Time Machine · Time Capsule · HFS+ and APFS backup volumes
A Time Machine drive is an ordinary external hard disk, usually formatted HFS+ or APFS by the Mac, holding a chain of hourly, daily and weekly snapshots that reference one another. When the drive fails, or the Mac reports that the backup disk is not available, or Disk Utility's First Aid gives up half-way through, the chain is what has to be put back together. Apple's Time Capsule was the same thing built into a wireless base station, with a Seagate or Hitachi drive inside and a power supply that outlived its warranty by less than it should have. We recover the drive, then the backup structure on the image, and the files come back as files. One Time Machine drive is £300 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing, 3–4 days at the bench.
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| What is going on | The usual reason for it | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| The backup disk is not available | Drive not mounting, or the volume damaged | Free look; do not erase |
| First Aid: the volume could not be repaired | Catalogue or object-map damage | Rebuilt on the image |
| Time Machine must create a new backup for you | The old chain is unreadable to Time Machine | Do not accept; the old chain is recoverable |
| The Time Capsule light is off | Power supply | Drive removed and read directly |
| Sparsebundle could not be opened | Missing bands or a damaged plist | Bands reassembled on the image |
| Password not accepted on an encrypted backup | Encryption doing its job | Your password is required |
A case number goes on it the day the parcel is opened, and an engineer settles what has actually failed before anything else happens. A drive that clicks or beeps is not powered again; one that spins is read on our own imaging equipment, never in a computer that will retry and time out and retry. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.
Every external drive is two things: the drive, and the USB board that talks to it. The board is checked first, because a failed bridge, a snapped socket or a dead regulator is the whole fault on a good share of jobs, and because on WD's encrypted drives the board holds the key. Where the drive itself has stopped, it comes out of its case onto the bench.
The drive is imaged first, as any drive is. Then the backup structure is rebuilt on the image: the HFS+ catalogue and hard-link forest, the APFS object map and snapshots, or the sparsebundle's bands and the volume inside. The snapshots that survive are mounted and the files copied out as ordinary files, latest version first.
Nothing is worked on live. The whole drive is imaged once, head by head and weak areas last, with reads timed to what the platters can stand, and the file system is put back together on the image. Encrypted volumes are unlocked there too, with the original board's key or the password you supply, and never on the original.
What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.
The Mac it backed up had been sold; the Time Capsule had not powered on since. Inside was a 2TB Seagate drive that had never failed. It was imaged, the sparsebundle's bands reassembled and the HFS+ volume inside mounted, and the last snapshot copied out as folders. Forty years of documents came back on a fresh drive.
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine caseUsually not. The drive has stopped mounting or the volume is damaged, and the chain of snapshots is still on the platters. Do not let Time Machine start over; send the drive.
Yes, usually. The drive comes out on the bench, is imaged, and the sparsebundle for each Mac is reassembled and mounted. The power supply is the usual fault, not the drive.
You get the files, as folders on fresh media, latest versions first. That is what almost everyone needs, and it is far more reliable than trying to rebuild a Time Machine chain a new Mac will accept.
£300 + VAT for one drive after the free look, fixed in writing.
3–4 days at the bench after the free look.
Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. On most jobs an invoice only follows the data. Until that list reaches you, leave the drive unplugged.