Using Time Machine to Recover files of the Last 2 Months ?

[touchUpInside]

Hi,

So, an external HDD failed. I have a backup of this HDD from two months ago (so, I have a lot of my data).

How do I attempt to retrieve the additional files of the last two months via time machine ?

The new HDD has a different name. The old HDD name does not appear in time machine. (I don't see a means to browse to a location no longer there.) Maybe if I rename the new with the old HDD name ?

Hope this is easy, but it's not obvious.


Cheers.

 

[touchUpInside]

Oh, bonus for pointers on a recovery program that may be successful retrieve files from the bad HDD (4TB Seagate Backup Plus).

Also, what about third party retrieval services ? Worth the time and trouble ?

I can leave without the files, just counting this as a learning opportunity . . .

 

[Fishrrman]

"So, an external HDD failed"

What "failed"?
No longer mounts?
What happens when you connect it?
Do the drive platters spin?
What error messages do you receive (if you rcv any)?

"Also, what about third party retrieval services ? Worth the time and trouble ?"

3rd party data recovery can run (literally) into the thousands of dollars.
Is the missing data really, really worth that much to you?

"bonus for pointers on a recovery program that may be successful retrieve files from the bad HDD "

Data Rescue
Disk Drill
Try both. Both are free to download (I believe), see if they can do anything.

Advice for the future:
STOP USING time machine.
Use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper instead.
Could save you from problems like this in the future.

 

[Brian33]

The new HDD has a different name. The old HDD name does not appear in time machine. (I don't see a means to browse to a location no longer there.)

Once you are in the Time Machine interface, type Shift-Command-C (Finder's shortcut for Go-->Computer). Then you should be able to see the old HDD name. There's no need to name the new HDD to be the same as the old HDD's name -- you can name the new one anything you want.

 

[James_C]

The old HDD name does not appear in time machine. (I don't see a means to browse to a location no longer there.) Maybe if I rename the new with the old HDD name ?

I am just checking you know that by default Time Machine excludes all external disks from backup unless you go into Time Machine preferences, click the options button, select the external drive and click the - button to remove it from the exclude list.

I have three external drives attached to my iMac - Only the time machine drive is excluded, I removed the exclusion for the other two drives.

In the screenshot below you can see 3 external drives, the LaCie does not have a time machine backup, as it is excluded, but the two externals that are not greyed out Lacie 4TB and the SSD are backed up with Time Machine.

If you go back in Time Machine to your last backup, if you see your external drive is greyed out then it was not backed up.