Time Machine failure

[ctsoundguy]

Running a 2009 iMac on 10.11.6. I had turned off TM a couple weeks ago while I did some updating. I turned it back on yesterday, clicked backup now, and when I returned to check on things several hours later, TM had blown away all my backups and done one entire new backup instead of updating.

The TM drive is a 1 TB connected via USB. I use the FW connection for a 2nd clone backup. Current system is 541GB.

A. Why did TM blow away weeks ( months ?) of backups when turned back on ? Why did it not just update with changes since the most recent backup ?

B. With the one backup it did yesterday on the drive, it now says "there isn't enough space on TM drive"- backup failed. Why did it hum along happily for months with the system the same size using the exact same external drive ? Why isn't it just updating the backup done yesterday ?

The loss of the TM backups is distressing as I was going to pull a few things from an older one. How do I move forward and prevent this from occurring again ?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Fishrrman]

"The loss of the TM backups is distressing as I was going to pull a few things from an older one. How do I move forward and prevent this from occurring again?"

If you REALLY want to "prevent this from occurring again", then STOP USING Time Machine and switch to a backup application that actually WORKS and won't "leave you hanging" in a "moment of need" -- which is where you are now.

I suggest you download BOTH of the following apps:
- CarbonCopyCloner
and
- SuperDuper

BOTH are FREE to download and use for 30 days.

Both will create BOOTABLE CLONED COPIES of your internal drive.
You can:
- Mount the backup drive in the finder, just like any other drive
- Copy over one or more needed files, or a folder, or many folders
- Boot from the clone (it will look EXACTLY LIKE your internal drive, and work EXACTLY LIKE your internal drive)
- You can even RE-clone the cloned copy BACK TO the internal drive
- CCC even copies and maintains the recovery partition, as well.

Give them a try.
You have nothing to lose.
Actually with Time Machine, you've already "lost everything".
What kind of "reliable backup utility" does that?

 

[ctsoundguy]

"The loss of the TM backups is distressing as I was going to pull a few things from an older one. How do I move forward and prevent this from occurring again?"

If you REALLY want to "prevent this from occurring again", then STOP USING Time Machine and switch to a backup application that actually WORKS and won't "leave you hanging" in a "moment of need" -- which is where you are now.

I suggest you download BOTH of the following apps:
- CarbonCopyCloner
and
- SuperDuper

BOTH are FREE to download and use for 30 days.

Both will create BOOTABLE CLONED COPIES of your internal drive.
You can:
- Mount the backup drive in the finder, just like any other drive
- Copy over one or more needed files, or a folder, or many folders
- Boot from the clone (it will look EXACTLY LIKE your internal drive, and work EXACTLY LIKE your internal drive)
- You can even RE-clone the cloned copy BACK TO the internal drive
- CCC even copies and maintains the recovery partition, as well.

Give them a try.
You have nothing to lose.
Actually with Time Machine, you've already "lost everything".
What kind of "reliable backup utility" does that?

Thanks Fisherman. Agreed on all points, especially the "reliable backup utility" ! I use both CCC and Super Duper now,they both work great, and have saved me in the past. The TM is just another level of backup for me, and has proved handy. What I am sorry I lost, were some TM backups from a while ago, before I updated to El Cap, which contained some emails that got smoked for some reason during to switch to El Cap. Not a disaster.
Having said all that, I'll still like to figure out what the heck happened with my TM...