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cannot open new folder

K

kimberlyJL

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 4, 2008
6
0
This is what I did- I drug all of my research papers to a new folder in Finder. An untitled folder. When I tried to open it I get this message- the alias "untitled folder" could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found"
This was all of my research for a graduate thesis. I am literally sick that I lost years of work- I can't believe it. help?
 
Wow, that really sucks. You didn't have any kind of backup? Hopefully it's still there. Did you try and do a search for specific files?
 
Please be more specific on what you did

I created an untitled folder in the documents path and dragged a bunch of misc. MS Word docs from another folder into the untitled folder. As expected, the docs were removed from their original folder and deposited in the untitled folder.

So as I said please be a little more specific on the exact steps you took. I suspect the files you lost still reside on the hard drive.

Mike
 
kimberlyJL said:
This is what I did- I drug all of my research papers to a new folder in Finder. An untitled folder. When I tried to open it I get this message- the alias "untitled folder" could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found"
This was all of my research for a graduate thesis. I am literally sick that I lost years of work- I can't believe it. help?
Click to expand...

Never fear, your files will still be on the hard drive, but you must figure out how to find them. Check in the folder from which they were transferred. If you have Leopard or Tiger, use Spotlight to locate the files.
 
more info......

I opened Finder. Created a new folder. Went to Documents and started dragging them over to the new folder. I put a few in the trash. I emptied the trash. The "new" folder will not open- message says it's an alis and cannot find original. If this stuff is on my hard drive, I have no idea how to find it. The only backups I have are hard copies- maybe a couple on a thumb drive. I did not intend to trash them. And didn't think I would lose them by making a new folder. I don't know what happened. Oh, I might have a few docs on some old floppies. HA. I would have to find an old pc or try to crank up my old laptop to try to get them. That old laptop was a nightmare though. My husband bought it- knowing little about computers- about 8 years ago? It is a compaq, with windows ME on it. It was HORRIBLE!! I have always been an Apple/mac snob- but I did use that laptp to take to classes and libraries, etc.. My next purchase is a mac book.

Anyway- can anyone tell me how to look for these docs on my hard drive?????:eek:

Oh, my desktop is getting old- I have Mac OSX 10.3.9
 
I am sure that your files are still safe on your hard drive. Hopefully you can remember a name of one of the files. Use Command F and then type in the name of that file. If you find that file, the rest will be nearby.
 
kimberlyJL said:
This is what I did- I drug all of my research papers to a new folder in Finder. An untitled folder. When I tried to open it I get this message- the alias "untitled folder" could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found"
This was all of my research for a graduate thesis. I am literally sick that I lost years of work- I can't believe it. help?
Click to expand...
Another thought, click once on the name of the folder that you dragged your items into. Type "Thesis" to rename the folder and then try to open it. I take it that these files were word processing documents such as Word or Appleworks.

Also, look inside the folder from which you moved the files from.
Tell us exactly how you created the folder called "untitled folder". I just now created an untitled folder and dragged a MS Word document to it, and the folder opened just fine.
Just as an experiment, I clicked once to select the untitled folder and while the folder was selected, I clicked Command M which made an alias of the untitled folder. The alias was named "untitled folder alias". I then dragged the original untitled folder to the Trash and tried to open the untitled folder alias which produced a dialog box that read, The alias "untitled folder alias" could not be opened, because the original item is in the trash. Next, I emptied the Trash, then double clicked on the alias to get a dialog box that read, The alias "untitled folder alias" could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found.
 
maccompaq said:
Another thought, click once on the name of the folder that you dragged your items into. Type "Thesis" to rename the folder and then try to open it. I take it that these files were word processing documents such as Word or Appleworks.

Also, look inside the folder from which you moved the files from.
Tell us exactly how you created the folder called "untitled folder". I just now created an untitled folder and dragged a MS Word document to it, and the folder opened just fine.
Just as an experiment, I clicked once to select the untitled folder and while the folder was selected, I clicked Command M which made an alias of the untitled folder. The alias was named "untitled folder alias". I then dragged the original untitled folder to the Trash and tried to open the untitled folder alias which produced a dialog box that read, The alias "untitled folder alias" could not be opened, because the original item is in the trash. Next, I emptied the Trash, then double clicked on the alias to get a dialog box that read, The alias "untitled folder alias" could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found.
Click to expand...

What your experiment produced sounds like my scenerio- however, I never clicked Command M- or knowingly made an alias. And yes- mostly Word docs and some Appleworks.

Let me preface this next bit of info by saying that you seem to know your shiat, and I what I want you to know is that I didn't think I was such a complete idiot as this. I graduated Summa cum laude, undergrad. I'm at the end- working on the graduate thesis. Here is how "stupid' I actually can be. For some insane reason, my overwhelmed brain made me drag the "untitled folder" into the "my computer" window (in Finder.) And it went puff and dissappeared. Now I have nothing. Nothing. I cannot sleep a wink over this.I can't believe I could be so stupid. I can't believe my beloved mac can't save my ass.

How is it that I can't somehow retrieve things that I did not actually, pysically, drag to the trash??

Thanks for your help. I wish I could chat or talk to you. It's hard for me to relay all that I did via forum- hope I didn't leave anything out.:(
 
Don't panic yet. Let's try to analyze this in every conceivable way before admitting defeat. All that work is not worth giving up easily. Just so that you know, doing stupid things on the computer is not confined to stupid folks. Brilliant folks also fall prey to making mistakes on computers.

Please outline your steps in a lot of detail so that I can try to reproduce your situation. If it takes a page or two, all the better. I will work on your problem tomorrow, all day if necessary, if I have the details.
 
kimberlyJL said:
What your experiment produced sounds like my scenerio- however, I never clicked Command M- or knowingly made an alias. And yes- mostly Word docs and some Appleworks.

Let me preface this next bit of info by saying that you seem to know your shiat, and I what I want you to know is that I didn't think I was such a complete idiot as this. I graduated Summa cum laude, undergrad. I'm at the end- working on the graduate thesis. Here is how "stupid' I actually can be. For some insane reason, my overwhelmed brain made me drag the "untitled folder" into the "my computer" window (in Finder.) And it went puff and dissappeared. Now I have nothing. Nothing. I cannot sleep a wink over this.I can't believe I could be so stupid. I can't believe my beloved mac can't save my ass.

How is it that I can't somehow retrieve things that I did not actually, pysically, drag to the trash??

Thanks for your help. I wish I could chat or talk to you. It's hard for me to relay all that I did via forum- hope I didn't leave anything out.:(
Click to expand...
If you prefer, we can work on the problem without the forum. Just read your private message.
 
Here's another suggestion -

I was going to get back to you on some actions you can take to see if you can locate your missing file but I was away for the weekend and I see another responder essentially suggested what I was going to suggest.

Here is another possibility to try and locate your lost files. There are software applications that can recover lost files. One that comes to mind is Kernel For Mac Data Recovery ( http://www.datarecoverymac.com/ ). There are others out there - try Googling, for example, mac file recovery. Or, if you live in a fairly populated area, seek out a professional hard disk data recovery service.

Keep us informed of your, hopefully, success.

Mike
 
can't open folder- lost and dumb

Mike,

Thanks for the advice. I will try to look into using one of the applications. I still can't beleive my mac would let me down. it has always been so user friendly!:confused:

Here is another dumb question- if all else fails- and this won't recover all that I drug away and seem to have lost- but, is there any way to scan hard copies and somehow convert them into workable word /or anything docs?

Sigh,
:apple:
 
Yes, OCR (optical character recognition) software, used with your scanner, converts a printed page into an editable computer text file.
 
any way to scan hard copies

Yes there is - if you already have "all-in-one" printer, ie prints, scans and copy, you have the capability to scan you documents into Word editable files. For instance my HP 6250 printer has an OCR (optical character reader) engine built in. It has OCR software from Caere integrated into the printer. If you don't have printer with scan capabilities you can buy an inexpensive flatbed scanner with an OCR engine integrated into it. Couple notes of caution: first the process will be slow and, secondly, you might not get a faithful reproduction of the hardcopy page especially fonts. You might have to do some cleanup after scanning a page. If you have a large volume of documents to scan it could be very time consuming.

Also, do you periodically backup you MAC to an external drive? I am guessing you don't since you are soliciting help on this board to find a solution to your problem. If I were you I would immediately purchase an external hard drive and backup your drive. On my MacBook Pro I have a 500Gbyte external hard drive connected to my MBP via the Firewire 800 interface. I use !SuperDuper on my MBP to backup to the external drive. The nice thing about this set up is that, if need be, I can boot off the external drive.

Mike
 
scanning hard copies

"aaronw" and Mike- Okay- I don't know if I have the right stuff?? I have an EpsonPerfection 2400 PHOTO scanner, and anEpson Stylus PHOTO925 printer. If it works, and takes a long time- it probably wouldn't be as long as me physically re-typing the doc.s? Do I have the right "stuff?" How do I go about it if I do?

I know- I trusted myself- and was spoiled by my mac, maybe. Since I switched to mac from windows, I have never had any fears of losing things- or crashes- whatever. It must be me. I am surprised though that my mac would let me be so stupid!!

Thanx- I am so impressed that some one is out there that wants to, or is willing to, help me! I will try to figure it out. I have until May 9th to turn in a rough draft of a graduate thesis. Obviously, this is why I was trying to isolate pertinate info into a new folder- to be chronologically organized and then editted.

Kimberly:apple:
 
kimberlyJL said:
"aaronw" and Mike- Okay- I don't know if I have the right stuff?? I have an EpsonPerfection 2400 PHOTO scanner, and anEpson Stylus PHOTO925 printer. If it works, and takes a long time- it probably wouldn't be as long as me physically re-typing the doc.s? Do I have the right "stuff?" How do I go about it if I do?

I know- I trusted myself- and was spoiled by my mac, maybe. Since I switched to mac from windows, I have never had any fears of losing things- or crashes- whatever. It must be me. I am surprised though that my mac would let me be so stupid!!

Thanx- I am so impressed that some one is out there that wants to, or is willing to, help me! I will try to figure it out. I have until May 9th to turn in a rough draft of a graduate thesis. Obviously, this is why I was trying to isolate pertinate info into a new folder- to be chronologically organized and then editted.

Kimberly:apple:
Click to expand...

Kimberly, since your Mac is running 10.3.9, it must have only USB 1 and not USB 2. If that is the case, it would be faster to re-type the info than to scan it, OCR it and then clean it up. Your scanner comes with OCR software, but it is not very efficient. After 2 pages, you will give up in frustration. To get a good job done from OCR software, you will have to spend $200 for good OCR software. But, I cannot imagine doing that cumbersome of a project unless you have a lot of patience and a lot of free time.

Check your email and private message for more info.
 
"Kimberly, since your Mac is running 10.3.9"

I am new to the world of Macs; I got fed up with the Windows OS and bought a MacBook Pro a short while ago. As maccompaq pointed, and I didn't realize, your Mac probably has a only a USB 1.0 interface; as such scanning your documents would indeed be an exercise in futility.

There is a Unix operating system utility called fsck that is used to diagnose and repair all types of hard drive file problems. It can override the Mac OS file journaling system to do its work. It is possible this command can be used to fix your problem.

However, unless you are very proficient in the inner workings of Unix operating systems, I recommend you seek out someone who has in depth experience in this area. If you lived in the northwest corner of Vermont I would be glad to help. Short of that, as mentioned in an earlier post, I would either purchase a hard disk file recovery application or send your hard drive to a service that specializes in repairing and recovering files on a hard drive.

Mike

ps don't give up on Macs and the associated Mac OS - the Mac OS is really rock solid and, at least as far as the Leopard OS version which is where I came in, the best. It is probably what Windows XP, and Vista, wishes it was.
 
still love macs

Yes- I am upset- and blame myself for my dilema- not my mac. I won't give up on mac ever. I've had horrible windows experiences in the past. In fact, I am planning to buy a mac book soon...... Thx! K
 
Hi,

Hey don't panic. You can easily recover it with the help of stellar phoenix data recovery Mac software. Just go to product's website and download the demo version>see the preview of recovered files and buy license. I hope it will help you..
 
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