Deleted photos on laptop but I have a Time Capsule

[aznpixie28]

We have two laptops in our house and a time capsule. Before I could do a second backup of his laptop, my husband deleted a bunch of photos on his laptop to free up space. I have no idea what he has deleted. What is the easiest way for me to now backup up everything. I am purchasing an external hard drive with USB port.

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[priitv8]

What do you exactly mean by "easiest way"?
If you are afraid that next TimeMachine backup will now delete the files also from the backup, then no! These files will be removed from the most recent backup (and then onwards), but they will still be available in backups made prior to deletion of those pictures.

 

[aznpixie28]

I guess I'm trying to learn a way to backup his laptop with all the original photos on it to the external hard drive as well as the time capsule. I'm trying to make two separate backups of everything. How do I pull up all the photos that were stored in his laptop, have since been deleted but are stored in the time capsule? I've been reading that it's not a good idea to make a backup of a backup (just backing up the data I have on the time capsule because if that has corruption than I essentially have two corrupted copies.

Does that make sense?

 

[flynz4]

I think you need to think of this as a set of steps:

1. Restore all of the deleted photos from the single backup that you have on your Time Capsule (this gets your data back)
2. Initiate a new backup to the external hard drive (this gives you a new backup)
3. Restart the backup to the Time Capsule... (now you have your dual backups running)

You should complete each of those steps before moving on the the next step.

You should also consider getting a second independent backup. There are several good companies who provide offsite backup over the internet. It is inexpensive and secure. I personally use Crashplan, and I think it is the best, but there are several good companies.

The advantage of dual independent backup is that your data is now resident on 3 different places (your computer and both backups). Ideally, one is local (for speed) and the second is offsite (for disaster recovery). Ideally, it is made with two different programs... just in case there is a programmatic error (human or machine) with one of the backups.

You are 100% on target that backing up of a backup is not a very good idea.

/Jim

 

[priitv8]

I'm trying to make two separate backups of everything.

If you are running Mountain Lion, you can designate several disks as TimeMachine targets. So ML will take care of creating multiple Back-Ups for you automatically.

How do I pull up all the photos that were stored in his laptop, have since been deleted but are stored in the time capsule?

Just enter TimeMachine from Finder and go back in time.
See the section "Restoring data from Time Machine backups" for details.

I've been reading that it's not a good idea to make a backup of a backup (just backing up the data I have on the time capsule because if that has corruption than I essentially have two corrupted copies.

No, you shouldn't be backing up backups. As I said, set TimeMachine up to make backups to 2 different disks and it will take care of the rest.

 

[aznpixie28]

Thank you!!! Will get right on it. I forgot this but I have a backup of the iPhoto library on DVDR too so hopefully, I can get a foulproof setup soon!

 

[priitv8]

Too bad that TimeMachine interface was removed from iPhoto! (You can enter TM from the Mail app to see what I mean)
http://www.macworld.com/article/1161877/lion_time_machine_iphoto.html

 

[flynz4]

Thank you!!! Will get right on it. I forgot this but I have a backup of the iPhoto library on DVDR too so hopefully, I can get a foulproof setup soon!

It is good that you have this now (because your husband deleted data)... but using optical media for backup is not something that I (or very many people) would recommend.

Writeable optical media is generally unstable (longevity wise)... and updates are slow because you generally re-write all of the data (vs what changed).

An external (or Time Capsule) plus cloud backup gives the best overall coverage.

/Jim