PowerBook G4 reset itself

Hello there, I was fed up with my computer last night (firefox was having issues and the computer was being slow, and also i was trying to download some things but it would not go onto my desktop even though in finder it said it was there) so i turned it off, i don't turn it off often so i figured i'd give it a little break. I turn it on this morning and it basically looks like it reset itself, like i just bought it. i open up itunes...no music, i freak out because i'm a musician and music is my life...tried firefox, all bookmarks, history etc. etc. gone...everything is reset. but the funny thing is that all of my files, music etc. are still IN the computer but there were no folders on the desktop except my HD and the files that i was trying to download last night that wouldn't show up...all preferences, wallpaper etc. are reset...any tips? ways to revert back? it's not a total loss but i also can't figure out how to put my music back in itunes without taking up another 40gb which i don't have at all.

Thanks

How did you log on to the computer? It sounds like you are not logged into the same account. Make sure you're logged into the account which has all your files, folders, music, etc.

Regards.

Oh gosh...haha I didn't like in at all it just automatically logged me in...I'll try to log onto my usual account, it's just my computer so i never log out or anything but i'll try thanks

nope, just tried and i'm logged into my account

Being a muso I trust you have everything backed up on an external drive? Sure sounds like the drive has/is failing.

prior to this i had some stuff backed up...but yesterday i dumped everything onto an external, so i'm all set if the worst happens. This is actually kind of nice because i can start over now, i virtually had no space left and now and i put everything onto the external and just dumped it and only kept the things i really need, which wasn't much...so now instead of >1gb left i have about 50

that's a shame if the drive is failing though. i'll have to get it checked out

As a first step boot up from your system DVD, pop it in, reboot, hold down 'C' and go to Utilities in the menu bar and select Disk Utility,. Run Repair Disk and see what is reported. Thew problem may well have been the drive was rapidly filling up. You do need about 15% capacity for a drive to work anywhere near its peak performance.

yeah so it was working fine for a while but i never turned it off since but i shut it off last night because it was having problems....sound wasn't working at all and the mouse icon wouldn't show up anywhere so i shut it off and restarted it...same thing that happened as in the OP. kind of PO'd, i get the problem sort of, in my HD it says there's three different users, i'm on one of them but i can't switch at all, there's only 1 account though so there's nothing to switch to but everything is there but i'm just not on it..i don't understand at all...

heres a pic



how do i get the home picture to be on zakk jones...which is the one with all of my settings etc?

thanks!

anyone??