I think I deleted everything! And Mac won't start up!

[kidart89]

Hello anyone who reads this.
Sorry if I sound desperate but I am right now.

This is what happened:

I heard about the "sudo- rm R " or something code, and I've been using it to delete my big files completely. I know it deletes the files completely, and saves space. I told my brother to use that to delete his stuff too, to save space. Then he began to delete all his files, from his user. (He and I have different user accounts, both as administrators). He apparently dragged all his files and downloads, and deleted them using that code.
This happened:

At first, there were no applications at all. The dock showed the applications icons with a question mark. The applications folder was completely empty.

Then, I tried to see if restarting it was the solution. I know, stupid thing, but I wasn't thinking well. Now, the computer won't start up.

It just gets to the white screen with the apple, begins to load for a few seconds, and then apparently it restars. It goes to the black screen again, and then to the white screen with the apple and so on...

I have NO idea what happened, I am kinda new to Mac, but I fear I just f****d up my Mac and I am really scared. I have some important stuff there!

What happened??? What can I do???

(It is a Black Macbook, I bought it last year)

Please, HELP ME!

 

[r.j.s]

You're going to have to reinstall.

I'd recommend an Archive and Install, that way, if anything is still there, you'll be able to salvage it later.

 

[vandozza]

i hope you had a backup?

(painful lesson learnt if you didn't)

if you don't have a backup, and the stuff on your mac is very important, and you absolutely have to get it back, it might be worth contacting someone who specialises in data recovery for macs.

if you have been using IMAP for your email, then all of that should be safe.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

Prosoft's Data Rescue 2 will be able to recover a lot of files.

It's like the second coming for data recovery tools.

You'll either need a bootable CD of it or another Mac with it installed and a Firewire cable.

 

[gusious]

Dude this sucks... You must never play with Unix commands unless you know exactly what you're doing...

Well recover as much you can with Jethryn Freyman's app and then try Archive and Install.

 

[ceezy3000]

if you didnt back up the only way would be to reinstal with those disks that came with it goodd luck

 

[kidart89]

Problem solved!
Well kinda,
I did an Archive and Install as you said, and my files where there. Except, of course, for the ones that my brother had deleted on purpose. But all my files, school work, and pictures where there. Even my desktop was the same.

The only thing I lost were the applications, but oh well, I'll just re-install them.
I can breathe normally again!

I don't know what happened, but lesson learned: Do not play with terminal commands if I am not completely sure how to use them. And back-up.

Thank You SO Much!

 

[r.j.s]

Good to here you survived with (almost) everything intact.