It's all gone... everything is gone...

[john1123]

Well i was just happily browsing macrumors when i noticed that my ibook had slowed to a very very slow crawl. 'no problem' i think, open the activity monitor and see that a process called 'Diskimage helper' or something like that is eating my cpu. so i quit the process and resume browsing macrumors.

10 minutes later, i want to play solitaire and hit F7 for butler's abbreviations dialogue (butler is one great program by the way). nothing happens. butler has crashed. no biggie. i re-open the activity monitor and quit butler, go to the applications folder and restart the app. and that's when i noticed something was definitely not right. butler's preferences were gone. i go to my home folder and...

IT'S ALL ******** GONE!!! i only have a library folder with 5 subfolders:
-Application support
-Favorites
-Fonts
-Logs
-Preferences

I believe that that is the default after a fresh install. (the application support and preferences folder is empty except for some apple apps)

My log shows some curious errors concerning my home folder (john):

Feb 25 22:36:06 localhost kernel: disk1s2: operation was aborted.
Feb 25 22:36:06 localhost last message repeated 16 times
Feb 25 22:36:06 localhost kernel: disk1s2: media is not present.
Feb 25 22:36:06 localhost last message repeated 9 times
Feb 25 22:36:06 localhost kernel: HFS: err 6 reading VH blk (john)
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: disk1s2: media is not present.
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: HFS: err 6 reading VH blk (john)
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: disk1s2: media is not present.
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost last message repeated 2 times
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: HFS: err 6 reading VH blk (john)
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: disk1s2: media is not present.
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost last message repeated 7 times
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: HFS: err 6 reading VH blk (john)
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: disk1s2: media is not present.
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: HFS: err 6 reading VH blk (john)
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: disk1s2: media is not present.
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost last message repeated 8 times
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: HFS: err 6 reading VH blk (john)
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: disk1s2: media is not present.
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: jnl: do_jnl_io: strategy err 0x6
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: jnl: end_transaction: only wrote 0 of 159744 bytes to the journal!
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: disk1s2: media is not present.
Feb 25 22:36:07 localhost kernel: jnl: close: journal 0x1587c88, is invalid. aborting outstanding transactions

i have no idea what all that means, anyone got an explanation?

so basically, everything is gone in my home folder, all my pics :( all my music :( all setups :( everything :(

i've restarted finder but that just resetted the finder preferences to default and created an empty 'desktop' folder in my home. The info on my hd says it still uses the same space as before so i hope there is a way to recover some or all of the missing files.

I don't have diskwarrior (i am a poor high school student) and don't have any way to get my hands on a copy soon (currently in japan on an exchange and can't speak japanese)

so... any help would be appreciated :o

[caveman_uk]

It looks bad to me. Do you have a backup?

I'm not being sarcastic....really, do you have a backup?

[john1123]

It looks bad to me. Do you have a backup?

I'm not being sarcastic....really, do you have a backup?

yeh i do.. the problem is that it's on CDs in Australia, 8000km and 2 weeks away :(

[WinterMute]

DON"T DO ANYTHING!!!!

Go and get Diskwarrior 3, boot from the disc, rebuild your directories and restart the machine.

Sounds like you have corrupted directories, the info is still on your drive, diskwarrior can rebuild deleted or damaged directories, but you mustn't play around withe the drive too much or you could do further damage

[PlaceofDis]

DON"T DO ANYTHING!!!!

Go and get Diskwarrior 3, boot from the disc, rebuild your directories and restart the machine.

Sounds like you have corrupted directories, the info is still on your drive, diskwarrior can rebuild deleted or damaged directories, but you mustn't play around withe the drive too much or you could do further damage

id say that definately is the best way to go about this, otherwise you will risk losing more of your data the more you screw around with everything, but if you act fast, Diskwarrior may be able to save everything yet

[caveman_uk]

I don't have diskwarrior (i am a poor high school student) and don't have any way to get my hands on a copy soon (currently in japan on an exchange and can't speak japanese)
Are you in Tokyo? Go to Ginza...there's an Apple store near the subway station opposite one of the big department stores (Mitsukoshi(sp?)). They speak English there.

[caveman_uk]

IIRC there's another in Osaka but I've not been there.

[khammack]

Sudden unexplained file corruption of this magnitude usually means the same thing on any platform: Your disk is failing.

-kev

[alex_ant]

Sorry to hear about this... just wondering... you wouldn't happen to have been using FileVault? I second the Diskwarrior advice...

[john1123]

Well i got my hands on a copy of DiskWarrior today... :D it took some research but i found this store about 1 hour's train ride away that had mac software.

DiskWarrior fixed everything!! so happy :D:D

thanks for all your help people. really appreciate it!

[caveman_uk]

DiskWarrior fixed everything!! so happy :D:D

thanks for all your help people. really appreciate it!
Maybe you'd like to take a look at SMART Reporter (http://http://homepage.mac.com/julianmayer/) . It's supposed to warn of impending hard drive doom.

Oh Yeah...and make a backup ;)

[john1123]

Maybe you'd like to take a look at SMART Reporter (http://http://homepage.mac.com/julianmayer/) . It's supposed to warn of impending hard drive doom.

Oh Yeah...and make a backup ;)

I'll be sure to check that app out. thanks for the link!

[jestershinra]

Whatever you do- TURN THE MACHINE OFF.

Leave it alone and decide your preferred method of data recovery. If the data is valuable, consider data recovery services. If not, try rebuilding the directories.

[aplasticspork]

(1) your home folder is a disk image, sparseimage to be exact. same thing only a disk image's size cant be changed, the size of a sparseimage increases when you add stuff to it.

(2) im pretty sure that diskimage helper is the thing running the sparseimage. if you quit that the sparseimage quits too, hence not having anything in your home folder anymore. im pretty sure that all it did was unmount your home folder but im not 100% sure. i'll try quitting diskimage helper now and i'll tell you what happens.

--andrzej

[aplasticspork]

ok, i was correct. i just force quitted diskimage helper and everything in my home folder was gone. diskimage helper controls the sparseimage that is your home folder. quitting it unmounts your home folder, and you dont have access to anything that is in it. a simple restart will fix it. so try restarting, and if that doesnt work then something other than force quitting diskimage helper happened to your computer.
--andrzej

[dotdotdot]

Defidantly take a look at your hard drive now that your problem has been fixed.

[john1123]

ok, i was correct. i just force quitted diskimage helper and everything in my home folder was gone. diskimage helper controls the sparseimage that is your home folder. quitting it unmounts your home folder, and you dont have access to anything that is in it. a simple restart will fix it. so try restarting, and if that doesnt work then something other than force quitting diskimage helper happened to your computer.
--andrzej

hey there thanks for clearing that up. i am definitely never going to force quit diskimage helper - or any other process i don't know - again though ;)

[john1123]

Defidantly take a look at your hard drive now that your problem has been fixed.

that will be one of the first thing i'll do when i get back to australia :)

[evanjwendell]

The same thing happened to me, but instead of my whole home folder, it was just the applications and their files in application support. They're all gone. If this is the same problem, I might be willing to buy disk warrior, but I don't want to buy it until I know that's the only way to get all the files back.

[saberahul]

The same thing happened to me, but instead of my whole home folder, it was just the applications and their files in application support. They're all gone. If this is the same problem, I might be willing to buy disk warrior, but I don't want to buy it until I know that's the only way to get all the files back.
Is there no trial version available?

[dknightd]

Come on, this thread was from 2005 - if you want help start a new one!

[evanjwendell]

Come on, this thread was from 2005 - if you want help start a new one!

...i have...

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Is there no trial version available?

Huh?

I've just search up on that, and no, unfortunately there isn't a trial version.

[monokakata]

I might be willing to buy disk warrior, but I don't want to buy it until I know that's the only way to get all the files back.

There's no trial for Disk Warrior, but there is a trial for Data Rescue III. So why not try that one? You can see whether it's going to work, and then decide whether to pay or not.

Sometimes one works and the other won't.

[Maverick513]

Thanks, guys. But this is a very old, old thread…

[evanjwendell]

ALRIGHT! I think I've got it... unfortunately, ill have to reinstall some things, but I actually had to go to the applications folder in a different weird 'side route' in the finder in time machine, so I've got most of them back now. I'm really not sure what happened though.

[monokakata]

Thanks, guys. But this is a very old, old thread…

True! Seriously old.

But the most recent question is from a couple of days ago -- so why not answer it? The guy should have started a new thread, but he didn't. No reason not to try helping him.

[GGJstudios]

Come on, this thread was from 2005 - if you want help start a new one!
Thanks, guys. But this is a very old, old thread…
There's nothing wrong with resurrecting an old thread if they have the same issue or have something useful to add. If they posted a new thread, some people would complain that they didn't search for existing threads before starting a new one! :rolleyes:
ALRIGHT! I think I've got it... unfortunately, ill have to reinstall some things, but I actually had to go to the applications folder in a different weird 'side route' in the finder in time machine, so I've got most of them back now. I'm really not sure what happened though.
I'm glad you got it back!