TimeMachine won't recognize old backups

Hi,
I have a TimeMachine drive running for years over USB. Yesterday I connected it to my AirPort Extreme and ran TimeMachine by accident. Now when plugging the drive back to USB, TM will let me browse all the old backups, but when I try to perform a new backup it acts as if it's the first time I'm running it — meaning it indexes everything and try to store a full copy of my files (which it can't since the drive is full with the old backups).
Any ideas what might have happened when I ran TM over the network and moved back to USB?
Is there any way to force TimeMachine to use the old backups?
It's really cryptic how I can browse the backed up files but not make a new backup.
Thanks in advance.

Sorry, but I'm not trying to use it like that. As I explained earlier, I connected the drive to do something else, forgot it was on the network and then ran the backup by mistake. Now when I plugged it back in the USB drive, TM will let me browse the old backups but won't let me run new ones.

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lissy-loo wrote:
Hi there I've just had this problem on my computer too but is there a possibly easier way to explain what is on this site...
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080128003716101
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coldcaption wrote:
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See C4.
Time Machine Troubleshooting

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Time Machine won't delete old backups.

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Iphoto 11
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TimeMachine won't recognize old backups

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