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Lost all my settings

rediffusion

rediffusion

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 26, 2006
202
38
Fairfield, CT
I just booted my G4 and all my setting have been lost. Many application icons from the dock have disappeared although the applications themselves have not been deleted. Items from my desktop have also disappeared.
What's going on?!?!?
Can anybody help?

thanks,
Rich :(

Hardware Overview:
Machine Name: Power Mac G4
Machine Model: PowerMac3,4
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (11.3)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 533 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 896 MB
Bus Speed: 133 MHzPlease
Boot ROM Version: 4.1.8f5
 
Either renamed the user folder
or renamed or moved or deleted the Library folder
or renamed or moved or deleted the Library: Preferences folder

d'you want to lay bets, MJ?

No offense intended, Rich, but you're not exactly the first person to post this same problem. Or the 100th for that matter. The odds on favorite is renaming the default User folder -- that results in the loss of the Desktop items and all custom changes you have made to the Dock, and disapparates the contents of your Documents and Mail.

Basically, you should not rename, move or delete any folder that OSX creates automatically.
 
Well, I went for Home folder but was apparently wrong. The good news is that once we work out what has been renamed, it should be very easy to fix. :D
 
mad jew said:
It depends how you cleared them... What exactly have you done recently on this machine?
Click to expand...

Thanks for all your advice but still no luck.

This is what I've done....

I have a new iPhone and was having problems getting my G4 to recognize it when connected. I looked around for an answer and read that deleting the iTunes preferences may help. I did this and restarted but it still didn't work. I then tried it again plus also deleted the iPod prefs. I also ran disk utilities and Disk Warrior 4. I also created an alias to my Preference folder and moved it to the desktop.

That's all I did. In the Users folder there are 2 folders, 'Shared' & 'rich'. I didn't rename either and no new user folders have appeared. I have only deleted prefs from the Users>rich>Library>Preferences folder.

Any help will be gratefully received.

Rich
 
I can still find my original desktop folder in Users>User Guides and Information>Users>rich
This also includes these folders:
Public
Applications
Sites
Pictures
Library
Documents
Desktop
Music
Movies
 
rediffusion said:
Thanks for all your advice but still no luck.

This is what I've done....

I have a new iPhone and was having problems getting my G4 to recognize it when connected. I looked around for an answer and read that deleting the iTunes preferences may help. I did this and restarted but it still didn't work. I then tried it again plus also deleted the iPod prefs. I also ran disk utilities and Disk Warrior 4. I also created an alias to my Preference folder and moved it to the desktop.

That's all I did.
Click to expand...

Problem: IF that was all you did, then there is no way that could have created the symptoms you describe.

So, you must have done something else to cause it, perhaps without knowing it. Are you sure it is the alias of the Preferences folder you moved to the desktop, and not the real thing?

Somehow you have made your Library and/or User folder inaccessible to your OS.

Are you sure you are logged in as rich?
 
I'm pretty certain that's all I did. I remember Firefox came up with a strange message and then crashed just before all this happened. Could that have caused it?

Rich
 
CanadaRAM said:
Either renamed the user folder
or renamed or moved or deleted the Library folder
or renamed or moved or deleted the Library: Preferences folder

d'you want to lay bets, MJ?

No offense intended, Rich, but you're not exactly the first person to post this same problem. Or the 100th for that matter. The odds on favorite is renaming the default User folder -- that results in the loss of the Desktop items and all custom changes you have made to the Dock, and disapparates the contents of your Documents and Mail.

Basically, you should not rename, move or delete any folder that OSX creates automatically.
Click to expand...

I'm just amused that you used the word 'disapparates' in normal conversation, and without comment until now. Unless...

Wow, am I the only muggle on these boards... :eek:
 
I have seemed to have fixed it.

I noticed that all my usual User info was in Users>User Guides and Information>Users>rich

I backed up the Users>>rich folder and copied the contents of Users>User Guides and Information>Users>rich into the Users folder.

I restarted and everything seemed to be back to normal. I'm pretty sure I didn't move my 'rich' user folder.

Am I OK doing this? I have noticed the computer is a bit slow since doing this. At one stage Entourage was saying there wasn't enough memory to display certain emails.

What does everybody think?

thanks in advance for your advice,
Rich ;)
 
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