Emptied trash and gained a problem!!!

[peevies]

Hello!
I decided to delete extra files and empty the trash on my imac G5 (2GHz Intel Core Duo) running Tiger 10.4.11 today. Wonderful....now that I gained a few Gigs of space back, I now have a greyed-out question mark on all my finder windows for apps, etc. (See attached pic.) When I click on the question mark, it says the item cannot be found next to the finder icon. I believe I threw away some aliases and now the finder cannot see the pathway anymore. I am beyond pissed at myself since I don't have a clue how to fix what I did. The files and apps seem to work, but I'd sure love to get rid of that question mark and whatever it is I screwed up. Any ideas or links to fixes out there? I repaired permissions with disk utility, but AAAARRRGGGHHHHH! - nothing. Any help is greatly appreciated, as I LOVE this machine. (My first mac)

 

[BlueRevolution]

What "extra files" did you delete?

 

[peevies]

I had a lot of duplicate imovie projects and pictures that I didn't need after finally finishing a movie/idvd I was working on. I dragged them to the trash. I got very poor sleep last night and my concentration is shot today.(Sleep Apnea-yay!) I remember dragging some alias files in there too, but crap - I can't remember what they were. Every window I open in finder has that stupid question mark. Oh I was having a field day....delete this...delete that!
P.S. When I right-click on the question mark,some of my options are to "remove item" or "customize toolbar" - wondering if that is something that would point me in the right direction to a fix.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Insert the DVD that came with your computer and run an archive & install with the system set to preserve user & network settings. At this point (and only at this point), you can also choose not to install any install components that you do not need. I disable everything but the barebones setup, iLife and everything, which saves me 6 GiB or so. The extra printer drivers and language localizations are especially big and wasted space for most people. (One of these days I'll run the installer again and get the step-by-step process and exact wording right, but you should clearly be able to see what I'm on about, anyway.) Run Software Update a few times and everything should be back to normal.

In the future, do not delete anything unless you know exactly what it does.

 

[peevies]

Just want to say thanks for the initial response BlueRevolution...I panicked, having seen a "bad question mark" before where Safari should have been on my cousin's old G3. I put in a better search and found an archived thread that helped. I was thinking the right-click toolbar functions were something to it, and it turns out customizing the toolbar worked. I really appreciate this forum.....thank you, and anyone who else willing to help. Next time, I'll get a big external hard drive......screw the trashcan! ( I'll watch out what I trash, too!)

P.S. I just read your reply after posting this........that info is something I needed. I know someday I'm going to screw something up and I haven't learned even a basic restore. I am saving a screen grab of your instructions in print........verrrrry useful. I hope the issue was minor and is resolved....time will tell. I had a pretty full trash can, but that was not worth it...finding something you didn't mean to change that can't be restored!!!! Thankyou!!!!!

 

[cdcastillo]

What you are seeing in "every" finder window is an alias to something that is not there anymore (an app, a project, etc.). You only need to drag that question mark out of the window, and it will be gone. Next, drag the app again to it's place, and you will have it again.

 

[peevies]

Whew! Thank goodness I didn't drag anything important into the trashcan before emptying it. I thought I was being careful, but couldn't recall what "alias" files I dumped.....I can only remember them being duplicates/same name for some pictures and files I already had. It's good to NOT see any odd question marks, but I'm glad they can be dismissed. Thanks for the info!