02-03-2012, 12:32 AM

Hello, I normally don't mess with things I don't know how to use even though I'm pretty computer savvy. But I decided to try and mod my Minecraft game after telling myself I wouldn't do it.

Long story short I was putting a command in Terminal and it just deleted my entire desktop. My background is still there but all my folders and files on my desktop are gone. I've searched everywhere and couldn't find an answer to my questions which is this:

1. Is there any way of restoring my desktop?

2. Are the files permanently deleted?

3. Will the answer to those questions make me cry like a little child?

Any and all help will be greatly, greatly appreciated.

02-03-2012, 12:49 AM

Originally Posted by Kurosake

3. Will the answer to those questions make me cry like a little child?

Yes

I won't be able to come up with a answer for you as i don't know the Terminal, but i will ask you to post exactly the command you put into to Terminal before the mishap.
Doing this now will save time for when one of our command line guru's come int and see the thread they have something to work with straight away.
Also post your Mac specs as well as what OS you are currently running.

Good luck.

Cheers

02-03-2012, 01:01 AM

I'm running Mac OS X Version 10.6.8

As far as the command is concerned If memory serves me well I believe this was the command I entered.

rm META-INF/MOJANG_C.*
jar uf ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft/bin/minecraft.jar ./
cd ..
rm -rf mctmp

02-03-2012, 01:20 AM

If you had Time Machine running then of course you have nothing to worry about. Simply navigate back to before the incident occurred and "restore" the Users/Desktop folder. If you weren't using Time Machine I assume you had a backup of some other kind, the same advice applies.

I don't know UNIX well enough to say what happened with your command there but RM commands are always dangerous.

02-03-2012, 01:28 AM

Unfortunately, I did not have Time Machine running nor a back up. Or I would have done so.

02-03-2012, 02:02 AM

Hands over virtual tissue...

Sorry I don't know those commands..
I would suggest time machine or Carbon Copy Cloner or something before using terminal as (I think?) using terminal is more permanent then dragging to the trash..

Hopefully what was on your desktop were aliases rather than the originals so you can rebuild your desktop. I'm not sure but I think you can just remake the desktop folder or maybe using Disk Utility from your original CD?

Good Luck

02-03-2012, 02:13 AM

[insert obligatory lecture about keeping a lot of stuff on the desktop and the risk for accidentally throwing stuff away you didn't intend to here]

02-03-2012, 04:20 PM

Can you open Terminal type in history and paste the last 15 lines or so here?

02-03-2012, 05:23 PM

Originally Posted by Kurosake

rm META-INF/MOJANG_C.*
jar uf ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft/bin/minecraft.jar ./
cd ..
rm -rf mctmp

Nothing there would have deleted all of the files on your Desktop. Do as McYukon suggested and paste the output of the "history" command here.

04-19-2012, 10:29 AM

The exact same thing happened to me and it has also deleted other random files across my mac, is there anyway of restoration. apart from a back up

04-19-2012, 10:43 AM

What commands did you execute? Did you execute exactly as was suggested by whatever guide you were reading (the smallest change can make the biggest difference)? Do as McYukon suggested above and post the last 10 or 15 lines of the output from "history."

04-19-2012, 10:49 AM

Restart finder? If you close it (normally you can't) then the icons on your desktop vanish too.

04-19-2012, 10:58 AM

Finder should restart itself if it closes - there's no true way to kill the Finder process and "keep it dead" since it's integral to everyday operation. Thus, I doubt that this is the cause since, if Finder did die, it would have restarted, bringing back the icons with it.

04-19-2012, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by vansmith

Finder should restart itself if it closes - there's no true way to kill the Finder process and "keep it dead" since it's integral to everyday operation. Thus, I doubt that this is the cause since, if Finder did die, it would have restarted, bringing back the icons with it.

Oh, you can get Finder closed, via Terminal or Utilities. My Finder menu even has a "Close Finder" option now.

http://lifehacker.com/333819/add-qui...he-finder-menu

04-19-2012, 11:25 AM

True but killing the process doesn't really end it permanently since, at some point, you'll have to interact with it in some fashion. As that article notes, simply trying to open a Finder window will relaunch it (as you'd expect). This is why (I expect) Apple makes it tricky (by hiding the plist key) to truly kill it.

So, technically, it did die but I doubt this was the case here - you'd know it if it was. Non-technical means of killing Finder (holding control and option while clicking the Finder icon and selecting the relaunch menu item) will restart it and are probably more likely in this case.