Please Help - Font Explorer Completely Messed up my MBP

[AdamMacMan]

Oh boy, I think I really messed up something big time. I was trying to clean up my system fonts via Font Explorer. So I did the "Clean system fonts" in the Tools drop-down. When I restarted and came back, all my fonts were changed (icon fonts, menu fonts, etc)...but worst, I'm just beach-balling and my screen is flashing back and forth from grey to my desktop image...constantly back and forth. I can't click on anything, I can still see my desktop files/folders, and I can see the top menu bar but my machine is freaking out.

I'm not a very technical guy when it comes to Macs so I really need someone's help. As of now it seems that I literally can't do anything. I can access the files on my MBP via an old iMac I have if that would help.

Also this is a work computer but I work remotely from headquarters (about 3 hours away) so I'd love to get this resolved myself. Please tell me there's something i can do.

 

[duervo]

Restore from the time machine backup that you created prior to messing with system files.

 

[AdamMacMan]

Restore from the time machine backup that you created prior to messing with system files.

I do have an external hard drive I backed up with a week ago. I assume this is what you're referring to. I didn't back up anything before doing this since I didn't expect the cluster-f that this would get me into. So that's about a week of work lost I guess. Could be worse. I could try and manually back up the files onto my iMac that I worked on this week maybe.

How do I restore though when my machine is freaking out and I can't do anything? Is there a way to restore on the start-up screen? Sorry again for my ignorance, I'm freaking out right now

Regardless, I'm heading to my local office now to pick up my external drive.

 

[Sifinity]

I do have an external hard drive I backed up with a week ago. I assume this is what you're referring to. I didn't back up anything before doing this since I didn't expect the cluster-f that this would get me into. So that's about a week of work lost I guess. Could be worse. I could try and manually back up the files onto my iMac that I worked on this week maybe.

How do I restore though when my machine is freaking out and I can't do anything? Is there a way to restore on the start-up screen? Sorry again for my ignorance, I'm freaking out right now

Regardless, I'm heading to my local office now to pick up my external drive.

you could do a complete restore and reinstall os x if you want to , but you'll lose all the files you don't have backed up on the external drive

 

[AdamMacMan]

Unfortunately I don't have any OS install discs.

I found this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYUem-QfYBs, is this what I want to do? Note that I don't have the bootable USB drive but in the comments it says that the USB drive might not be necessary.


EDIT:
Hang on a sec...I can still access and move any files on my MBP via my iMac. Can I just put back all the system fonts from the folder "FontsRemovedFromSystem 7/26/14" that was created on my MBP from Font Explorer and then re-start? I wouldn't really know where to put back everything but if I did, would that work?

 

[Weaselboy]

Unfortunately I don't have any OS install discs.

The system fonts are in this folder. You might be able to just put this back and reboot.

/System/Library/Fonts

What OS version are you on?

 

[AdamMacMan]

The system fonts are in this folder. You might be able to just put this back and reboot.

/System/Library/Fonts

It's saying I don't have permissions.

What OS version are you on?

10.7 I believe.

 

[Weaselboy]

10.7 I believe.

This makes it easy then... just command-r boot to recovery and click reinstall OS X. That will reinstall the OS from Apple's servers and put the fonts back. Backup first just to be safe, but this reinstall will not erase your data.

 

[AdamMacMan]

This makes it easy then... just command-r boot to recovery and click reinstall OS X. That will reinstall the OS from Apple's servers and put the fonts back. Backup first just to be safe, but this reinstall will not erase your data.

When do I do this though? Do I do this on start-up or something? And if so what exactly do I do?

I can't do anything on my laptop as is once I log in, it's basically unusable. The screen just flashes and it beachballs.

 

[Weaselboy]

When do I do this though? Do I do this on start-up or something? And if so what exactly do I do?

I can't do anything on my laptop as is once I log in, it's basically unusable. The screen just flashes and it beachballs.

Turn it off then turn it back on... as soon as you turn it on hold down the command and r keys both at once. That should boot you to a hidden recovery partition where you will see this screen.

When you get this screen click Reinstall OS X.

I will take a while to DL the 4.7GB installer.

 

[AdamMacMan]

Turn it off then turn it back on... as soon as you turn it on hold down the command and r keys both at once. That should boot you to a hidden recovery partition where you will see this screen.

When you get this screen click Reinstall OS X.

I will take a while to DL the 4.7GB installer.

Whoa, I hope that works. You're a life saver!!!

Just in case I still have a recent time machine backup and I'm also backing up files I worked on over this past week when I didn't back up. My thinking is I shouldn't back up right now or else I'll back up to the messed up font folders.

I'll do this and let you know how it goes. thanks again!

 

[Weaselboy]

Whoa, I hope that works. You're a life saver!!!

Just in case I still have a recent time machine backup and I'm also backing up files I worked on over this past week when I didn't back up. My thinking is I shouldn't back up right now or else I'll back up to the messed up font folders.

I'll do this and let you know how it goes. thanks again!

Time Machine should in theory be okay if you backup because it stores versions of the system.... so you could restore back to an older version if you needed to. But I'm with you... if it is just a few files you can save somewhere else I would leave my TM backup as is and not chance messing it up.

 

[AdamMacMan]

OK, I couldn't reinstall OS since there was an error validating my license (which is weird because it's a work computer and I know I have a licensed version), so I had to just do a restore from TM. After a good hour and a half of that it finally finished, went to the grey Apple logo boot up screen...and then got a run down of numbers and letters before taking me a screen that basically said my computer is having a fit and to hit any key or wait a few seconds. After that it just does the same thing over and over until I get a grey screen with a circle and diagonal line through it (Ghostbusters logo without the ghost)...and then it eventually turns off.

I'm beyond frustrated and have no idea what to do or what even caused this. I mean, I know what i did to cause this but can't believe that would have seemingly screwed my computer up.

So am I screwed or are there other options? Going to bed now but will be back at it tomorrow. Sigh...thanks everyone for your help so far.

EDIT: the command-R thing still works and I went to Disk Utility. Verified my hard drive and there were no errors. WTF???

 

[Sifinity]

OK, I couldn't reinstall OS since there was an error validating my license (which is weird because it's a work computer and I know I have a licensed version), so I had to just do a restore from TM. After a good hour and a half of that it finally finished, went to the grey Apple logo boot up screen...and then got a run down of numbers and letters before taking me a screen that basically said my computer is having a fit and to hit any key or wait a few seconds. After that it just does the same thing over and over until I get a grey screen with a circle and diagonal line through it (Ghostbusters logo without the ghost)...and then it eventually turns off.

I'm beyond frustrated and have no idea what to do or what even caused this. I mean, I know what i did to cause this but can't believe that would have seemingly screwed my computer up.

So am I screwed or are there other options? Going to bed now but will be back at it tomorrow. Sigh...thanks everyone for your help so far.

EDIT: the command-R thing still works and I went to Disk Utility. Verified my hard drive and there were no errors. WTF???

first of all breathe lol , just take it to apple store and tell them that your thing is malfunctioning and tell them its a software issue , most of the time if its a software issue they can find out what the problem is and fix it or tell you what's wrong and etc

 

[Weaselboy]

OK, I couldn't reinstall OS since there was an error validating my license (which is weird because it's a work computer and I know I have a licensed version), so I had to just do a restore from TM. After a good hour and a half of that it finally finished, went to the grey Apple logo boot up screen...and then got a run down of numbers and letters before taking me a screen that basically said my computer is having a fit and to hit any key or wait a few seconds. After that it just does the same thing over and over until I get a grey screen with a circle and diagonal line through it (Ghostbusters logo without the ghost)...and then it eventually turns off.

I'm beyond frustrated and have no idea what to do or what even caused this. I mean, I know what i did to cause this but can't believe that would have seemingly screwed my computer up.

So am I screwed or are there other options? Going to bed now but will be back at it tomorrow. Sigh...thanks everyone for your help so far.

EDIT: the command-R thing still works and I went to Disk Utility. Verified my hard drive and there were no errors. WTF???

When made the first install attempt, it will need the AppleID used to purchase Lion.. and that may be different than your own AppleID if this is a work machine?

The slash mark screen is just because no working OS is found, and not too surprising. Not clear why your TM restore choked though.