Need help URGENTLY!!! All documents GONE!

[lvarini]

I bought my powerbook the day they were released at the paris expo 2 years ago... never had any problems with it, and today i'm still in denial about what's happening.
i came back to my computer and opened safari and everything froze.
i tried to end the application but never got the Force Quit Applications window to appear.
i waited a while and nothing happened... so i restarted my computer by pressing the power button... well EVERYTHING IS GONE! and by everything i mean, all my personal files. my music, pictures, movies, documents, contacts, calendars. my desktop is blank except for the HD icon.
all my software that i installed is still there... office, toaster, etc... if it wasn't for that my laptop would look like i bought it today.
i don't know where it all went!!

though, when i select my HD in Finder, it tells me i have 39 GBs available, out of a total 80... so i'm assuming the information is still somewhere.

PLEASE HELP ME! I'm going to start ripping my hair out any minute.

 

[technologist]

Any chance you've renamed your Home (user) folder?

 

[lvarini]

nope

all the same. i did think the little "house" icon next to my username looked a little different though. like an automatic update... but no, definetely didn't change anything.

still haven't a clue what to do

 

[iWonder]

search a file and see where it is?

 

[iWhat]

You should see, if maybe the folders are just hidden or something.

Go to the terminal and type in: ls -a

This will list all the folders, and the folders that are hidden in the home directory. Look to see, if you can find the ones that are missing.

 

[lvarini]

can't find hidden stuff

the only new thing that's in my home directory is a filevault file named lucavarini.sparseimage

lucavarini is my name and my home directory name... i tried opening this file and it tells me it's unable to open this broken file

still trying... help help help

 

[lvarini]

filevault

ok so that file vault file is 26 GBs. i'm assuming that's where all my stuff is. i try to open it and i get a warning that "The following disk images failed to mount" and the reason is No mountable file systems.

what do i do?!

 

[coach_z]

you using FileVault?
-chris

 

[technologist]

1. Cross your fingers
2. Follow the instructions in http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25695

 

[lvarini]

didn't work...

i followed the steps but it tells me the disk couldn't be "mounted" and gives me no reason... but underneath the sparseimage file now there's another icon that appeared in disk utility called disk1s2

any ideas?

 

[iWhat]

1. If you have an encrypted image which won't mount or causes a KP after entering the password key, the first thing to try (if Disk Utility won't repair it) is to get it into an unencrypted state by launching Terminal and typing hdutil convert sourceimage.type -format UDRW -o targetimage.dmg. If the converted image still won't mount, this will at least allow utilities like File Juicer or PhotoRescue to work on it. (If anyone knows of other repair or recovery utilities that will work directly on disc images without mounting them, please share.)

2. If you need more than image or text files recovered, try creating a new image -- either with DiskUtility or with hdiutil create -type SPARSE -size 50g -fs HFS+ growableimage, and then use the Restore tab in Disk Utility to try to copy the contents from the damaged image to the new one. Note: you have to mount the new image so you can drag the disc icon to the Destination field).

3. If no other utilities work, then try selecting the damaged disc image in Disk Utility, select the First Aid tab, then try hitting the Verify button and immediately hitt the Stop Verify button, and see if you can get that ghost volume to stick. Then possibly Disk Warrior or other recovery utilities can save the day.

This looks like it might get you somewhere: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050326041757989

 

[lvarini]

alas that did not work either... i'm so annoyed... i realized i have all my music stored on my ipod. and my address book too... and most my pictures i have saved on a flashdrive... however my work documents and my friggin resume... AAAARGHHH.
any other suggestions would be awesome.

 

[lookoverthere]

I am currently going through the same thing. I posted up on the OS x board. If anybody has any addtional info on this please share.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25851

thats my original post

 

[IanCT]

though, when i select my HD in Finder, it tells me i have 39 GBs available, out of a total 80... so i'm assuming the information is still somewhere.

Since you mentioned FileVault, go to System Prefs and open Security. Look at your FileVault settings and see if you can turn it Off.

You did try the htiutil on http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050326041757989 ?

I used Data Rescue to pull my files off an external FireWire hard drive that got messed up due to bad power supply. It somehow removed the file tables but the actual data was there, just couldn't see it and it was able to reconstruct my .doc/.xls and my iPhoto Library of family photos (4,000+)
but it also pulled up any files that were marked as deleted and not previously overwritten, so that's 20,000 images I have to sort thru and delete clip art, temp install files, etc... But Disk Warrior did not work for me, I believe Disk Rescue has a demo and you can pull up to 5 files at a time to make sure it works for you.

 

[lilbird1981]

We have a similar problem.
All the contents of the homefolder are gone!! I am not sure if this was there before... but there is another folder called myHomefolder_alias. This folder points to the same location as my original home folder, which is now empty. I did not rename any folders... all I did was install a piece of software. I am also not using FileVault. Is there any way I can recover my files?
Tks!!

 

[goobimama]

@Ivanirn: I think you are logging in as a different user. Try logging out and see if there are more users created. Cause if you logged in to YOUR user account, you wouldn't have seen the fileVault image.

And to the rest: Backup!