Time Machine deleting backups?

[ZebraineZ]

Hey, this is like the 2nd time it happened please help!

I have a few backups/dates on my tmhd and one of the backups has my tv shows in it and I always just plug it in and watch from the hd, and I don't know why that would be considered 'dangerous' since it's not doing anything risky as far as I know...and this happened another time to me too just a few minutes later I look back into the hd and the date was 'march 11' and I saw it was gone...and I looked at the info of the hd and I just saw that 30gb was freed!

So I don't know why it just deleted a whole backup by itself for no reason, and this happened a while back too when I was watching a show off the HD and then it said the video was corrupted and I looked back and saw the ENTIRE backup/date was gone! please help! I know for sure there is no way to get my backup back since it obviously just got wiped so I really don't know what I'm going to do now, if this keeps on happening I can't rely on Time Machine to do my backups anymore if it's going to just decide to delete by itself every ****ing important backup...Thanks.

 

[mysterytramp]

I'm working from memory, so pardon me if I get a few points here wrong (and someone please correct me), but this is generally how Time Machine works:

It copies all your files (or at least all the files you tell it to) onto its HD. Then as files change, it copies those files to the HD. When it does a backup, it needs MORE than the size of the backup. (There are several threads on this board that discuss how much more. I'm not sure I've seen a definitive answer; might be lost to TM voodoo.)

Because it needs more than the size of a backup, don't be surprised if it clears away 30 gigs to add what might be 10G or 20G of files. TM makes deletions based on the age of the file and how much space it needs.

But I'm not sure I follow your point ... You're watching the backup of a TV show? Why not just watch the original file?

mt

 

[Signal-11]

ZebraineZ,

I think maybe there's a misunderstanding about the purpose of Time Machine.

The purpose of Time Machine is to back up your data in case of accidental deletion and/or hardware failure. It is not meant to be extra storage.

As you can see by clicking on Time Machine preferences, Time Machine keeps:

Hourly Backups for the past 24 hours
Daily Backups for the past month
Weekly Backups for all previous months

Oldest backups are deleted when your disk becomes full.

What has happened to you is that Time Machine backed up your TV shows, which you have deleted from your primary hard drive. Time Machine will only keep these shows for a limited amount of time in case you decide you would like to keep them instead, which is it's purpose.

If it is the case that you deleted the TV shows because you didn't have enough space, it might be better for you to create a directory for your large media files and then tell Time Machine not to backup that directory. In this case, you would have more direct control over what you delete and what you keep.

 

[ZebraineZ]

Uhhh...to both of you, I had 30gb of tv shows that I used to have on my macs HD but since I got a 500gb external HD and been using it as a tm I just backed those up through time machine then deleted it off my primary HD, so my TM was left with 280gb free. Then when as I said I was watching one of the tv shows then after it was done a few minutes later I saw it jump to 310gb free and the whole directory/backup 'march 11' was gone, suddenly vanished, and I didn't even do anything, and this was the 2nd time like I said something like this has happened. Time machine has enough space why would it delete it if I didn't initiate anything? It didn't just delete that 30gb tv shows, it deleted the WHOLE directory! I watch the shows through finder.

So when I go into time machine (not through finder) there is basically a 'gap' (metaphorically speaking) between 'march 7' and 'march 13', where 'march 11' was is now missing.

I would expect it to delete old backups...not the backups I was just using, all my backups are still intact, it's just that one that I used specifically got deleted...Sigh This doesn't make any sense....and I don't see why I can't use the HD/Time machine as a storage either ..

 

[Signal-11]

Hrm. Maybe you should read both of the responses again.

You have just confirmed in your post that you let Time Machine back up the 30GB directory, which you deleted from you HD. Then exactly three months later, it deleted it, as it was designed to do.

Time Machine is NOT secondary storage, which is what you were using it as. It is designed to keep stuff for you in case you delete something from your hard drive and then later decide you want it back. Because you deleted these files from you hard drive and did not copy it back from Time Machine, it assumed that you no longer wanted it and got rid of it, again, as it was designed to do.

If you would like to keep your files, it would be better to keep those files in a place that's not Time Machine.

In effect, what you are doing is like confusing the purpose of your laundry hamper and your trash can, placing your clothes in the trash can and wondering why someone keeps throwing your clothes away.

 

[ZebraineZ]

Hrm. Maybe you should read both of the responses again.

You have just confirmed in your post that you let Time Machine back up the 30GB directory, which you deleted from you HD. Then exactly three months later, it deleted it, as it was designed to do.

Time Machine is NOT secondary storage, which is what you were using it as. It is designed to keep stuff for you in case you delete something from your hard drive and then later decide you want it back. Because you deleted these files from you hard drive and did not copy it back from Time Machine, it assumed that you no longer wanted it and got rid of it, again, as it was designed to do.

If you would like to keep your files, it would be better to keep those files in a place that's not Time Machine.

In effect, what you are doing is like confusing the purpose of your laundry hamper and your trash can, placing your clothes in the trash can and wondering why someone keeps throwing your clothes away.

Ok the 3 month part creeped me out...Time Machine deletes files 3 months after they have been backed up?

What if I backed it up and deleted it by accident and didn't know it, then when I tried to see if it was there to bring it back and it was gone? That wouldn't make sense This is confusing... I get what you all mean and said, but I backed up an important file, why would time machine even think out of no where to delete it? It would just be deleting files for no reason, I don't have to restore the file right after I delete it...Eh, it's gone now, I can't really do much about it I guess, can I still store files for storage not directly in time machine but in another part on the HD?

Like you know for the backup when you look through Finder it says 'My Macintosh' for example, if I create a random folder and put my 'storage' files there, then delete it off my computer, time machine won't have any business with those files right? Please let me know so I don't use time machine to backup such large files anymore

I have a lot of important applications as well that I backed up using time machine (but they can't be launched through the finder window like videos/pictures) that I usually restore on and off when I need to (through time machine) and I delete them when I don't need them anymore and I would really appreciate it if TM doesn't randomly delete those too since applications usually associate themselves with other files compared to videos.

Thanks

 

[Cinematographer]

Post got obsolete.

 

[flyfish29]

Ok the 3 month part creeped me out...Time Machine deletes files 3 months after they have been backed up?

What if I backed it up and deleted it by accident and didn't know it, then when I tried to see if it was there to bring it back and it was gone? That wouldn't make sense This is confusing... I get what you all mean and said, but I backed up an important file, why would time machine even think out of no where to delete it? It would just be deleting files for no reason, I don't have to restore the file right after I delete it...Eh, it's gone now, I can't really do much about it I guess, can I still store files for storage not directly in time machine but in another part on the HD?

Like you know for the backup when you look through Finder it says 'My Macintosh' for example, if I create a random folder and put my 'storage' files there, then delete it off my computer, time machine won't have any business with those files right? Please let me know so I don't use time machine to backup such large files anymore

I have a lot of important applications as well that I backed up using time machine (but they can't be launched through the finder window like videos/pictures) that I usually restore on and off when I need to (through time machine) and I delete them when I don't need them anymore and I would really appreciate it if TM doesn't randomly delete those too since applications usually associate themselves with other files compared to videos.

Thanks

Wow, I agree with others you don't understand the TM system. TM's job is to copy your HD and make extra copies of your files. If you delete your files on the original HD eventually TM will delete them as well. The time frame of TM deletion depends on how much space is left on the TM HD. IF you add a bunch of files to your primary HD then TM will need quite a bit more space to backup those files. It's job is to make sure the most recent data is backed up....and if you delete files it will think those are less important than newly added files.

There is NO RELIABLE WAY to do what you are wanting TM to do- it is a backup system as others have pointed out. It is not a secondary drive and CAN'T BE USED THAT WAY RELIABLY! Instead you should purchase an external HD or upgrade your primary HD to safely store what you want to use.

 

[ZebraineZ]

Wow, I agree with others you don't understand the TM system. TM's job is to copy your HD and make extra copies of your files. If you delete your files on the original HD eventually TM will delete them as well. The time frame of TM deletion depends on how much space is left on the TM HD. IF you add a bunch of files to your primary HD then TM will need quite a bit more space to backup those files. It's job is to make sure the most recent data is backed up....and if you delete files it will think those are less important than newly added files.

There is NO RELIABLE WAY to do what you are wanting TM to do- it is a backup system as others have pointed out. It is not a secondary drive and CAN'T BE USED THAT WAY RELIABLY! Instead you should purchase an external HD or upgrade your primary HD to safely store what you want to use.

I understand! I said a different question after, the way you guys put it, if I backup my applications, are those applications going to be deleted too? If I keep them on my mac or if I delete them off my mac, will Time Machine randomly delete the backup they were made in or no? What is the purpose of time machine backing up my files if it's going to delete them regardless? I have more than enough space, so low space is out of the question, please listen to what I am describing instead of assuming every other factor...

Also, back to my video question, I understand what you guys said BUT time machine wasn't backing up anything when the backup directory was randomly deleted, I already mentioned that when I said it happened out of nowhere, I hadn't even backed up using time machine in a while, time machine wasn't even open! My HD was recognized as a regular external HD, not a Time Machine one, so how would you explain that? I've been watching my shows off of it ever since I got it and it just decided to delete the WHOLE backup directory, I would understand if time machine was even on (system preferences > time machine > off) but what you guys are saying doesn't really match up to what I described.

It's just weird, like you said it's purpose is to be a backup manager to safely keep all my files/settings in case if something happens to them so I can restore to it like normal. You said that it would delete whatever it assumes you don't need, so if I have a big library of photos on iPhoto that time machine is specifically designed to backup those type of things that would otherwise be a pain to just do it on a normal external HD, then if anything was to be deleted from the library or the library itself like something being corrupted, time machine would delete it as well? So essentially my working backup would get deleted because one file was corrupted and had to be deleted, and I tried to look to find the working backup in time machine and what do I see? Not only was the working backup of the library deleted but the ENTIRE date/directory!

You are talking about individual files/groups being deleted, I am talking about the entire backup directory being deleted, and EVEN THOUGH TM wasn't even ON during the time this was deleted, time machine is smart enough to deleted individual files/folders while keeping the dated backup intact, THIS IS WHY this is so bizarre.

I had other important things backed up in that date/directory and time machine decided to delete the entire thing instead of just deleting the tv shows since those were the things taking up space (even though I had 0 problems with space).

That's just ironic, honestly.

 

[flyfish29]

I understand! I said a different question after, the way you guys put it, if I backup my applications, are those applications going to be deleted too? If I keep them on my mac or if I delete them off my mac, will Time Machine randomly delete the backup they were made in or no? What is the purpose of time machine backing up my files if it's going to delete them regardless? I have more than enough space, so low space is out of the question, please listen to what I am describing instead of assuming every other factor...

Also, back to my video question, I understand what you guys said BUT time machine wasn't backing up anything when the backup directory was randomly deleted, I already mentioned that when I said it happened out of nowhere, I hadn't even backed up using time machine in a while, time machine wasn't even open! My HD was recognized as a regular external HD, not a Time Machine one, so how would you explain that? I've been watching my shows off of it ever since I got it and it just decided to delete the WHOLE backup directory, I would understand if time machine was even on (system preferences > time machine > off) but what you guys are saying doesn't really match up to what I described.

It's just weird, like you said it's purpose is to be a backup manager to safely keep all my files/settings in case if something happens to them so I can restore to it like normal. You said that it would delete whatever it assumes you don't need, so if I have a big library of photos on iPhoto that time machine is specifically designed to backup those type of things that would otherwise be a pain to just do it on a normal external HD, then if anything was to be deleted from the library or the library itself like something being corrupted, time machine would delete it as well? So essentially my working backup would get deleted because one file was corrupted and had to be deleted, and I tried to look to find the working backup in time machine and what do I see? Not only was the working backup of the library deleted but the ENTIRE date/directory!

You are talking about individual files/groups being deleted, I am talking about the entire backup directory being deleted, and EVEN THOUGH TM wasn't even ON during the time this was deleted, time machine is smart enough to deleted individual files/folders while keeping the dated backup intact, THIS IS WHY this is so bizarre.

I had other important things backed up in that date/directory and time machine decided to delete the entire thing instead of just deleting the tv shows since those were the things taking up space (even though I had 0 problems with space).

That's just ironic, honestly.

All I can say is your posts are very difficult to follow- they are quite long and your questions are strung throughout your post. (I am not very concise myself though) So I am sorry I didn't understand your problem correctly. My suggestion is more concise posts (not everyone has the time to read long posts/threads) and to state your questions you want answered near the end in a 1,2,3 format.

A good backup system does not rely solely on one method or drive (I rec. both time machine and superDuper for backups and two external HD- one stored off site in case of fire or water damage) The two programs serve two diff. purposes and provide you a much better backup system.

I notice you say this is the 2nd time this happened. If something doesn't work right, then you should probably change what you are doing. So I am going to suggest two things you should do differently to have a backup system work properly (one is free and one costs a little $):

It sounds like you are not using TM how it is intended! Are you watching the tv shows from your TM created files or are you restoring them to your primary drive (which is how TM is supposed to work?) TM is NOT DESIGNED to use files from directly from the TM backup, but instead to restore using the TM interface.

If you had used SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner to backup then you could certainly do that as it simply copies your HD. That being said neither of those two programs restores old files that are accidently deleted. This is why I rec. using TM and one of those two programs both to have a thorough backup system.

 

[craig1410]

Hi,
Let me see if I can help explain how Time Machine works. If I am successful in getting this over to you then you will be able to answer your own questions.

1. Time Machine is a "backup" solution. The definition of a backup is a "copy" of something which you have deemed valuable and can't afford to lose. The backup is distinct from the original file which you *keep* elsewhere, on your internal drive for example. You can delete a backup at any time without losing anything other than the security that a backup copy brings.

2. Time Machine has a finite capacity. Every time you add something to the primary filesystem (ie. your original files) the backup routine will add a copy of these files to the Time Machine filesystem thus taking up space.

3. Time Machine takes hourly, daily and weekly backups. It will up to 24 hourly backups (the most recent 24 hours) and will then retain daily backups after that up to 30 days worth and then it will retain weekly backups for as far back as it has storage space. So, going back in time you have 24 hourly, 30 daily and "x" weekly backups available to restore lost files from. This means that you have a good chance of recovering lost files even if you don't notice they are lost for some time.

4. Time Machine places more importance on keeping the backup process running so if the capacity of the Time Machine filesystem is reached then it will delete the oldest weekly backup to make space. It will keep deleting the oldest backups until it frees enough space for the current hourly backup. This process is by no means "random" as you suggest but to a user such as yourself it may appear that way and you must not assume anything about the sequence and timing of files disappearing from the Time Machine once you have deleted them from the primary filesystem (ie. internal drive).

5. Time Machine capacity is consumed due to the ebb and flow of filesystem usage. Every time a file is changed either by the user or by a software update or an internet download or even just an email coming in or a web page being visited, the changed file(s) will be stored in Time Machine and the older copies of that file will be retained in Time Machine. For example, if you had a photograph taken with a good camera which took, say, 12 Megabytes of storage. If you then modified that photo a little bit and then saved the changes then you would now have 2 files in Time Machine both of around 12 Megabytes. The same thing happens for all files on the computer.

6. If your Time Machine drive is many times bigger than your primary drive then to all intents and purposes you will be able to retain all your backups, certainly for a considerable period of time. However, if your Time Machine is the same size or even say 1.5 times the size of your internal drive then you should expect Time Machine to delete some of the oldest weekly backups after perhaps 9 months of usage.

The short answer here is, if you want to keep your files then don't delete them and then rely on Time Machine to store them indefinitely. Time Machine is a backup solution not an archive solution.

My own Time Machine is a 1GB Western Digital MyBook Studio Edition and it backs up my internal 320GB (90GB of backed up files) iMac drive. My oldest backup is from 30 August 2009 and my backups have only consumed about 250GB. Extrapolating this to 30 August 2010 (1 year of backups) it might take 270GB so you can see that the backups over a whole year take, in my case, about 3 times the size of the backed up files. I can go back in time to any point in the last 24 hours, 30 days or any week from now to 30/08/09. That is a pretty powerful capability!!

Time Machine is a great solution but you need to know what it is and more importantly what it isn't! It is not a permanent archive solution, it is only a backup solution so you must keep hold of your original files unless you want them deleted. Time Machine will only hold onto any deleted files until it need to recycle space for newer files.

I hope this helps your understanding of Time Machine.
Regards,
Craig.

 

[flyfish29]

Hi,
I hope this helps your understanding of Time Machine.
Regards,
Craig.

And then some!!!

I think it really comes down to it seems the OP is not restoring his data- were he/she to restore the data it likely would not have deleted the data- although corruption can happen on backups- I had that issue recently. I had a TM backup which became corrupt and stopped connecting and also had a SuperDuper backup go bad as well....luckily I got most of my data back when my MBP HD failed.

 

[craig1410]

And then some!!!

I think it really comes down to it seems the OP is not restoring his data- were he/she to restore the data it likely would not have deleted the data- although corruption can happen on backups- I had that issue recently. I had a TM backup which became corrupt and stopped connecting and also had a SuperDuper backup go bad as well....luckily I got most of my data back when my MBP HD failed.

Yeah, I thought it was a bit ironic that I had just finished posting my lengthy answer and then saw your comments about overly long posts... Oops!

My post was quite long but hopefully the bite-size nature of each key point might have helped to get the point across. If not then I'm not sure how else to explain this other than perhaps the following:

When your rubbish (garbage) bin is full you empty it into your wheelie bin (dumpster). When the dumpster is full it gets taken to the recycling centre by a truck. This is maybe a good analogy for Time Machine.

If you throw something away in the bin (delete a file) you might be able to get it back from the bin within the next few hours. Or it might be in the dumpster for the next few days. It might even be in the recycling centre for the next few weeks but eventually it will be recycled. If you want to keep it then don't bin it or at least get it out of the bin asap.

Geez, even this short post turned out quite long!

 

[BlackViper]

Use TM as it was intended to be used

TM keeps 24 hourly, 30 daily and a whole bunch of weekly backups. You issue is that the daily backups are being consolidated into weekly ones. For example , the March 7,8,9,10,11,12,13 backups become just March 13, with the most recent version of any file being kept. If you are looking for files that were there in the March 11 backup, try looking in the March 7 or 13 ones. Your files should still be there. You should also realize that a file in TM that has been deleted from your computer is NOT backed up as it will only exist in one place, your TM drive.

 

[flyfish29]

Geez, even this short post turned out quite long!

Your post was just perfect- clearly defines what TM is meant to do and how it works!

I *think* the main thing the OP wants answered is why is TM deleting things when there is plenty of space on the external HD.

NO matter that answer though- restoring the file to the primary drive is the best way to view things that have been deleted.

 

[ZebraineZ]

TM keeps 24 hourly, 30 daily and a whole bunch of weekly backups. You issue is that the daily backups are being consolidated into weekly ones. For example , the March 7,8,9,10,11,12,13 backups become just March 13, with the most recent version of any file being kept. If you are looking for files that were there in the March 11 backup, try looking in the March 7 or 13 ones. Your files should still be there. You should also realize that a file in TM that has been deleted from your computer is NOT backed up as it will only exist in one place, your TM drive.

This was the only one that made half sense, but I checked in both of them and found no traces, and I noticed there was a lot of space freed on my TM HD.

Thanks everyone for all of your helpful posts, I understand them perfectly but I have to say this again, they don't have any relevance to this situation! TIME MACHINE WAS NOT ON, it was NOT in the status bar, it was turned OFF in system preferences, therefore, my mac recognized it as an EXTERNAL HD, NOT a TM HD, let's just get to the cause, since there is no solution, my files are already gone.

This is TOO CONFUSING, NO, not what you guys said, if anything this problem is Finder problem and how it reads/scans the HD, and I guess since it was a TM HD and it was reading through the TM folder something went terribly wrong in whatever process it was involved in and decided to turn on some magical delete switch and delete the whole directory, let me mention this again, it DELETED the EXACT date/directory the TV shows were in, March 11, is gone, it's no more. December, January, February are still intact and I bet you they have more files I haven't used compared to March 11th that I was watching shows from everyday!

Answer this, if Time Machine is designed to do this, why this? Why this particular date/directory? I would have rather it deleted April 30th or something like that, or February 14th. Maybe the culprit like I said isn't TM but Finder, and something went corrupt and decided to delete the WHOLE directory from my HD, 30GB worth of files just vanishing, along with any other preferences and settings and data/files I backed up in March 11th, answer this, why did THOSE have to be deleted along with the WHOLE directory? Just please tell me that, I want to know why the entire thing was wiped instead of just the TV shows, I could live without House (even though it's very hard), but I can't live without my pictures and any other data that was backed up that day, and I have no idea of knowing what even WAS backed up since it's all gone.

Next time I will just store my big files like this on a separate part of the HD rather then using TM and viewing them within the backup within Finder, so instead of it being HD>TM BACKUP>PICTURES for example it would just be HD>RANDOM FOLDER>PICTURES, even though this could get cubersome it's the only hopefully safe way, or else why even make hard drives if they are going to just delete the files you use on them?

Do internal HD's have some more reliability or something compared to external?

Sorry, just forget about this thread, it's pointless and my data is already gone, like I said 30gb was freed on the HD and March 11th directory vanished, none of my files are hidden within any other folder.

I won't use Time Machine anymore for any of my important files because it's going to end up deleting them when I view them, I don't want to restore the movies or whatever I'm going to watch on my computer and then delete it again until I watch another one, that would be retarded, why not just watch it straight from the hard drive?

Look I'm not mad at you guys or anything, I'm just as lost and confused as you guys are, I'm just a little pissed that's all because of how ****ed up this is.

 

[flyfish29]

This was the only one that made half sense, but I checked in both of them and found no traces, and I noticed there was a lot of space freed on my TM HD.

Thanks everyone for all of your helpful posts, I understand them perfectly but I have to say this again, they don't have any relevance to this situation! TIME MACHINE WAS NOT ON, it was NOT in the status bar, it was turned OFF in system preferences, therefore, my mac recognized it as an EXTERNAL HD, NOT a TM HD, let's just get to the cause, since there is no solution, my files are already gone.

So you are saying none of our posts made sense...wow, Craigs post was as clear as could be so perhaps it isn't the posts!

It may not have answered your question but you clearly don't know how to use TM properly.

You state that finder is the issue- well, the FINDER IS NOT REALLY USED IN TM. Please ENTER THE TIME MACHINE AND ATTEMPT TO RECOVER YOUR BACKED UP FILES PROPERLY. You seem to be missing the point- YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO USE THE FINDER TO VIEW YOUR BACKED UP FILES IN TIME MACHINE....use the software program called Time Machine!!! It is a software program designed to not only backup the files but you use the software to restore too! In the top menu bar select "enter time machine" and you will know what I mean. Don't just double click on your external HD icon to access these files.

What I don't understand is now you say not only TV shows but also pics, etc. Did you delete these pics off your primary HD. Because if you did then your TM backup then becomes your primary copy of those and they are not backed up which is not a good idea for sure.

FYI- Your data is likely not gone- it probably can be recovered by data recovery software but that is your choice.

You seem to still not understand that you are using TM improperly. You say you would not want to restore them to watch them then delete them again...wow, you really don't get it....not one bit. Why not just keep them on your primary HD. Why did you stop using TM as it is intended....If you really wanted those files on an external HD then just use the finder (which is reliable) to copy those files to an external drive....why did you even use TM in the first place???? Cause its purpose is not to just transfer files to an external....that is the finder!

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Hey, this is like the 2nd time it happened please help!

I have a few backups/dates on my tmhd and one of the backups has my tv shows in it and I always just plug it in and watch from the hd, and I don't know why that would be considered 'dangerous' since it's not doing anything risky as far as I know...and this happened another time to me too just a few minutes later I look back into the hd and the date was 'march 11' and I saw it was gone...and I looked at the info of the hd and I just saw that 30gb was freed!

So I don't know why it just deleted a whole backup by itself for no reason, and this happened a while back too when I was watching a show off the HD and then it said the video was corrupted and I looked back and saw the ENTIRE backup/date was gone! please help! I know for sure there is no way to get my backup back since it obviously just got wiped so I really don't know what I'm going to do now, if this keeps on happening I can't rely on Time Machine to do my backups anymore if it's going to just decide to delete by itself every ****ing important backup...Thanks.

It is really difficult to say what happened to your files, but, you should view the time machine partition as something that is only managed by time machine. If you want a partition to manually manage files, you should get another device - e.g. a second disk. Leave the TM partition to TM.

 

[Cinematographer]

This was the only one that made half sense, […]

If your data is important to you, you should probably try to learn some basic stuff.

Craig1410's post (#11) is the most concise summary of how TimeMachine works I have ever read. So if you don't understand it, just read it again. It will eventually help you to avoid the confusion of archive and backup. And it will definitely help you to avoid further pain.

You issue is that the daily backups are being consolidated into weekly ones. For example , the March 7,8,9,10,11,12,13 backups become just March 13, with the most recent version of any file being kept.

Are you sure this consolidation takes place? It would be good news of course. But I've never heard of that before.

 

[ZebraineZ]

LOL I AM SORRY I MEANT MAY NOT MARCH!!!

Also I just noticed another season was deleted :< fml.

Final verdict: Time Machine HD directories(not the actual app itself) do not play nicely within Finder...when I say viewing stuff I meant clicking on a video and playing it through Quicktime or opening a photo with Preview, stuff like that, but like I said it either doesn't play nicely for whatever reason even if Time Machine is not even open or in the Activity Monitor to do anything random like that, or external devices in general suck for anything except collecting dust on the shelf.

Listen all of you, you are all mention very neat tips and tricks and things I didn't know about Time Machine, but sadly Time Machine (the actual application) really has no relevance to this!

The only relevancy it has is that the drive itself is a Time Machine disk, with the backup directories ie january 1 2010 >computer>folders and the likes, if it really was Time Machine somehow injecting itself in Finder or something and deleting the entire directory I just viewed a video from to 'save space' even though there were tons of OTHER THINGS it could have deleted to save space! Trust me!!! My season 3-5 of House aren't that special that TM really needed to delete only to free about 5% space compared to the 50% free space I already had! Especially since this happened like 10 minutes after I finished watching an episode until I checked again to view another one THROUGH FINDER since Time Machine app doesn't let you play things, only restores them, and it was gone! May 11th was gone!

LET ME SAY AGAIN FOR THE LAST TIME, TIME MACHINE = OFF! OFF! OFF! IT WAS NOT ON TO DO ANY CHANGES! My computer treated the HD like an HD! It was connected with the default external HD icon, NOT THE TIME MACHINE HD ICON! I just want to know why it deletes my files after I view them, and specially why it deletes the date directory, why does it delete them in the first place? You see all the suggestions would make sense if Time Machine = ON and I had a cheap 20gb HD, but I have a pretty big HD that holds a lot of stuff, so pretty much everything you guys said is void because it all involves the actual Time Machine app to be ON, which in this case it was OFF!!!! IT WAS OFF!!!

 

[flyfish29]

LET ME SAY AGAIN FOR THE LAST TIME, TIME MACHINE = OFF! OFF! OFF! IT WAS NOT ON TO DO ANY CHANGES!

The above IS THE WHOLE ISSUE and your BIGGEST MISTAKE!!!!!! It should NOT be off- you should be using Time Machine to restore your files TO YOUR PRIMARY DRIVE....DON'T TRY TO ACCESS TIME MACHINE CREATED FILES USING THE FINDER. (I don't know how to put it any clearer!)

You seem pretty competent in so many ways knowing about activity monitor, etc. which is great, but you are not listening to the people replying to your help request about Time Machine. You say we are not making sense....hmmmm.....our Time Machine backups are working great.....perhaps you should take the advice of those trying to help you instead of saying we don't understand- because we do understand and everyone that has replied has given you productive comments!

You keep saying you are not using TM and just viewing the files using finder, QT, etc. THAT IS YOUR MISTAKE!!! Enter the Time Machine.....please get it running, get it in activity monitor then search properly for your backed up files because they may still be there....don't use the finder and expect it to act like a normal HD with copied files because it isn't~!

Also, Black Viper is probably right- they are likely still there- check BlackViper's post above....however I can't stress enough- open Time Machine to access your external HD....don't use finder because while the drive is a normal HD (like you stated), the backed up files are NOT and should be accessed using Time Machine!

Have you even ever entered the Time Machine? (Not time machine preferences but the actual Time Machine?)

It looks like this:

 

[Cinematographer]

Also I just noticed another season was deleted.

[…] My season 3-5 of House aren't that special that TM really needed to delete only to free about 5% space compared to the 50% free space I already had! Especially since this happened like 10 minutes after I finished watching an episode until I checked again to view another one THROUGH FINDER since Time Machine app doesn't let you play things, only restores them, and it was gone! May 11th was gone!

LET ME SAY AGAIN FOR THE LAST TIME, TIME MACHINE = OFF! OFF! OFF! […]

On my TimeMachine disk, May 15th was just deleted although there are still 343 GB of free space on that disk.

Why did the system do that? Because it's on its schedule today to delete the daily backup after 30 days and only keep the Wednesday backup of week 19. That's the reason.

Now your backups are being deleted even with TimeMachine not running, either because the TM disk completes its scheduled task even when it's off (off probably means: no *new* backups) or because you trigger the deletion by accessing the files ready for deletion through Finder.

So you can either take the advice of the forum members here, restore your files and start TimeMachine as it is intended to be used or be prepared to lose another season of House tomorrow morning.

 

[BlackViper]

My Bad

After some research i believe i was wrong about the backup consolidations. TM does simply delete any backup not needed for the daily/weekly versions. The first backup of the day is kept for 30 days, every 7th daily will be reserved as the weekly; if your HDD is only periodically connected the next available backup will be used. If your weekly backups are the 7th and 14th, any file created and deleted within that range will be lost.

OP: to use the TM drive as storage simply copy the files to the drive anywhere that is not the backups folder, same partition is fine. I have done this in the past so that i can store large files that didn't need to be backed up in TM. This never caused me any problems so long as there is enough free space.

 

[ZebraineZ]

On my TimeMachine disk, May 15th was just deleted although there are still 343 GB of free space on that disk.

Why did the system do that? Because it's on its schedule today to delete the daily backup after 30 days and only keep the Wednesday backup of week 19. That's the reason.

Now your backups are being deleted even with TimeMachine not running, either because the TM disk completes its scheduled task even when it's off (off probably means: no *new* backups) or because you trigger the deletion by accessing the files ready for deletion through Finder.

So you can either take the advice of the forum members here, restore your files and start TimeMachine as it is intended to be used or be prepared to lose another season of House tomorrow morning.

Why delete the specific directory I was viewing something from though? If I could recreate this problem I would but since I don't want to risk losing anything else (not like there is anything left) I can't do that, I rather have Time Machine/Finder/Whatever delete older and probably obsolete backups then that SPECIFIC one...

Also, THANK YOU SO MUCH BlackViper that you actually gave me some decent straight forward answers rather than cryptic mumbo jumbo, next time I will do exactly what you said, I'l leave Time Machine alone.

And trust me, I doubt it, it's not possible for my files to be there, it's like they were just wiped spot-free, vanished into thin air. The first time that this actually happened was when I was watching a video of House and it said the video was corrupted and then it said all the videos were corrupted, and then it asked me to 'locate' the directory and when I went to 'locate' it was gone! Idk when this was though I forgot sorry.

 

[craig1410]

Why delete the specific directory I was viewing something from though? If I could recreate this problem I would but since I don't want to risk losing anything else (not like there is anything left) I can't do that, I rather have Time Machine/Finder/Whatever delete older and probably obsolete backups then that SPECIFIC one...

Also, THANK YOU SO MUCH BlackViper that you actually gave me some decent straight forward answers rather than cryptic mumbo jumbo, next time I will do exactly what you said, I'l leave Time Machine alone.

And trust me, I doubt it, it's not possible for my files to be there, it's like they were just wiped spot-free, vanished into thin air. The first time that this actually happened was when I was watching a video of House and it said the video was corrupted and then it said all the videos were corrupted, and then it asked me to 'locate' the directory and when I went to 'locate' it was gone! Idk when this was though I forgot sorry.

One man's "cryptic mumbo jumbo" is another man's good advice. Also, I seem to remember you repeatedly saying that you understood everything perfectly. I guess you've finally realised what most of us already knew, that you didn't.

As has been said many times, there is every chance that your data is still held within the Time Machine backup but if you'd prefer to keep sticking your head in the sand and ignoring good advice then so be it. It's only a few episodes of House after all, not as if it is your family photos or something.

Anyway, I've wasted enough time on this so good luck!