The motive behind introducing the Time Machine utility was Apple’s attention to Mac user data safety. Apple realized that regardless of how often users were informed about the dangers of data loss, some would always forget to backup critical data in the right way. Thus, the idea of a utility was born which could automatically take backups of the entire Mac hard drive’ data at regular intervals, incrementally. Time Machine, introduced in macOS Leopard, allows users to incrementally back up all their entire Mac system files and perform recovery of the whole system or specific files at a later stage.
A few key benefits of Apple Time Machine
Time Machine makes an initial full backup of your Mac’s hard drive and then stacks subsequent changes (that you make to the hard drive) in a chronological hierarchy. It automatically takes hourly, daily, and weekly backups (depending upon how you schedule them) with the oldest backups being overwritten with new ones.
Some key advantages of the Apple Time Machine utility include:
- Automated Backup Scheduling
- Intuitive Recovery Process
- Ability to run in the background without affecting overall system performance
- Creates a layered snapshot system that’s reflected in a navigable timeline
- Makes the recovery of individual files and folders simple
Time Machine Backup Recovery Procedure
Recovering data from a backup saved using Time Machine is quite straightforward. Here’s what you need to do:
- Connect your Time Machine backup drive to the Mac
- Enter the utility by selecting the option from the Time Machine icon on macOS menu.
- In the screen that appears, you’ll see a Finder window. Select a date from the timeline at the right of the screen or click the up/down arrows to navigate the backup snapshots and locate the deleted item (or an earlier version of an item) you want to recover.
- Select the relevant item in the snapshot window and click ‘Restore’
- Time Machine will copy the file or folder to its original location on your Mac’s startup disk.
While this process is quite simple to follow, you must be aware that the Time Machine backup drive faces the same threats as other internal and external hard drives. It can crash, fails, get corrupted / damaged, and can also be stolen. In case your Time Machine backup drive fails, the only way to recover all your backups stored on it is using Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac.
Recover Mac Data from Time Machine with Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac
Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac empowers Mac users to fight the most challenging data threats like Time Machine backup drive failure. Through advanced scan and recovery techniques, this read-only software quickly spots your seemingly lost files and makes them recoverable. Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac includes support for Apple Time Capsule (Time Machine Backup recovery from sparse bundle disk image).
Here’s the procedure to use this program for Time Machine recovery:
- Download the software’s demo version from vendor website. Ensure your system meets the application’s minimum requirements and then install it.
- Connect your Time Machine backup drive to your Mac and then launch the software interface by double-clicking its desktop icon.
- From the home screen, select the kind of data you wish to recover by toggling the respective buttons to “On” state. To recover all file types, toggle the “Recover Everything” button to “On” state.
- Click on Next button to reach the next screen. Use the scroll-right sign on the right-hand side to navigate to your Time Machine drive which will be displayed within the software interface and select it for data recovery.
- When ready to begin scan, click on Scan button. The following screen shows you the scan progress with a default preview of files being discovered. You can choose to turn off the Preview and view only scan progress if you desire.
- When scan completes, you’ll receive a prompt indicating the same and all recoverable files will be listed in a tree-view in the software’s left hand panel.
- To preview an item individually, double-click on it from the left hand panel.
- Once satisfied with file preview, select the files to recover by marking the check boxes next to them in the software’s main panel and click on “Recover” button. You’ll be prompted to register your product at this point. Activate your software with a valid license and then save the file to a destination of your choice.
When you select the Time Machine drive by single clicking on it, a Deep Scan option will become available on the lower left corner. You may toggle it to “On” state conduct an extensive scan on the drive.
