Why did Time Machine erase my backups?

I used time machine to go back to 2/5/2015. When I did so, it erased every backup on the external drive. Now I am only left with the 2 backups I made since the restoration and then the machine went sour again. iCal would not do a search, the desktop wallpaper still keeps disappearing. Can't update nor uninstall DIVx. I am preparing the computer for a complete format and start from scratch. I am majorly disappointed in Apple in having to do this, but I suppose I am very happy this is not a PC and I am not having to do this every 6 months. I guess 4 years is not too awful bad but still! Does anyone have any input on if I made mistakes and how to prevent this from happening again? Much appreciated.

2011 MacBook Pro
10.6.8

Welcome to the forum. Double posting the same problem in two places is not a good thing. A MOD should come along and merge the two threads. You only need to ask once and we'll respond. IF you ask in two places you can get people confused because of the multiple replies.

I am not sure what you did. From your post, it appears that you restored your entire machine back to as it was 2/5/15, through TimeMachine. If that is in fact what you did, and if since then you have made two backups and that's all that TM has, let us know. As for the "sour" machine, can you explain what you mean by "iCal would not do a search?" What happened, what did you do, how did it respond. Ditto for wallpaper and DiVx. It sounds a little bit like a permissions problem, so what have you done to try to fix it other than prepping to nuke and pave install. It's hard to say what you may have done wrong without knowing what you did, exactly.

To clarify

Thank you, Jake. I was not aware that the posts were duplicates. Yes, I restored it to 2/5/15. Then when I plugged the external TM drive back in, I discovered that there was nothing there. Then, I did a backup of the newly restored machine. Since the machine was working great, I let the backups continue for a few days. I added back some files and thats when life went south again.

Yes, I have been repairing permissions for years. I have been using killall Dock and deleting the apple.com.desktop .plist files to get the desktop wallpaper back now and again over the past year. So, I then decided to restore it all AGAIN. I used a restore point of about a week ago now.

When that came up, if found that iCal would not let me search for anything. Just a blank reply at the base of the screen. I have seen other people have this problem from my quick searches on the net. I deleted the Calendar in the Library and brought back a copy I had stored elsewhere and that fixed the problem. I attempted to fix permissions on this latest install but there were no permission errors found.

As far as DivX, apparently I installed it for a specific reason, I am not a random installer (MCSE in Windows NT, argh) it wanted to be updated and then refused to do so, saying that my system was not supported. I tried to get rid of it but cannot. It keeps popping up asking to be updated.
Thanks again.

I'm not sure why you (Lyd) say "but I suppose I am very happy this is not a PC and I am not having to do this every 6 months". I have been using Windows for over 20 years, and only once have I had to reformat & reinstall the OS - and that was because of my own stupid error.

What does "get info" on the external show? Is the space that used to be in the TM backups now free, or is it still shown as used? Have you looked at the external in Finder to see what's there? You should see a folder named "Backups.backupdb" and inside that a folder with the name of your machine, and inside that folders with the dates and times of the backups. If you see the older backups, then they are there, TM can't see them. If they aren't there, then they are truly gone.

The two posts are not totally duplicates, but you covered all the same issues in both, which makes them functionally duplicated. I'm on El Capitan, so I don't have iCal anymore, it's been updated to Calendar and so I can't help with that. Ditto with the wallpaper issue. I set my wallpaper years ago and it's been the same through the last four updates.

Can you say more about this:

I added back some files and thats when life went south again.

Click to expand...

What happened?

Hi MikeinGrange, I say that because I was a systems engineer for an adaptive aid firm for years. We made computers "talk" for the "visually challenged" and handicapable, 15 years ago. I was a builder of these Dell Systems and had to also take tech support calls. We took these computers back from the users and had to repair them. I have been used and abused by the system and less than nice employers in this field. I then went Mac and never looked back. So, that is the reasoning for my disgust of Windows based machines. They were buggy, susceptible to virus, malware, adware and every other infection out there.

If you only reformatted your computer once in 20 years, they you, sir, are a remarkable user of Windows. I salute you.

HI MacInWin,

Before my restore, I took important files and threw them on my networked iMac as well as a memory stick. After a day or two, I brought some of those files back. Then next night, I started getting the spinning beach ball again and slow responses. My thought now, was that something in those files were bad. So, I will not bring back those files en masse again.

Get info tells me that the capacity is 499GB. Available is 270GB and used is 229GB. Yes, the dates and times of the 8 backups are dated 11/15/15 through 11/19/15 only.

Did I lose all of my old backups BECAUSE I did a restore and then did a backup of my newly restored system? If so, I wish I knew it was going to be a one shot deal.

Were the files data or applications? Or something other?

From what I know of TM, I don't think you should have lost all the backups. But I'm not a TM expert, so maybe someone who is will chime in here. When I've used TM it was only for single files, or to pull back a system onto a newly formatted drive with a fresh install of OS X, in which case it was Migration Assistant that did the restore, so it took from the latest version. Fortunately, I've never had to restore an entire system back to some historical date.

Hi Jake,

The files were simply data files. No applications. I learned that from the windows world never to fool around with app locations once you install them.
Upon really thinking about the logistics about this, I have come to a few conclusions myself.

When I restored the machine, it was a new machine in TM's view. I then did a system restore which took hours and ate up considerable space on the TM drive, therefore, erasing the old backups. Subsequent backups, of course took minimal space and time as I believe they are incremental.

Today, I experienced my first Kernel Panic. I will continue to purge my iphoto database and get ready for a full reformat and reinstall. Still, not bad for going on 4 years old. Thanks for the input and advice.

Well, from what I know, that's not how TM is supposed to work. If it starts a new backup on a "new" system to the old backup drive, it adds that name to the list in backups.backupdb on the drive and leave the old one there. But maybe something in your setup triggered the purge you saw. Kernel Panics are normally caused by hardware issues, although third-party "clean up" software and antivirus software can also trigger them. Look at the list of libraries loaded and anything that is NOT com.apple.xxxxxxx is a suspect.

Thank you, Jake. Would you kindly advise me where to look for this list of libraries loaded?

Lyd said:

When I restored the machine, it was a new machine in TM's view. I then did a system restore which took hours and ate up considerable space on the TM drive, therefore, erasing the old backups. Subsequent backups, of course took minimal space and time as I believe they are incremental.

Click to expand...

Admittedly I'm a little confused and not sure exactly what happened. If the machine now has a new name and a backup was performed it could concavely used space that had been devoted to previous backups. By default when the TM drive starts to get too full it deletes some of the older backups to make space.

The Kernel panic should have produced a kernel panic report. In that report is a summary of all the loaded libraries and applications.