Finder disappeared

I tried to save a photo from my Mail app to the desktop, and suddenly all of the icons on my desktop disappeared. The desktop image is still there, and the dock is still visible. The finder menu still appears at the top of the screen, but it blinks in and out, and none of menus open.

I am able to launch Safari from the dock, and Mail, but the finder keeps blinking on an off, and I am unable to type this while the finder is blinking off (about 4 seconds on, 2 secs. off). This is the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me on a Mac.

I can't open my HD, because the HD icon is gone, and I can't open the finder menus.

What's happening? neye:

First thing... restart the computer.
Then when it has restarted, run a Permissions Repair.

OK, thanks. I ran disk utilities off the Tiger startup CD. Did disk repair and permissions repair. Still no finder icons. I am able to login as admin, and access the HD. Should I start clearing out preference files?

D3v1L80Y said:

First thing... restart the computer.
Then when it has restarted, run a Permissions Repair.

Click to expand...

I'm back. Ran disk first aid and permissions repair from the Tiger start up CD disk utilities app. Also dumped all the preference files. The problem is still not fixed. Do I need to reintall Tiger? I'd prefer not to erase the HD, because I have work files that I haven't backed up.

Use Pacifist. You can put in the Install Disk and ONLY install Finder (if you end up doing that).

Check if Finder is still even on your computer by:

1. Opening Terminal with Spotlight (I think it works without Finder)
2. *don't type the quotes *
3. type "cd .." (that's period, period)
4. do it twice more to get to the top of your directory tree (aka YourHD)
5. type "cd System"
6. type "cd Library"
7. type "cd CoreServices"
8. type "ls" (that's an "L" lowercase)
9. Make sure there is a file called Finder.app

You can try relaunching Finder by:
1. Opening Terminal.
2. Type "killall Finder"
3. Finder (if it's working) will quit and relaunch.

Log in using a different user.
1. If you don't have another User, open SystemPreferences using Spotlight.
2. Click the "Accounts" prefpane.
3. Add a user.
4. Log out and log in with the new user.
5. See if Finder is still acting wierd.
...if it is, this means that the file "Finder.app" has been damaged in some way, and you'll have to install it using Pacifist. If Finder works fine, then it's just a .plist on YOUR account.

Hope all this helps. Keep us posted. :mac:

I reinstalled Tiger, and everything seems fine, though there are some minor font problems in Mail. Thanks for your help. Is there any reason to keep the Previous System folder, or can I just trash that?

The "Previous System" folder is everything from your "old" computer. You can keep it if you want, but it's perfectly fine to delete it, it holds no system files.