Time Machine, after recovery, old backs not available.

Hi Mac forum.

This is my first post.

I had to recover my Mac to an earlier date and after the recovery, when I connect my Time Machine back-up disk, I can only access the last backup. I can see the other ones back in time, but cant reach them, they apear as "black".

My question is:

1. Is all data that have been backed up earlier now available from that last point? If so, I should keep this drive and start using a new one for future backups (there´s not enough space to do a whole new backup on that disk).

2. Or are the older backups lost? In that case, I imagine I can just reformat the drive and start using it again as the Time Machine backup drive. In this case I have lost older backups. which kind of leaves me with another question.
3. Should it be done dfferently...

The recovery did solve the problem!

Thanks in advance.

Robert.

No, what you're seeing is normal. I would go ahead and clean the external drive and start over as you have already recovered. Also, you might consider using a cloning program in addition to Time Machine. Cloning programs create a backup that's bootable, Time Machine backups are not bootable. Take a look at Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. You will need an additional external hard drive though.

Ok, thanks. So, if I need to go back to an earlier date, is this the only way to do it? Isn't there such a thing as a Restore to and earlier time as in Windows?

C: