Help! Missing data and folders!

[NanoBite]

As a note, when I was talking about the User icon in the left pane of Finder, I was referring to the Home icon (that's what it's called, right?).


Anyway, I've done everything in that MacWorld article and nothing really has seemed to change. Everything's kind of moved around and the icons are messed up. On the upside, Spotlight seems to recognize the previously "missing" files that it used to not be able to do. Also the Home icon (what I referred to as User before) has been replaced with a generic folder name Jesse. I don't know when or how that happened.

So is there anyway to get everything back to the way that it was yesterday?

Hi again Jesse,

Ok....I've also been reading the linked info...

Great that Spotlight is back to normal...the corruption is why Spotlight wasn't finding the stuff...the Home directory (yes you're correct there) was corrupted and Jesse became sidelined.

So with your Home dir...Jesse as it's called....can you navigate through it alright...we'll remove the generic icons soon..

Backtracking to the earlier post of yours with those pics:

Pic 1: Ok this is your old Home dir which was sidelined but we can see that the data is still there....which is good.

Pic 2: What you have in this image is the default amount of folders and the Music, Movies etc folders don't show up here...this is the Macintosh HD dir and those folders are within your Home dir which is contained in the Users folder.

Pic 3: The User icon showing up in place of your name for the Home dir seems to be all fixed now.

Pic 4: I'm worried about your docs folder....have all your important docs shown up in the recovered Home dir; Jesse>Documents ?

 

[atomheartmother]

Hi again Jesse,

Ok....I've also been reading the linked info...

Great that Spotlight is back to normal...the corruption is why Spotlight wasn't finding the stuff...the Home directory (yes you're correct there) was corrupted and Jesse became sidelined.

So with your Home dir...Jesse as it's called....can you navigate through it alright...we'll remove the generic icons soon..

Backtracking to the earlier post of yours with those pics:

Pic 1: Ok this is your old Home dir which was sidelined but we can see that the data is still there....which is good.

Pic 2: What you have in this image is the default amount of folders and the Music, Movies etc folders don't show up here...this is the Macintosh HD dir and those folders are within your Home dir which is contained in the Users folder.

Pic 3: The User icon showing up in place of your name for the Home dir seems to be all fixed now.

Pic 4: I'm worried about your docs folder....have all your important docs shown up in the recovered Home dir; Jesse>Documents ?

The Jesse folder (the contents of which are shown in picture 1) doesn't appear to be the home directory. For example, if I do up arrow-H-Command, it brings up the actual Home directy (as seen in pic 3) that doesn't contain much. The Home directory used to contain everything that the Jesse Folder does and the home directy was named Jesse. Furthermore, I cannot change the Home directory name from user to Jesse as it says that that name is already taken or something.

As far as the documents (Jesse>Documents), yes everything is fine in there.

However, I still seem to have a problem with the organization and icons. Otherwise, I *think* that everything else appears to be fine.

So, do you have any idea how to bring everything in Finder back to what it used to be (organization, icons, directory names, etc.)? Furthermore, do you know what could have caused this problem? Some corruption? How did that happen? The iBook is used (it's an iBook G3 900 mHz running Tiger 10.4.7, by the way), but it has a fresh copy of Tiger on it from about two weeks ago. I really haven't done much with the iBook aside from perusing the internet and using Word aside from installing tons of maintenance apps today.

PS: Thanks a load for all the help.

 

[NanoBite]

The Jesse folder (the contents of which are shown in picture 1) doesn't appear to be the home directory. For example, if I do up arrow-H-Command, it brings up the actual Home directy (as seen in pic 3) that doesn't contain much. The Home directory used to contain everything that the Jesse Folder does and the home directy was named Jesse. Furthermore, I cannot change the Home directory name from user to Jesse as it says that that name is already taken or something.

As far as the documents (Jesse>Documents), yes everything is fine in there.

However, I still seem to have a problem with the organization and icons. Otherwise, I *think* that everything else appears to be fine.

So, do you have any idea how to bring everything in Finder back to what it used to be (organization, icons, directory names, etc.)? Furthermore, do you know what could have caused this problem? Some corruption? How did that happen? The iBook is used (it's an iBook G3 900 mHz running Tiger 10.4.7, by the way), but it has a fresh copy of Tiger on it from about two weeks ago. I really haven't done much with the iBook aside from perusing the internet and using Word aside from installing tons of maintenance apps today.

PS: Thanks a load for all the help.

So when you bring up the Home dir window do you see Jesse underneath the User in the left pane?

If so firstly back up your docs and all other important stuff and then drag and drop the User icon to the desktop and it should vanish into thin air....a little Tiger magic.

Then close the window and bring up the Home dir with the keyboard shortcut and post back.

What I want to happen is that the keyboard shortcut takes you to Jesse as it should.

 

[atomheartmother]

So when you bring up the Home dir window do you see Jesse underneath the User in the left pane?

If so firstly back up your docs and all other important stuff and then drag and drop the User icon to the desktop and it should vanish into thin air....a little Tiger magic.

Then close the window and bring up the Home dir with the keyboard shortcut and post back.

What I want to happen is that the keyboard shortcut takes you to Jesse as it should.

When I do Go (in main toolbar)->Home, it gives me this. I don't see Jesse anywhere.

 

[NanoBite]

Go to Mac HD>Users and drag Jesse to the left pane and leave User there and post back.

Can you post a pic of what's in Docs and Lib from the User dir.

 

[atomheartmother]

Go to Mac HD>Users and drag Jesse to the left pane and leave User there and post back.

Can you post a pic of what's in Docs and Lib from the User dir.

Done. Here are two pics of the contents of Jesse and User (both in the left pane). By clicking Documents under User (Home), it takes me to the Documents icon on the left panel. This seems to be fine (both folders are in there correctly). By clicking Library, it takes me to the normal Library folder.

Would it be appropriate to just move all of the folders from Jesse to User, erase Jesse, and rename User to Jesse? The User appears to be the Home directory (this is what comes up with the Home key combo). Is there a better way? Also, what about repairing the icons to what they should be?

Pics:

 

[NanoBite]

Ok we need to backtrack here....remove Jesse by drag'n'drop off to the desktop and it'll disappear in a puff...then nav to Mac HD>Users and rename the User icon there to Jesse and drag'n'drop that to the left pane....then tell me if it becomes a shortcut to your home dir...

 

[atomheartmother]

Ok we need to backtrack here....remove Jesse by drag'n'drop off to the desktop and it'll disappear in a puff...then nav to Mac HD>Users and rename the User icon there to Jesse and drag'n'drop that to the left pane....then tell me if it becomes a shortcut to your home dir...

I dragged Jesse from the left pane to the desktop and it poofed away. However, when I tried to rename the User icon (Home icon) in Mac HD>Users, it said that that name is already being used (by the Jesse folder...it didn't say this part, but I assume). If I rename the Jesse folder, I can rename the User (Home) icon (in Mac HD>Users) to Jesse. Then I could drag that to the left panel. That is what would come up if I did the Home key combo.

 

[NanoBite]

Well if you just drag the User icon from Mac HD>Users The house icon, just drag it to the left pane and click on it and see if it's a shortcut to your home dir....I'm hoping it is....

Gotta go out for 45mins or so....will check back here when I get home...

 

[atomheartmother]

Well if you just drag the User icon from Mac HD>Users The house icon, just drag it to the left pane and click on it and see if it's a shortcut to your home dir....I'm hoping it is....

Gotta go out for 45mins or so....will check back here when I get home...

Yes, it does do that. It's the same User (Home) icon that is already in the left pane. So should I just move all of the folders from Mac HD>Users>Jesse to there? What about fixing the icons?

I'm going to bed now. I'll try to check out your responses tomorrow morning.

 

[NanoBite]

So should I just move all of the folders from Mac HD>Users>Jesse to there?

No, leave everything as it is for now.....


So, now you should see 2 house icons in the left pane (really just alias' pointing to your Home Dir):

1st alias points to dir containing Desktop, Documents & Library,

2nd alias points to your real Home Dir and contains everything that's important to you eg: school etc...​

Highlight the 2nd alias (Jesse) press command + l and in the lnfo window that appears look to the bottom where the Ownership and Permissions are...

It should read...You can: Read & Write

Then click on the Details arrow and it should read:

Owner: Jesse
Access: Read & Write
​

If there's a padlock next to the Owner tab and it's locked, click to unlock it and enter your username + password if prompted.

Click the Apply to enclosed items tab to finish.

If any of the above have different settings, change them to what I put. Leave the Info window open.

Next click on the top User icon in the left pane and press command + l to bring up the Info window. Click to highlight the icon at the top left of the window and press command + c.

Then select the info window of the 2nd User the one we left open after checking the Ownership & Permissions, click to select the icon at the top left and press command + v. Close the info window and we're done.

Now create a new folder on your desktop and drag the contents from the User dir (the top one which we're gonna get rid of) to this new folder and then drag'n'drop that User icon from the left pane into oblivion.

Hopefully now if you press the keyboard shortcut to take you 'Home', that's exactly where you'll go....!

Leave the newly created desktop folder where it is for the meantime...

Let me know how you get on with this.....

 

[atomheartmother]

No, leave everything as it is for now.....


So, now you should see 2 house icons in the left pane (really just alias' pointing to your Home Dir):

1st alias points to dir containing Desktop, Documents & Library,

2nd alias points to your real Home Dir and contains everything that's important to you eg: school etc...​

Highlight the 2nd alias (Jesse) press command + l and in the lnfo window that appears look to the bottom where the Ownership and Permissions are...

It should read...You can: Read & Write

Then click on the Details arrow and it should read:

Owner: Jesse
Access: Read & Write
​

If there's a padlock next to the Owner tab and it's locked, click to unlock it and enter your username + password if prompted.

Click the Apply to enclosed items tab to finish.

If any of the above have different settings, change them to what I put. Leave the Info window open.

Next click on the top User icon in the left pane and press command + l to bring up the Info window. Click to highlight the icon at the top left of the window and press command + c.

Then select the info window of the 2nd User the one we left open after checking the Ownership & Permissions, click to select the icon at the top left and press command + v. Close the info window and we're done.

Now create a new folder on your desktop and drag the contents from the User dir (the top one which we're gonna get rid of) to this new folder and then drag'n'drop that User icon from the left pane into oblivion.

Hopefully now if you press the keyboard shortcut to take you 'Home', that's exactly where you'll go....!

Leave the newly created desktop folder where it is for the meantime...

Let me know how you get on with this.....

There is only one house icon in the left pane. The Jesse just has a folder icon. Both Jesse (folder icon) and User (home icon and the location that the home key combo goes to) both say under Ownership and Permissions:

You can: Read and Write

Owner: user
Access: Read and Right


I tried changing the Owner to Jesse for the Jesse folder, but it only gave me a list of generic names to choose from (e.g. system, daemon, staff).


Here's a pic:

 

[NanoBite]

Go into System Prefs and create a new user account with admin privs.

Do you have your data backed up?

We're going to make your new account and delete this one as it's corrupted. The files in Jesse will be saved in the process and you can import them into your new acct.
For now just create the new acct and name it differently...

 

[atomheartmother]

Go into System Prefs and create a new user account with admin privs.

Do you have your data backed up?

We're going to make your new account and delete this one as it's corrupted. The files in Jesse will be saved in the process and you can import them into your new acct.
For now just create the new acct and name it differently...

How do I create a new account with admin privileges? Will this erace my harddrive?


Also, why couldn't I just move the folders from the Jesse folder to the User (Home directory) and rename User to Jesse?

 

[NanoBite]

Your HD will be fine, nothing will be erased...your user acct is corrupted so it's best for you to create a new acct.

Go to System Prefs>Users and below the left pane there is a + which you click on to create a new acct.

Your mac will be more stable if you do this....believe me.

Just follow the prompts to create the new acct and ensure that the acct type is Admin and you name it differently.

 

[atomheartmother]

Your HD will be fine, nothing will be erased...your user acct is corrupted so it's best for you to create a new acct.

Go to System Prefs>Users and below the left pane there is a + which you click on to create a new acct.

Your mac will be more stable if you do this....believe me.

Just follow the prompts to create the new acct and ensure that the acct type is Admin and you name it differently.

Will I be able to rename it ever?

 

[atomheartmother]

Will I be able to rename it ever?

OK. I created a new account. What next? Do I need to back up anything before deleting the original account (apps or anything)? I have the important docs on a flash drive.

 

[NanoBite]

Don't worry about the apps they will be untouched.

Go back to Sys Prefs and where you clicked on the + to create the new acct, first highlight your old account which should be at the top of the list then click the - (minus) sign to delete the USER acct (the corrupt acct).

You should be given options to save the contents of the acct you're deleting to a folder to which you should click yes.

 

[atomheartmother]

Don't worry about the apps they will be untouched.

Go back to Sys Prefs and where you clicked on the + to create the new acct, first highlight your old account which should be at the top of the list then click the - (minus) sign to delete the USER acct (the corrupt acct).

You should be given options to save the contents of the acct you're deleting to a folder to which you should click yes.

Phew! Everything seems back to normal. I got the new account up and running like the old one was. I deleted the old account and whatnot.

Is there anything I need to do now? Should I do any maintenence stuff?

Is there anything that I can do to prevent this from happening again? Do you have any idea how this happened?

 

[NanoBite]

Great!

User Account corruption just happens from out of nowhere, I can't explain why.

The best thing is all your data has been saved and if you want you can download OnyX which will run maintenance tasks to keep things running smoothly.

Sometimes a perfectly fine HD can go belly-up for no apparant reason so running a program like OnyX (there are many others too) can be viewed as preventative medacine.

Some people swear blind that you don't need any 3rd part S/Wto keep your mac in tip top shape, just use disc utility to repair permissions but it's up to you...

BTW, if you download a lot of 3rd party s/w....repairing permissions afterwards is good.

Here's a link about maintenance on your mac.

http://www.macworld.com/2005/01/features/preventmacdisasters/index.php

Glad it's all sorted out.... :biohazard