recover them?

Time Machine will not delete your old backups unless it starts to run out of space on the hard drive......or.....your backups have become corrupted and Time Machine cannot repair them.
In the latter case, a message like this will appear on your screen:
Do you recall seeing this message recently?

Similar Messages

  • Time machine has deleted all old backups

    Hi, I'm desperate! time machine has all the old backups deleted on my time capsule, only today's early still a backup available. It was still 1TB space on the hard disk. What did I do wrong? There was no warning!

    Time Machine will not delete your old backups unless it starts to run out of space on the hard drive......or.....your backups have become corrupted and Time Machine cannot repair them.
    In the latter case, a message like this will appear on your screen:
    Do you recall seeing this message recently?

  • Time Machine has lost all backups

    I have a time capsule that was reset on 15th April when I moved the home folder on our iMac to an external disk. It needed to be reset as there was not enough free space to keep the existing backups and continue with the new external. Time machine has been running since and backing up our files.
    Today I noticed that Time Machine was working hard doing a backup and when I check the status in the top bar it shows that time machine is backing up all or our data (approx 250Gb). I opened the time machine application and it only shows a backup from today - there is no history.
    What could have happened? It looks like the time capsule was wiped and time machine has started from scratch again. One other thing, I updated to the latest AirPort utility this morning, coincidence?
    Hope someone can help as I do not want this to happen again.
    All the best
    Andrew Wright.

    Thanks for the link, but the answers there did not really help explain why a full backup was done. None of the reasons in D3 were applicable. I did look at the system log and found the info below. This appears to show a 'normal' backup just before 2pm then the full backup just after 3pm. The question is still 'why would time machine want to backup everything when most files were already backed up'?
    Jun 17 13:55:24 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Starting standard backup
    Jun 17 13:55:24 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
    Jun 17 13:55:33 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
    Jun 17 13:55:37 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
    Jun 17 13:55:40 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/MyMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
    Jun 17 13:55:40 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Jun 17 13:56:02 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 841.0 MB requested (including padding), 149.65 GB available
    Jun 17 13:57:28 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Copied 1601 files (183.8 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
    Jun 17 13:57:28 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 592.4 MB requested (including padding), 149.65 GB available
    Jun 17 13:57:31 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Copied 7 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.
    Jun 17 13:57:32 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Starting post-backup thinning
    Jun 17 13:58:02 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/MyMac/2011-05-18-162329: 149.65 GB now available
    Jun 17 13:58:02 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
    Jun 17 13:58:02 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Backup completed successfully.
    Jun 17 13:58:06 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    Jun 17 13:58:06 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[746]: Ejected Time Machine network volume.
    Jun 17 15:16:12 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Starting standard backup
    Jun 17 15:16:12 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Attempting to mount network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
    Jun 17 15:16:21 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Mounted network destination using URL: afp://[email protected]/Time%20Capsule
    Jun 17 15:16:23 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
    Jun 17 15:16:26 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Disk image /Volumes/Time Capsule/MyMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups
    Jun 17 15:16:26 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Jun 17 15:16:40 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/Users reason:must scan subdirs|
    Jun 17 15:17:17 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Compacting storage: 297.87 GB requested (including padding), 149.65 GB available before compacting
    Jun 17 15:17:17 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Stopping backup.
    Jun 17 15:17:18 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Backup canceled.
    Jun 17 15:17:19 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Ejected Time Machine disk image.
    Jun 17 15:17:19 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Compacting backup disk image to recover free space
    Jun 17 15:18:11 iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[425]: Completed backup disk image compaction

  • Time machine has deleted all old backups -  I think

    Dear All,
    Time machine failed tonight. It said there wasn't enough disk space (2TB external drive). I went into time machine and all the backups bar one from this morning are gone. One thing that did happen today was that I ran disk utility on HD1 and it said it needed a repair which I did by restarting and pressing shift.
    So where the flippin heck have my backups gone and why is time machine failing to back up.
    Any help appreciated.
    Thanks
    Josh

    hi
    thank you for help. really appreciated.
    here is the text from the log. Should I just give up, reformat the tm drive and start again?
    volume Video.
    Dec 25 20:22:50 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[470]: Copied 497 files (1.8 MB) from volume Macintosh HD 2.
    Dec 25 20:23:41 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[470]: Starting post-backup thinning
    Dec 25 20:23:41 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[470]: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
    Dec 25 20:23:41 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[470]: Backup completed successfully.
    Dec 25 21:07:13 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 25 21:07:13 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 25 21:07:15 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 329.8 MB requested (including padding), 155.78 GB available
    Dec 25 21:07:34 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Copied 648 files (4.9 MB) from volume Macintosh HD 1.
    Dec 25 21:07:36 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Copied 654 files (4.9 MB) from volume Video.
    Dec 25 21:07:38 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Copied 660 files (4.9 MB) from volume Macintosh HD 2.
    Dec 25 21:07:39 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Starting post-backup thinning
    Dec 25 21:07:45 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-24-203749: 155.78 GB now available
    Dec 25 21:07:45 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
    Dec 25 21:07:46 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[583]: Backup completed successfully.
    Dec 26 09:48:06 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 26 09:48:06 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 26 09:48:07 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/Untitled 1 reason:must scan subdirs|
    Dec 26 09:48:07 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 322.5 MB requested (including padding), 155.78 GB available
    Dec 26 09:48:07 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Copied 1 files (0 bytes) from volume Untitled 1.
    Dec 26 09:48:07 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Indexer unavailable (200)
    Dec 26 09:48:09 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Copied 7 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD 1.
    Dec 26 09:48:09 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Waiting for index to be ready (101)
    Dec 26 09:48:24 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Copied 13 files (93 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD 2.
    Dec 26 09:48:34 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Copied 19 files (93 bytes) from volume Video.
    Dec 26 09:48:40 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Starting post-backup thinning
    Dec 26 09:49:02 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup source disk!
    Dec 26 09:49:03 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Backup deletion was canceled by user
    Dec 26 09:49:03 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[216]: Backup completed successfully.
    Dec 26 10:19:49 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 26 10:19:49 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 26 10:20:13 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 329.7 MB requested (including padding), 155.78 GB available
    Dec 26 10:21:23 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 947 files (5.8 MB) from volume Macintosh HD 1.
    Dec 26 10:21:25 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 953 files (5.8 MB) from volume Macintosh HD 2.
    Dec 26 10:21:28 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 959 files (5.8 MB) from volume Video S3.
    Dec 26 11:19:51 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 4.4 GB of 4.4 GB, 3373 of 3373 items
    Dec 26 12:19:52 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 8.2 GB of 8.2 GB, 3384 of 3384 items
    Dec 26 13:19:52 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 20.5 GB of 20.5 GB, 3409 of 3409 items
    Dec 26 14:19:54 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 34.7 GB of 34.7 GB, 3442 of 3442 items
    Dec 26 15:19:55 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 54.8 GB of 54.8 GB, 3478 of 3478 items
    Dec 26 15:51:26 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Copied 3496 files (67.5 GB) from volume Macintosh HD 4.
    Dec 26 15:54:17 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 718.12 GB requested (including padding), 88.27 GB available
    Dec 26 15:54:17 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Found partially deleted backup - trying again to delete: 2009-11-26-214614
    Dec 26 15:54:39 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-26-214614: 88.36 GB now available
    Dec 26 15:54:39 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Removed all 1 expired backups, more space is needed - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Dec 26 16:08:32 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-08-31-214215: 102.34 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:09:50 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-09-12-204919: 104.33 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:11:08 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-09-20-200117: 105.00 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:11:57 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-10-04-162511: 105.11 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:13:53 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-10-11-095448: 111.18 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:15:17 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-10-18-194956: 112.30 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:16:36 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-10-25-143128: 112.59 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:18:54 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-01-150819: 113.80 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:19:42 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-08-210648: 114.44 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:25:48 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-15-084242: 125.84 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:28:19 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-23-124658: 125.93 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:29:20 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-27-075219: 125.94 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:31:08 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-28-000354: 125.97 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:32:41 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-29-101726: 126.17 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:33:13 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-11-30-212802: 126.17 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:34:12 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-02-205548: 126.18 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:36:42 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-04-180748: 126.69 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:37:58 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-06-164628: 126.70 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:40:57 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-07-203807: 126.95 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:42:15 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-12-103818: 127.03 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:43:08 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-14-194223: 127.05 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:43:36 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-15-213301: 127.05 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:46:56 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-17-203032: 128.20 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:48:15 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-18-203635: 128.21 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:49:06 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-21-173338: 128.22 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:49:57 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-24-194134: 128.23 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:50:17 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-25-150955: 128.23 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:50:58 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-25-164942: 129.26 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:51:18 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-25-173957: 129.26 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:51:45 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-25-183843: 129.26 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:52:23 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-25-202250: 129.27 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:52:25 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Simon Jordan’s Mac Pro/2009-12-25-210738: 129.27 GB now available
    Dec 26 16:52:25 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Error: backup disk is full - all 33 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
    Dec 26 16:52:25 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Backup Failed: unable to free 718.12 GB needed space
    Dec 26 16:52:31 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
    Dec 26 17:18:45 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 26 17:18:46 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 26 17:19:33 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 878.33 GB requested (including padding), 129.27 GB available
    Dec 26 17:19:33 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Dec 26 17:19:33 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
    Dec 26 17:19:33 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Backup Failed: unable to free 878.33 GB needed space
    Dec 26 17:19:38 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[233]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
    Dec 26 18:04:50 simon-jordans-mac-pro [0x0-0x45045].backupd-helper[853]: Not starting Time Machine backup after wake - failed to resolve alias to backup volume
    Dec 26 18:07:02 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 26 18:07:03 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 26 18:07:24 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/Q reason:must scan subdirs|
    Dec 26 18:10:05 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/N2 reason:must scan subdirs|
    Dec 26 18:10:08 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 1.48 TB requested (including padding), 129.27 GB available
    Dec 26 18:10:08 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Dec 26 18:10:08 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
    Dec 26 18:10:08 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Backup Failed: unable to free 1.48 TB needed space
    Dec 26 18:10:14 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
    Dec 26 18:13:18 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 26 18:13:19 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 26 18:13:38 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/Q reason:must scan subdirs|
    Dec 26 18:15:52 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Node requires deep traversal:/Volumes/N2 reason:must scan subdirs|
    Dec 26 18:15:59 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 1.05 TB requested (including padding), 129.27 GB available
    Dec 26 18:15:59 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Dec 26 18:15:59 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
    Dec 26 18:15:59 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Backup Failed: unable to free 1.05 TB needed space
    Dec 26 18:16:05 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[893]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
    Dec 26 18:51:41 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 26 18:51:41 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 26 18:52:10 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 877.95 GB requested (including padding), 129.27 GB available
    Dec 26 18:52:10 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Dec 26 18:52:10 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
    Dec 26 18:52:10 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Backup Failed: unable to free 877.95 GB needed space
    Dec 26 18:52:15 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.
    Dec 26 18:53:22 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Starting standard backup
    Dec 26 18:53:22 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Dec 26 18:53:36 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Starting pre-backup thinning: 877.95 GB requested (including padding), 129.27 GB available
    Dec 26 18:53:36 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: No expired backups exist - deleting oldest backups to make room
    Dec 26 18:53:36 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Error: backup disk is full - all 0 possible backups were removed, but space is still needed.
    Dec 26 18:53:36 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Backup Failed: unable to free 877.95 GB needed space
    Dec 26 18:53:41 simon-jordans-mac-pro com.apple.backupd[274]: Backup failed with error: Not enough available disk space on the target volume.

  • How to prevent time machine from deleting certain backup folders?

    So, I have problem undrestanding time machine. Time machine has made a backup of my files in Nov 2012 and another backup from Jan 2013. There is some files in Nov 2012 that I want to keep them forever and never be deleted. So, they were backed up by Time machine (I have deleted those files from my computer so they're no lonegr excist in my compuetr). Althought they do excist on my time machine under the Nov 2012 folder, I am not able to modify them at all for example, I'm not allowed to copy them somehwere else. Since, I can not make another copy of them, I am worried if time machine delete my Nov 2012  in future and then they will be gone. Can someone please help me in modifying/ controling my folder so it won't be deleted in future? 

    You are using Time Machine incorrectly, your files will be deleted from Time Machine after you delete them from your Mac, the only variable is when.
    Time Machine is a backup, not a storage system.
    Restore them now and copy them to long term storage (another hard drive)

  • Time Machine is Deleting Old backups

    Disconnected my MacBook Pro from its hard drives for two days. Re-connected, and ran Time Machine. It backuped up as normal. I walked away, seeing "49.8GB free of 499GB" on that external hard drive. I come back and Time Machine is "Deleting Old Backups ... " - and now 135GB free, and still deleting.
    I realize that TM auto-deletes ... but does this sound "normal" to start its own deletions when there was 49GB remaining on a 500GB drive?
    It's still deleting ...
    Clint Bradford

    If I said I connnected two disks, I apologize. One 500GB external hard drive is dedicated to just being a Time Machine backup for my 17" MacBook Pro.
    Not sure what has happened ... but Time Machine cleared up space, and is now performing a 110GB backup ... kinda like it doesn't know it's the same computer attached to it.
    This is NOT a critical problem ... I have full backup elsewhere. Just a little weirdness today ...
    Clint Bradford

  • HT3275 Time Machine not deleting oldest backups when the disk is full

    Time Machine not deleting oldest backups when the disk is full

    Unfortunately, when this happens, Time Machine cannot erase enough space to create room for the new backup. Your options now are:
    1) Add a new Time Capsule or a hard drive to the USB port on the existing Time Capsule and continue with backups
    2) Manually delete backups from Time Machine....which is a long and tedious process.  After a few hours, not much space will be reclaimed and it will not be long before the Time Capsule is full again
    3) Erase the Time Capsule....if you really do not need all the old backups from months ago....and start over with a new Time Machine backup and move forward again

  • Time machine has deleted/hidden *all* my backups.

    At the moment I'm using two 1TB external hard drives connected to my mac, one as storage and one just for time machine. Yesterday the storage drive died on me, so I replaced it with another 1TB drive.
    Time machine has been backing up everything on the main computer and the storage drive for several months now so I thought it would be an easy fix, just restore what was lost from the storage drive and I'm set.
    After connecting and formatting the new external hard drive I tried restoring the lost data but couldn't figure out a way to have it restore from time machine directly to the new drive. Instead, I went into the Backups.backupdb folder on the time machine drive, found the most recent backup of the files I needed from Feb 9th and just dragged and dropped it into the new drive.
    It comprised of some 550GB of data, so I left it copying overnight. Checking on it this morning, it seems that a little less than half of the data has been copied across and what's worse - time machine no longer shows any backups made before this morning. Checking in the drive contents, it seems that the backup folders no longer exist either.
    Now, I don't actually think the data has gone missing since the time machine drive is still showing that it has some 700GB of data still on it, it's just not viewable for some reason.
    I've been through Disk Utility to see if the drive needs repairing, but I'm being told that there's no problem with it. I've also checked to see if the data has somehow found its way into the trash can, but it's not there either.
    Does anyone have any suggestions as to what happened and how to recover my lost backups?

    pheadlessg wrote:
    Thanks for that. It's backing up again now but the old backups are still missing.
    I have no idea what went wrong with the drag and drop. It should have copied your data (likely with a zillion permission problems), but shouldn't have affected the TM data. There might be something in your logs, but that probably won't help now.
    Your old backups are probably hosed (pardon the technical term <grin>).
    You might be able to give yourself read rights to the .Trashes folder, and see if there's anything in it, but I doubt you'll see anything.
    To do so, select it, then +Get Info.+
    Click the padlock at the bottom of the pane, then enter your Administrator's password.
    Then click the plus sign at the bottom; you should get a selection screen for yourself. Click it.
    That should give you read rights.
    A very long shot, but worth a try.
    Most likely, you're going to end up erasing the drive/partition and starting over.

  • Time Machine incorrectly deleting old backups

    Hi
    I have a Macbook Air with a 128Gb SSD and I am using Time Machine to back up to an external 500Gb USB2.0 drive connected to my Airport Extreme.
    The drive is formatted as Mac OS extended Journaled and is dedicated to Time Machine backups only. The problem is that Time Machine reports that the disk has run out of space and has deleted old backups. This can't be true as the Sparsebundle file is only about 70Gb and the drive has over 400Gb of capacity.
    I have tried reformatting the disk and starting over but the problem keeps returning. When I enter time machine it has deleted all the old back ups and I can only go back in time a few days.
    Any help appreciated!

    Thanks for the reponse.
    I checked and there are no other sparsebundles on the drive and there have been no changes made to the hardware.
    Time machine seems to be working correctly as it successfully makes and completes teh back ups at regular intervals throughout the day. The message that there is no space available comes around every couple of weeks, which I'm guessing is based on the fact it keeps deleting all the recent backups except the last one and then the cycle repeats.
    My own 'limited' opinion is that TM is having difficulty resizing the sparsebundle in some way and therefore can only maintain the backup within the initial size of the first backup. (e.g. the Macbook AIR SSD reports approx 113Gb of space and I am currently using 82.07Gb. The sparsebundle is currently sized at 75.66Gb on Disk (81.16Gb)
    I checked the permissions of the sparse file and they are set to R&W for everyone so there shouldn't be an access problem.
    I have only recently moved to the Mac environment and the Macbook air is my first apple computer so I am not very familiar with the environment, but this is an extremely annoying problem and renders TM vitually useless.

  • Time Machine has stopped making backups

    Time Machine has worked fine for me fore many months, the backup disk being a 1 TB external firewire drive.
    But now Time Machine will not make a backup. I keep getting the same error message: "Time Machine Error. This backup is too large for the backup volume. The backup requires 88.7 GB but only 58.5 are available."
    I thought Time Machine just deleted the oldest files on the drive to make the room it needs for continued backups. So why isn't it doing that now? How do I get it to go back to doing that?
    Thanks for any help!
    Tom

    Tom Baker1 wrote:
    My Time Machine backup disk is an external 1 TB firewire drive with only one partition, dedicated entirely to TM, and it backs up the two internal drives in my G5. One of these two internal drives has about 600 GB of data on it and the other about 400, so together they would be enough to fill the external Time Machine backup drive.
    Yes, that's too small. Our "rule of thumb" is, TM needs 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing up. See #1 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
    Now I have discovered that there is something wrong with the Time Machine backups as well. I decided to go into TM to see just how far back in time the backups go, but it will only allow me to go back as far as yesterday. It acts as though there are no backups older than yesterday afternoon.
    That's probably correct; your TM disk is too small, and there's just not room for more. Here's the situation: A full backup has nearly filled the disk; something fairly large has been added or changed, and there just isn't room for it, in addition to the full backup.
    The 88.7 GB it's requesting means it's trying to back up about 74 GB (it adds 20% for workspace, etc., on the TM disk).
    This is getting stranger all the time. At this point should I just give up trying to fix the situation, erase the backup drive, and start all over again?
    That probably won't help much, if at all. To confirm what's going on, Click here to download the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget. It shows the messages from your logs for one TM backup run at a time, in a small window. Navigate to the last backup attempt, then copy and post all the messages for that run here.
    You need to do one of the following:
    Get a larger drive, at least 2 TB.
    Get an additional drive; use one for TM backups of one of your internal HDs, the other for a different app to back-up the other internal HD.
    Exclude a lot of stuff from Time Machine (at least 300 GB).
    Use a different app, such as CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, to back up your internals to separate partitions on the 1 TB drive. These will be exact copies only; no previous copies of things you've changed or deleted.

  • Time Machine keeps deleting the backup

    I was having stability issues with Safari after updating to 6.0.2, so it looked like the only remedy was going back to 6.0.1. Following the complete system restore using recovery mode Time Machine has continued to delete the backup on a daily basis and then start again from scratch, so last night I took the step of completely formatting the drive and starting fresh but I've just looked and yet again Time Machine has just deleted the existing backup to start from the beginning. Does anybody know how to fix this? I'm running 10.8.2.
    Thanks
    Ashley

    If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
    Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
    ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
    Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
    Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Post the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear.
    Post the log text, please, not a screenshot. If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
    When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
    Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into a message.
    Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — edit that out, too, but don’t remove the context.

  • How to stop Time Machine from deleting historical backups

    So for the first time I encountered what happens when Time Machine runs out of room - IT DELETES THE OLDEST BACKUPS UNTIL IT HAS ENOUGH ROOM!!!
    That's terrible if you rely on those backups. We've been using it like an archive and it's been spectacular. Work on a project and delete it when I'm done because I know Time Machine has a copy.
    Well, I no longer have copies of my work from Arpil until July because Time Machine deleted those AUTOMATICALLY to make room. I had always thought that it would warn me it was going to delete older backups and I could just decline. Then I'd go out and get a new drive. This make Time Machine unusable for my purposes.
    Is there a was to make Time Machine just stop backing up or warn you before it erases old backups? Some way where it cannot erase them on it's own? Perhaps some Terminal command or anything?
    Thanks!

    Landon White wrote:
    So for the first time I encountered what happens when Time Machine runs out of room - IT DELETES THE OLDEST BACKUPS UNTIL IT HAS ENOUGH ROOM!!!
    That's terrible if you rely on those backups. We've been using it like an archive and it's been spectacular. Work on a project and delete it when I'm done because I know Time Machine has a copy.
    Well, I no longer have copies of my work from Arpil until July because Time Machine deleted those AUTOMATICALLY to make room. I had always thought that it would warn me it was going to delete older backups and I could just decline.
    in system preferences->Time machine->options there is a check box "warn when old backups are deleted". if this box is checked TM is supposed to warn you when it first starts deleting old backups. However, that particular feature is quite buggy and TM is well known not to do that on occasion. there are also other situations when it might decide to delete old backups without warning. Therefore you should NOT use TM as an archiving utility. apart from the above issues it also thins old backups and THAT is always done without warning. TM is a backup tool not an archiving one and you shouldn't use it as such.
    Message was edited by: V.K.

  • How can I prevent Time Machine from deleting a backup?

    I just want to make one particular backup immune to Time Machine's auto-delete function.  It's the one I used to migrate from my old computer to my current one.  I tried to just drag-copy it on to a different drive, but apparently I don't have permission to copy my own computer's backups... weird.
    Anyway, there's got to be a way to lock this particular backup.  I going to have to keep Time Machine off until I can find out how.

    Explodey wrote:
    There's always a way, with a little ingenuity.  I just went to Get Info for that backup and changed the system privilege to "read only."  And if that doesn't work, I'm sure something else will.
    I am sure of one thing that you are going to end up breaking Time Machine which in all likelihood you will not discover until you need to recovery data from it.
    Agreat source of information on Time Machine can be found at http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

  • Time machine has hidden past backup files

    I recently did a restore using Time Machine.
    1) Time Machine created a new backup folder.
    2) the old backup folders are still on the drive but no longer visible or excessible.
    3) the files are still there because the backup hard drive is almost full.
    4) is there a way to bring back the backup files Time Machine has hidden or possibly overwritten

    Thank you Pondini for jumping in on this one.
    I use Time Machine to backup on an external hard for my FCP video files to another external HD. I do not use TM for my iMac. (Snow Leopard).
    On Wednesday my FCP hard drive had a failure of some sort and would not allow to be written on, so I formatted the FCP hard drive and then "restored" the latest files from the backup hard drive. But, during the the process of restoring the auto backup kicked in and started to backup the FCP hard drive onto the backup HD at the same time I was restoring the FCP drive.
    When all was said and done... the backup drive no longer showed the past three months of FCP files, but instead only shows Wednesday's last folder. The files are still on the backup drive because I am now getting a "failure" due to lack of hard drive space. I believe it's because the three months of files are still on the hard drive but Time Machine is no longer recoginizing the old folders. The current backup folder reads:
    Backups.backupdb - with the folder inside: Admin's iMac (2) - with another folder inside:  2012-12-23-193009 -  followed by a "Latest" folder that has only 4KB Alias in the Size and Kind columns.
    Are you running Snow Leopard?  YES
    It did that when you ran a new backup after the restore, right? YES but Time Machine created a new backup folder.
    Did you do a "full system restore," starting up from your Snow Leopard Install disc? YES, but after 5 hours the backup stopped with the "failure" due to not enough disk space to contine. This is not possible because the backup HD is 4T and reading 1.8T available.
    I am trying to find a way to revive the original Time Machine folders that go back to November without having to reformat the entire backup drive.

  • Time machine has stopped showing backups

    Time machine used to show backups back to when the machine was new in November. Now it has suddenly begun to show only today/now.
    Regardless of which finder window I have opened, it always goes to 'computer' and shows the external hard drive, 'macintosh HD' and 'network' icons.
    If I close time machine and open up the backups on my external hard drive, all the time machine backups are there. What IS going on?!

    Does this fix help?
    +Mac OS X 10.5: Time Machine backups are not visible+
    +http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306928+
    +Check your computer name in Sharing preferences. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from following set and is not blank (no matter which Mac OS X language version you are using):+
    0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
    If it doesn't make sure that the connections to your Time Machine disk are solid. You could also try resetting the PRAM.
    Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Maybe you are looking for

  • Can not access BIOS after update BIOS

    Can not access BIOS after update X220 BIOS to version 1.19 Type: 4290-R32 BIOS: 1.19 http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/8duj09uc.txt http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/8duj09uc.iso Ask google and try anyway but

  • SUS PO does not exist in GR/SE Vendor screen for Confirmation

    Hello Friends! We are using SRM 5.0. We experience SUS PO's where the vendor cannot find the certain PO document in GR/SE screen for confirmation. Purchase Order is in u201COrderedu201D status, displays in backend, and displays in u201CDisplay Purcha

  • Can Someone (with base model 2.3 i5 Mac mini) Confirm/Compare RAM...

    I post this on another forum, but no specifics. Can some please confirm or compare your ram usage for me. With 2 GB, examining the pie-chart in the "Activity Monitor," with NO application in used, I have only about 45% (green) free. I am just wonderi

  • Calibration settings on new iMac 20" to get screen closer to acceptable?

    I was just wondering if anyone has plugged in settings while calibrating to get the new (horribly inadequate) 20" screens to look decent. I've tried a few times and it never seems to get close enough. I keep ending up with it being too bright and was

  • BW Sizing with multiple app. instances on Oracle 10g

    Hello folks, I have a few confusions to clarify as i am engaged in BW sizing exercise. Customer has a huge environment with multitera bytes of data and its expected to grow in size and also # of users too and they have multiple BW app instances (NW 7