My mac mini just froze on me. I forced quit safari and restarted it and all my settings were gone-my bookmarked sites. So I shut down computer and when I restarted everything I ever put in it is gone! My Itunes music library-tons of music, my documents, everything! The only weird thing is I had access to my pictures. Mom suggested I shut it down for several hours which I did, then the pics were there but I can't open them-they are grey icons. HELP!!!!!
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everything is gone!
- Thread starter elbow531
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What Mac mini do you have (month and year of purchase) and what Mac OS X version do you run on it?
Is there more than one account on that Mac mini? If so, are you sure, you are logging in as your user?
Have you taken a look at Macintosh HD / Users / YourUserName / ?
Can you post screenshots?
http://guides.macrumors.com/Taking_Screenshots_in_Mac_OS_X
Is there more than one account on that Mac mini? If so, are you sure, you are logging in as your user?
Have you taken a look at Macintosh HD / Users / YourUserName / ?
Can you post screenshots?
http://guides.macrumors.com/Taking_Screenshots_in_Mac_OS_X
Sounds like your permissions are all screwed up. Use the install cd to run disk utilities and repair the drive and permissions. If that fixes it or you fix it another way, back up your data so you don't go through this again!
users
I believe this is all my fault because I did rename the original acct folder. However, when I reopened that window it had the original name again. I read on here somewhere about how to reset that by creating an acct and renaming the original one back to the first name, very confusing. The only users on here are us, when you go to users it shows my parent's old acct and then there is a folder for us. However, our folder and settings have always been empty, even when everything was fine. It used to be my mom's computer (with my dad's name on the acct) now we use it so I believe my acct settings are hiding. Can someone explain how to fix what I did?
I believe this is all my fault because I did rename the original acct folder. However, when I reopened that window it had the original name again. I read on here somewhere about how to reset that by creating an acct and renaming the original one back to the first name, very confusing. The only users on here are us, when you go to users it shows my parent's old acct and then there is a folder for us. However, our folder and settings have always been empty, even when everything was fine. It used to be my mom's computer (with my dad's name on the acct) now we use it so I believe my acct settings are hiding. Can someone explain how to fix what I did?
Step one. Create a snapshot of where you are right now so that you might be able to come back to it. You can get a 500 GB external drive for ~US$60 and use that for the snapshot as well as for Time Machine backups moving forwards. Use CCC or SuperDuper to make the backup
Step two. See if your lost data is anywhere to be found. You can use something like Disk Inventory X to show you a map of what is on your disk and how much space it is taking up. Since you had "a ton of music" it should be easy to find and will hopefully point to the rest of your data.
Step three. Post screenshots here for us to help you. We can't work blind.
B
no clue
Okay, I can see that you all would be really helpful if I knew what the heck I was doing. I am a pc user trying to use a mac. I have no idea how to do a screen shot and have no money to buy an external drive. Thank you for trying but I will most likely need to start over and forget about what I lost. Otherwise one day when I have some money I will get someone who knows macs to come look at it. I have looked under users and there is an empty folder with my user name. There never was anything in it. So I don't know how that will help me. I am sure this is because I renamed the original user folder name. Although the new name doesn't show.
Okay, I can see that you all would be really helpful if I knew what the heck I was doing. I am a pc user trying to use a mac. I have no idea how to do a screen shot and have no money to buy an external drive. Thank you for trying but I will most likely need to start over and forget about what I lost. Otherwise one day when I have some money I will get someone who knows macs to come look at it. I have looked under users and there is an empty folder with my user name. There never was anything in it. So I don't know how that will help me. I am sure this is because I renamed the original user folder name. Although the new name doesn't show.
simsaladbimbamba posted a link that tells you how to create screenshots earlier in the thread.
Disk Inventory X is free and you can definitely get a lot of information from that before you decide to start from scratch.
B
Disk Inventory X is free and you can definitely get a lot of information from that before you decide to start from scratch.
B