Corruption in user?

[lauriedm]

Hi there,

Weird things started happening on our iMac a few weeks ago. all of our iCal info went missing, favorites in Safari went missing, desktop wallpaper and screensavers were changed, icons with iPhoto library just appeared on our desktop - very odd things. What could have caused this? We've taken it in for service but I am curious to how this happened? A friend mentioned he thought it might be a 'corruption in user'. How does that happen? (if it is the case)

Thanks!

 

[BlueRevolution]

Try using Disk Utility (In /Applications/Utilities) to repair permissions.

 

[Gregg2]

What did they tell you they did to fix it?

Corruptions are a mystery to me. User Accounts can become corrupt. The way you know that is if you create a new User Account (see Mac Help), and the problems go away. The other thing(s) that can become corrupt are preferences. These are stored in plist files in the User/UserName/Library/Preferences folder. Again, the way you know one is corrupt is by replacing it with a new (fresh) one. Normally, you should drag the offender to the Desktop and start the application (restart if it's not an Application issue). This replenishes the Preferences folder with another file (something.plist - look in that folder to see them) that's reset to all defaults. This may mean you have to go back into the program's preferences to reset things that you changed before.

How does it happen? Beats me!