Time Machine deleted (almost) all my backups!

[Topher15]

I just restored my system early this evening with Time Machine. After doing some stuff tried to run a back up and noticed that it was deleting far more backups than necessary:

Backup requested due to disk attach
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: iMac HD
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:kFSEDBEventFlagMustScanSubDirs|
Backup requested due to disk attach
Starting pre-backup thinning: 308.08 GB requested (including padding), 26.91 GB available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-06-14-003345: 27.58 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-06-13-002843: 27.62 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-06-12-002926: 27.64 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-06-11-002900: 27.66 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-06-10-002841: 27.87 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-07-07-233018: 27.87 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-07-07-223019: 27.88 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-07-07-213021: 27.89 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-07-07-203035: 27.90 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-07-07-193223: 27.91 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-07-07-183011: 27.92 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-07-07-173011: 27.92 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-07-07-163005: 27.93 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-07-07-153006: 27.94 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-07-07-143007: 27.95 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-07-07-133006: 27.95 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-07-07-123158: 30.49 GB now available
Deleted backup /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/Chris' iMac/2009-07-07-113051: 31.37 GB now available

It seems like it thinks it has to backup the whole drive, and so is deleting everything to make up the space. At best I've copied a few GB over from another drive. Either way, it's strange that is requested 308.08 GB given that my iMac HD only has 264 GB of stuff.

This Apple article seems to confirm this: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338

Is there any way to just do an incremental backup? I don't want to loose my (remaining) previous backups is possible?

Thanks.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Time Machine always runs incremental backups. Only the files that have been changed will be backed up in subsequent sessions.

 

[Topher15]

Did you read the Apple article:

After performing a complete restore of a Mac from a Time Machine volume, Time Machine may perform a full backup the next time it backs up.

Clearly in my case Time Machine is attempting to do a full backup, and not an incremental backup.

 

[miles01110]

There's very little you can do to change Time Machine's backup behavior other than altering the interval between automatic backups.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Oh, I apologize. I read your post but neglected to click the link, and as such misunderstood what you were on about.

As miles says, Time Machine has very limited configuration. The only solution that I know of is to erase the drive and start a new backup.

 

[Topher15]

Oh, I apologize. I read your post but neglected to click the link, and as such misunderstood what you were on about.

As miles says, Time Machine has very limited configuration. The only solution that I know of is to erase the drive and start a new backup.

No worries.

I ended up erasing the drive and starting my back ups again.

 

[Rhalliwell1]

check your downloads folder. If you have something like a .iso downloading from torrents it will allocate the space required and then as it is downloading it will be updating that file causing it to be backed up every time. Also watch out for virtual machines for the same reason. You can tell time machine to miss out certain folders in its preference pane.