I restarted my mac to install updates, and now all my devices such as Growl and Perian have disappeared. Why did this happen...it's as if I never installed them in the first place. I can still find them in my downloads and reinstall, but do I seriously have to do this every time the computer restarts?
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Devices disappeared after restart!
- Thread starter mashafey
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First, what model are you using, I assume it is a MBP as that is the forum we are in, but more info is better.
Did you by any chance have the shift key down on bootup? That would cause the system to load without extensions.
If Growl and Perian were installed properly, they should not disappear on a reboot. Try rebooting again to see what happens.
Have you done any basic maintenance, such as run the Disk Utility Repair permissions etc.?
Strange things like this are really hard to diagnose.
I have a 15" MacBook Pro, 2.66 GHz, 7200 rpm, and I bought it less than two months ago. The computer prompted me to reboot in order to finish installing updates, so I just clicked "ok" and it restarted on its own--this was actually the first time I rebooted it since turning it on in the first few days of getting it. I hadn't done any maintenance, but after the devices disappeared, I installed OnyX and went to Parameters > Finder > show hidden files and folders, to see if this would fix the problem, but it didn't. I'll restart again and see what happens...thank you for any help/advice you can give 
After I restarted my Mac again, OnyX disappeared from my devices (and my desktop). Once again my only devices are Macintosh HD and iDisk...do you think I am doing something wrong when I install the devices? Perhaps I install them in a way that makes them temporary...if that's possible.
Yes you are definitely doing something that casues those "devices" to disappear. Actually, I suspect the disappearing "devices" you mentioned are actually "mounted disk images," which will of course disappear on a reboot.
When you download something, like the Onyx.dmg disk image file, where is it downloaded to, the desktop? Then you should double click on the image file to mount it, and COPY the Onyx application from the mount image, which is only a temporary storage place, to the Applications folder. You can then unmount the image file by dragging it to the trash or highlight it and hit the Command E key combination. Then drag the Onyx icon to the Dock so you can access it easily. The original dmg file can either be deleted or saved to a Installers folder, for example, somewhere in your user home folder.You should read up on how to use the Mac, its really easy, but you need the terminology to communicate with others, eg. devices refers to USB hardware etc. not a mounted disk image, which made your post difficult to understand. There is a lot of info on the Apple HP or see one of Spinnerly's posts on this forum with tons of good links!
When I dragged the application* into the Applications folder instead of just leaving the "mounted disk image" ("mount image" refers to the white rectangular icon, right?) on the desktop, it stayed where it was supposed to...mystery solved! Thanks so much!
*not device I only called it that b/c Finder put it under "devices", and now I'll go learn correct Mac terminology!
*not device
I only called it that b/c Finder put it under "devices", and now I'll go learn correct Mac terminology!
Great, you are doing fine, one lesson learned! Check out Spinnerly's great compilation of links for new users in this post;When I dragged the application* into the Applications folder instead of just leaving the "mounted disk image" ("mount image" refers to the white rectangular icon, right?) on the desktop, it stayed where it was supposed to...mystery solved! Thanks so much!
*not device
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/986876/
it's the third post down in the thread.
Good luck.