Deleted private folder, commence panic.

[epkoenig]

I was a dummy and accidentally deleted my private folder, and my macbook pro, running Mavericks, will not boot.

I have not emptied the trash, and so hoped to use my external hard drive/time machine to restore to my latest backup. However, when I tried this, my hard drive wan't recognized. I looked at it in a friend's mac, and apparently it is empty, despite the numerous 'successful' backups I've performed over the past two years.

I have partitioned my hard drive with boot camp, so I can boot and use my windows side without issue! I can, as far as I know, access and backup my mac files from the windows side, which is my next step.

I have also tried a few times to move the private file in Terminal - but I'm not sure if I was doing it correctly. (I've been snooping other threads from users with the same issue, but I haven't made it work. I thought maybe the bootcamp side of things might merit a new thread - I hope this is ok?)

I'm not sure what I should try next - is there any way to save my mac side?
My computer confidence has taken a huge hit! I'd really appreciate some step-by-step help! Thanks.

 

[leman]

Reboot to internet recovery, reinstall the OS again on top, your data should still be there. Then start a new TM backup.

 

[epkoenig]

Will do.

Thank you, I will give that a try.

 

[maflynn]

Thank you, I will give that a try.

Good luck, the only option is to either reboot with an external drive running OS X, or the internet recovery.

FWIW, I clone my internal drive, so I have an exact replica and its bootable. Food for thought for the future

Good luck

 

[epkoenig]

Leman, it worked; no data lost! Thank you for your help! And maflynn, I'll look into cloning my drive. That sounds like the best idea going forward.
Thanks again.

 

[cjmillsnun]

Leman, it worked; no data lost! Thank you for your help! And maflynn, I'll look into cloning my drive. That sounds like the best idea going forward.
Thanks again.

To clone you need an application to do it.

Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper will do it for you. The advantage of this is that the cloned drive will boot if your drive fails.

I've used this in the past to get work done quickly for Uni, then gone and got a drive the following morning. (Why do drives fail in the evening??)

 

[pat park]

To clone you need an application to do it.

Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper will do it for you. The advantage of this is that the cloned drive will boot if your drive fails.

I've used this in the past to get work done quickly for Uni, then gone and got a drive the following morning. (Why do drives fail in the evening??)

I have a 1TB external drive I use for backing up documents, music etc. Could I use part of this drive to clone my current drive? Or would I need to repartition the drive to make a spot for the clone?