Help! I put sparseimage in the trash!

[Erendiox]

Umm. yea, so I was trying to clear out space on my HD, but for some reason, after I deleted stuff, my HD didn't show any more free space, even after rebooting the finder. So I used a program to find the larges files on my HD and see what was up and i found the sparseimage. At the time, I really didn't know what it was, and it was taking up a monumental amount of space, so in my grandiose stupidity I trashed and tried to delete it. It wouldnt let me (natrually) cause it was in use. So I tried rebooting and what do you know... wont boot up anywhere past the logon screen. After looking up the sparseimage online, I now understand what it is, and need to somehow use the command line to put it back where it belongs so I can boot back up. Anyone knowledgeable on this?

I know it was really stupid of me, but please help me out!

 

[Flying Llama]

Umm. yea, so I was trying to clear out space on my HD, but for some reason, after I deleted stuff, my HD didn't show any more free space, even after rebooting the finder. So I used a program to find the larges files on my HD and see what was up and i found the sparseimage. At the time, I really didn't know what it was, and it was taking up a monumental amount of space, so in my grandiose stupidity I trashed and tried to delete it. It wouldnt let me (natrually) cause it was in use. So I tried rebooting and what do you know... wont boot up anywhere past the logon screen. After looking up the sparseimage online, I now understand what it is, and need to somehow use the command line to put it back where it belongs so I can boot back up. Anyone knowledgeable on this?

I know it was really stupid of me, but please help me out!

Was your home folder protected with filevault by any chance? If so, that sparseimage was your home folder... There is some software that can restore stuff but it costs, takes a LONG time, and doesn't guarantee anything, especially since you rebooted and did stuff (even simple stuff like quitting the finder)
You could have just gone into you home folder and trash junk, not the entire home!
If none of your accounts have filevault then I have no idea what that image was...

llama

 

[Erendiox]

Was your home folder protected with filevault by any chance? If so, that sparseimage was your home folder... There is some software that can restore stuff but it costs, takes a LONG time, and doesn't guarantee anything, especially since you rebooted and did stuff (even simple stuff like quitting the finder)
You could have just gone into you home folder and trash junk, not the entire home!
If none of your accounts have filevault then I have no idea what that image was...

llama

Yea. my homefolder is protected by filevault. But I didn't actually delete it, I just moved the image to the trash. Theres no way to stick it back?

 

[Flying Llama]

Yea. my homefolder is protected by filevault. But I didn't actually delete it, I just moved the image to the trash. Theres no way to stick it back?

So you didn't delete it? Good! If you set a root password, login as root, then go looking around the user's directory for a folder called .trash (you need to show hidden files and folders:
"defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles ON" in the terminal.)

Go around, just look for a folder named .trash. There is one at the top level of your hard disk (where Applications and System are). When you find the sparseimage, drag it out of .trash, make a new user (delete the old one if it's still there) and move everything to the new user (including library and documents). Now log back in to your account and turn filevault on again.

Hope this works,

llama

P.S: If you didn't make a root account (which is a super-user account, he can do anything), then find you OS X installation disk, start up from it, and there should be a "reset root password" somewhere on the menu bar, make a root password, then follow the steps above.

 

[Erendiox]

That did it! Everything is back up and running as normal, and I have the root account there now in case I screw anything else up . Thank you so much Flying Llama!

 

[Flying Llama]

That did it! Everything is back up and running as normal, and I have the root account there now in case I screw anything else up . Thank you so much Flying Llama!

Glad to see everything is fine on your side!

Saving the world, one computer at a time.
llama

 

[jared_kipe]

Then the next question is where is all your hard drive space if it isn't your home folder? But I never knew about that, never filevault anything.

 

[atlpandabear]

HELP!! I did it too!

Guys, I feel really dumb here but thank you!! The apple store told me all was lost and I had to go somewhere else to get my data back (and pay around 3000!!!!!) and there was NOTHING THEY COULD DO. I even flat asked if there was a command line to get into the trash to get the file back. They said no.

Ok, so I followed the directions as stated. Got the sparsebundle out of the trash, created a new user and when I try to open the sparsebundle in the new user to copy files it says operation not supported on socket. I am really really new to the mac world, so if you could break it down really well I will love you guys FOREVER!!!!!!
THANKS!!
Amanda

 

[Richard.John]

Time Machine is your friend.

 

[atlpandabear]

Time Machine is your friend.

Well I messed that one up didn't I? Thanks for your "help".
I just need to know where the heck to stick the sparseimage back into so I can get this thing running back like I need it too.

Plus, I make videos with Final Cut. I am a poor college student who cant afford anything after spending the money on this thing to get another HD until the end of the year. PLEASE HELP.

 

[atlpandabear]

My Specs

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB