Lost+Found folder on backup drive

[lwk362393]

I keep an external hard drive permanently attached to my 2012 iMac and use Time Machine to backup every day. However, I recently noticed that in addition to the backups folder on the drive, there was also a lost+found folder. It has a massive amount of data in it supposedly (>100GB) and was apparently created on December 8th. Does anyone know why there would be a lost+found folder on my backup drive?

I have tested my computer by disconnecting the drive and restarting the Mac, and everything seems to function as normal. Is there any reason to believe deleting these files or formatting the external drive would have any effect on my internal drive and data?

 

[harryb2448]

Are you ejecting the external prior to disconnecting and/or powering down? Have you opened the folder to examine its contents, if possible? May have been an update that was interrupted.

 

[lwk362393]

Are you ejecting the external prior to disconnecting and/or powering down? Have you opened the folder to examine its contents, if possible? May have been an update that was interrupted.

Yes, I always do a proper ejection. The contents seem to be random bits from my primary disk, almost as though there was an error with the backup and certain parts got scattered around. Disk Utility shows both disks appear to be in good/normal health and isn't giving me much to work with.

 

[harryb2448]

IMHO TM never does cooperate that much is why I use SuperDuper which makes a fully bootable clone.