Folder disappeared from desktop

One of my folders has disapeared from my desktop yesterday. I was working on a document in that folder on wednesday probably. And when i wanted to continue my work last night it was just plain gone. Not in the trash, couldnt find it with spotlight or easyfind. When i try to open the document through recent paths in open office it says it doesnt exist. No one has been on the computer. How can it just be gone? its not just one document, but a whole folder. Where could i recover it from? Or is there a way i can see recent activity to where i can maybe figure out what happened to it? could it have been corrupted and was therefor just deleted? PLEASE HELP! this contained my bachelor's thesis in which i have put a lot of work! Unfortunately i dont rum time machine or ay other backup... im new to mac, on my windown laptop i could always just restore to an earlier point in time... the file was previously saved on a thumb drive, could it be recovered from that if all else failed?

OK, firstly Find is better than spotlight so go to Find in the desktop File menu or just press Command F but before you try that have a look at Recent Items under the Apple menu. Unless you have cleared it recently you should see your file there.
It is very unlikely that the file was deleted and even so it would be in the Trash unless you empty it. Macs do not delete corrupted files automatically.
Lastly if the file is on a Thumb Drive then yes you can simply drag it onto the desktop.
Last but not least you really need to have a backup. Time machine is much like your Restore Function on a PC and can run on your hard drive but it will use more and more of your memory. It's best to run on an external USB hard drive which are becoming very cheap these days.

If you'd been using Time Machine, you could "always just restore to an earlier point in time."

I don't mean to lecture, but this is EXACTLY why I don't keep actual files on the desktop (too easy to lose) and make backups using Time Machine. I can't hazard a guess as to what actually happened, but in my experience a a "rescuer" for a lot of people when this sort of thing happens the *usual* scenario is that they were trying to delete something else on the desktop and accidentally lassoed/select the wrong thing (or the right thing and the wrong thing together) and deleted them.

All I can suggest at this point is to give Data Rescue a spin, it's free to try and might indicate where the folder went and if it is recoverable. You can then pay for the program in order to recover the folder. Beyond that you'll probably need forensic data recovery services (expect to pay around $2K) like Drivesavers. You could also try Data Rescue on that thumb drive if it hasn't been reused since it last held the folder ...

I'm sorry this has happened to you, but doing a vitally important paper like a thesis and leaving it on your desktop with no backup ... that's just asking for trouble. Best of luck, I sincerely hope one of my suggestions works out for you.

Ok, so here is an update. Ran StellarPhoenix Recovery and didn't find anything. i am wondering if it is actually deleted. I found other filed, documents and photos that have been deleted before this occurred. So shouldnt it find my folder, if it was actually deleted? I was told to check the activity through my console to see what happened, if it got rename or something like that? But even then, i should find either the folder or the file, it seems unlikely all of it was renamed. Can anyone explain me how to use Console? i took a look, but i don't know where i would actually have to look at. It doesn't seem to go back far enough ether. Do old log files safe on the computer? And where? This is my last attempt, then i will just have to face the fact that i have lost some work and start over on my research

See if this helps from OO forums. Take it you are run ning Lion or later, your thread does not supply that vital information:-

https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=12426

lizdiesel said:

Ok, so here is an update. Ran StellarPhoenix Recovery and didn't find anything. i am wondering if it is actually deleted. I found other filed, documents and photos that have been deleted before this occurred. So shouldnt it find my folder, if it was actually deleted? I was told to check the activity through my console to see what happened, if it got rename or something like that? But even then, i should find either the folder or the file, it seems unlikely all of it was renamed. Can anyone explain me how to use Console? i took a look, but i don't know where i would actually have to look at. It doesn't seem to go back far enough ether. Do old log files safe on the computer? And where? This is my last attempt, then i will just have to face the fact that i have lost some work and start over on my research

Click to expand...

OK try the old fasioned way. You said you were using Open Office, by default Open Office saves files as .odt files in Documents in your Home folder (thats the one on the sidebar of any finder window that looks like a house and has your name on it). Click on the top of the date column to arrange in order of date and look for any .odt file that was modified the day befor you lost the file. So even if it was somehow renamed it should show by date.
Did you try looking at Recent Items under the Apple Menu? Unless you clear it it should show all recent documents.