TimeMachine and original files

[anarche]

Excuse my basic question, but is it safe to delete files from my hard drive once they have gone into TimeMachine backups?

Can I always retrieve the original file from a previous TimeMachine backup? If so, how is this done?

 

[Kissmyne]

Yes you can until the backup eventually thins out the original file(which will happen once the drive files up, since it is no longer on your computer). Keep in mind that Time Machine is designed to mirror your OS X partition, so any files you delete from the Mac will eventually result in the files being automatically deleted as a result of the Time Machine thinning behavior that ultimately will take place over time as a result of disk space limitations.

To restore the file, the simplest way is to navigate in Finder to the original file location, then "Enter Time Machine" and then select a time/date when the file was present in that location.

You can also manually locate the file in your Time Machine backup drive by browsing the aforementioned Time Machine backup drive using Finder.