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My HD icon has vanished from my desktop - and no-one knows why!

J

joefinan

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
My PowerBook is now about two years old and I shut it down last night, started it this morning and the HD icon has vanished from my desktop. Gone! Where is it?

I restarted and still nothing.

I'm running 10.5 - any ideas anyone?
 
In Finder / Preferences / General, there's a 'show these items on the desktop' option. Is 'hard disks' selected?
 
Take a look under Finder/Preferences and then under the General tab – has the option to show hard disks on the desktop become unticked for some reason?
 
Under finder>preferences show Hard Disks is selected.

Oh no!

It's broken!

Does anyone have any ideas? CDs won't show up on the desktop either...
 
Is there any chance you've inadvertently 'quit' Finder? That may be the problem, but it's just a suggestion.
 
iheartcanada said:
Can you drag the HD icon out of finder onto your desktop?
Click to expand...

The HD icon isn't IN finder! It has completely vanished.

I've tried shutting down and restarting. And I've tried force quitting Finder. But nothing.

I'm doing a virus scan at the moment.
 
Yeah, I have this problem with my iMac as well. The desktop just randomly stops working, essentially. I fix it by restarting.

Oh, and what are the permissions for your desktop folder?
 
Go into your home folder, select the desktop folder, get info, the permissions are at the bottom.
 
Ok, thanks for explaining.

It says "Joe (Me) - Read & Write", "everyone - No Access"

This is driving me mad! And I'm worried that this is the beginning of me losing all my data (I'm backing-up as we speak).
 
No, you aren't losing your data. It is just a problem with one of the files that tells the computer what to display on the desktop. Everything is still there.

I still haven't figured out what exactly is wrong but I usually fix it by get info for the desktop folder, hit the gear button, apply to enclosed (might need to hit the lock button first), and restart.
 
Ok thanks, I'll try that.

Incidentally, in Finder, if I highlight a file in documents (for example) and click on path, the HDD is greyed out and cannot be clicked on. Almost as though it knows it should be there but it can't see it...
 

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Nothing - I've been away for xmas so haven't even really used the computer much. Your idea didn't work I'm afraid...
 
Yeah, figured it wouldn't after you showed that picture. Have you run any disk checks?
 
I'm afraid that didn't work either. Logged in as new user - nothing. Shutdown and restarted as me - still nothing. What's going on?!
 

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Something hid your HD. Try opening Disk Utility. If it's missing there, have fun with an Apple support person.
 
It's not missing there - so how can I un-hide it...?
 

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