Time Machine just ERASED my back-up???

[Jodeo]

Last August I switched from cloud back-up to a 4TB drive on my home network. The drive's been running fine, and incrementals have run consistently. I've occasionally used the Time Machine UI to retrieve old files - very slick. (Between our 2 computers we have ~2.5TB of capacity, btw.)

The other day I noticed a message saying that Time Machine needs to create a fresh back-up or something. Whatever. I didn't pay it any mind and went about my business. Just now, I got a message that the back-up was now complete. Hmmmmm.

I opened TM only to find that everything prior to Thursday night is gone. That history was wiped. I didn't think Time Machine worked that way. Note that nothing has been done to my computer or the drive or anything else on our network.

Any ideas what happened?

 

[jbarley]

Was the message similar to this...?

 

[KALLT]

This is a known issue with network-based Time Machine backups. Eventually, Time Machine will detect a problem in the disk image and deem the data compromised. Sometimes it is possible to fix it, but overall I would not rely on it too much.

 

[Jodeo]

Wow. I did not know this about Time Machine. I had CrashPlan before and didn't want to keep spending $150/yr. But in 4 years they kept every file without fail. I guess you get what your pay for - that, or I need to stop using TM.

 

[BorderingOn]

You can always have more than one TM disk. Maybe one you take off site. This alleviates the issue.