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HELP! Accidently deleted another users files

H

Halc0n

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 5, 2012
8
0
Here's the story.

My girlfriend has a imac (10.4.11) .. Im more of a PC guy so I dont know much about how these work. First Mac I've ever used. She use to share this computer with her ex boyfriend. We have two accounts. Mine and hers. We're both Admins as far as I can tell.

Well, yesterday we just got internet back and I was using it I kept getting "Safari is asking for keychain password" pop ups. I googled the best I can to see what this was and what not. I tried using my login password which didnt work, I tried other stuff people suggested. (eventually I just went into safaris preferences and fixed it).. BUT, while I was going back and forth from our accounts trying to look up keychain access and stuff, I may have accidently deleted some of her user stuff/profile. I do remember seeing a folder with her ex boyfriends name on it and thinking, why do we need this, I'll just delete it. I emptied the trash plenty of times, restarted as well, during the whole keychain thing. Then at the end of the night when I logged back in to her account, it looked like a totally new account. Her desktop icons where gone, her wallpaper gone, no internet history, no pictures in her photobooth..etc. I think the her account may be linked or under her ex's name in the harddrive but her account may just be named "Deziree" am I screwed? I have no idea what I did. I check the hard drive info and the used space seems to be the same as it was before, so I have a feeling her stuff is still on the computer somewhere. In fact, Ive found her music she had on itunes, but nothing seems to be where it was. Her picture folder is empty. Im most concerned about her pictures because those cant be replaced. If there was a way to restore or find her photobooth stuff as well as uploaded images, Id be fine with that,... but if there is a way to just restore the account to the way it was, that would be great.

Im in desperate need of some help. Any kind of system restore where I can just go back a few days on a mac? HELP! HELP!!


I did change her account password at the start in order to get in there, dont know if that does anything or if I created a new account or what. Anyway, help.

So far, from googling, Ive tried going into /users in order to get to /deleted users and there isnt a deleted users folder.
 
How do I do that? Does a mac do back ups on its own with no additional software or hardware installed?
 
Not on 10.4.11, it would have to have been a manual backup that you or your GF had done.

I guess you don't have a backup, so best you can do is pay a data recovery service to recover the deleted files of importance.
 
I would seriously buy her a truckload of flowers if I could recover just her photobooth pictures. :(

Under "users" there are 5 folders

Deziree
ethanedelson
guest
guest1
and
Shared


Guest1 I created just today. I think guest is the one I used although my shortname(?) is different at the login screen. Ethan is her ex boyfriend and if I deleted anything it was something with that name on it.

Here's a screenshot:

picture5cs.jpg




When we log in at the start up, there is only me, Deziree and the guest1 I just created. There is and never was an Ethan
 
Click on the folders "Deziree" and "ethanedelson" and press CMD+I to let Mac OS X show you a GET INFO window to see, how big those folders are.
 
Halc0n said:
Dez is only 72kb and Ethen 32kb :(
Click to expand...

My mistake.
Mac OS X doesn't show the size of other accounts when not logged into them, thus I think, they are still there, if Deziree is the correct account.

Maybe you have to enable the root user, as that gives you access to all accounts and you can search for items you think to be lost.
Also know, that the root user is a very powerful user, s/he can delete almost anything.
 
Yeah, I was just about to edit my post. While waiting for a reply I logged into 'guest1' and clicked for info my my guest account and it only said 44kb, while I really have around 44gb of stuff in there.

I have access to Deziree's account as I changed her password while logged into mine. But when I go in there, there is nothing in there now.

Do you think that maybe by changing her password, I may have done something that created a new account? or changed it somehow?

----------

I just logged into "Deziree".. while in there if I go to users the little house icon is on ethanedelson, not the "Deziree" folder. And when I get info on the "Deziree" folder it says 74gb big. But the only thing I can find is music which is around 69-70gb. I cant seem to find any photos.
 
Halc0n said:
Yeah, I was just about to edit my post. While waiting for a reply I logged into 'guest1' and clicked for info my my guest account and it only said 44kb, while I really have around 44gb of stuff in there.

I have access to Deziree's account as I changed her password while logged into mine. But when I go in there, there is nothing in there now.

Do you think that maybe by changing her password, I may have done something that created a new account? or changed it somehow?
Click to expand...

Changing a password via System Preferences > Account does not delete any data, thus you must have done something else.
Have you used the built-in search yet, to look for images or other data, you know exists?
Have you employed the methods to search for System or Hidden files in the following guide?
 
I used the spotlight feature to search for say "Photo 100" that should exists because it was once there, but nothing comes up. Is there a way I can search the entire computer? Ive had to log into her account and search there and nothing comes up.

That second feature you mention, I cant seem to work it. My activity monitor looks different.
 
Halc0n said:
I used the spotlight feature to search for say "Photo 100" that should exists because it was once there, but nothing comes up. Is there a way I can search the entire computer? Ive had to log into her account and search there and nothing comes up.

That second feature you mention, I cant seem to work it. My activity monitor looks different.
Click to expand...

I meant steps 2 to 8 in that guide, to widen your search parameters.
 
I did and it really didnt help much.

I downloaded and tried DataRescue and it did a scan and I was able to recover a file that was deleted from photobooth. I guess my best bet would be to just buy that program and recover them that way.

Oh well, hope it works.
 
Before you do too much more.... make sure you get a cloned backup. That way if anything else goes wrong you can at least get to this point. It won't back up already deleted files, but it will back up files you can't see.

Try SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. But right now I think you need to get a little insurance via a back up.
 
Thanks everyone for the help. I have another question. Ive already used a program and recovered as much as I could, but now Id like to know something.


When we log on/in, we have only two accounts 'Deziree' and mine, lets call it "Halcon".... Yet, as you can see in the picture there are 3 user folders. (Deziree, ethan, and guest). Now, my 'halcon' account is the guest, when logged into 'Deziree' I believe it logs in as the 'ethanedelson' account because thats where the home icon shows while logged in. Also 'Deziree's' acount short name is 'ethenedelson' . (mine is guest).... So why is there a "Deziree" user folder? Is it possible that there is another user account there that we are not getting into? Or is another folder created when usernames are changed?



Does anyone know?

FYI, while logged into the my girlfriends account, the home icon is on 'ethanedelson' and I can also view the "Deziree" account's stuff when I go to 'users', but I can not view the "guest" stuff (guest is an admin account)... But I cant log on where the house icon is on the "deziree' user folder.
 
Last edited:
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