i have been using my mac all day, and it had been working fine (its a G4 PowerBook running OS 10.3.5), when, all of a sudden, around 1 am eastern i log in and all of a sudden the mac loads a desktop that looks like the one you get when you initially install the os... my wallpaper, and all my folders on the desktop did not show up. someone please help!
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where's MY desktop?
- Thread starter klowne
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Are your apps all still there? What about your Documents folder, or music folder, or where ever you save your stuff?
This is really weird. I wish I had something for you, I really do. It sounds like someone reinstalled os x. But you had the same user name and password?
yeah everythings the same, i really dont understand whats going on, i turned it off prolly around 11 and everything had been working fine, all i had been doing was using illustrator, i go to turn it back on to make something else an all of a sudden none of my stuff is there... this is something else, but i was wondering, what is a .sparseimage file? there is one with my username as the first part of the file name under users under my profile. thanks for all the help
I have had this happen to me once before. I was REALLY unhappy. I never did figure out what happened, so let me know if you come up with anything.
yes i used file vault and i havent been able to repair permissions cause i dont know how... i think i may have figured out part of the problem, i just dont know how to solve it. whenever os x is loading up with the blue progress bar, it gets to "initalizing network connection" or whatever and then stops right there and brings up the screen for me to log in. i remember before that when it logged in all the way it said stuff like "loading personal preferences." can anyone fix this, please!?!?!?! im completely f'ed if i dont get my graphic design stuff back. thanks for the help everyone.
That .sparseimage is a disk image like a .dmg. The difference is a .dmg is a set size, while the .sparseimage grows to whatever size it needs to be to hold the files you put into it. I think the .sparseimage is what filevault left for you to fix your crash.
Here is a fix you should try:
1. Log in as another user.
2. Go to /Users/your_username and double click to mount the sparseimage file. It will prompt you to enter your password to mount this image.
3. Go to Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility
4. Unmount the sparseimage. Note that the file name will still show up in the list of drives.
5. Click on the sparseimage and chose "Repair Drive."
6. Log out (I suggest rebooting) and try to log into your user again.
Here is a fix you should try:
1. Log in as another user.
2. Go to /Users/your_username and double click to mount the sparseimage file. It will prompt you to enter your password to mount this image.
3. Go to Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility
4. Unmount the sparseimage. Note that the file name will still show up in the list of drives.
5. Click on the sparseimage and chose "Repair Drive."
6. Log out (I suggest rebooting) and try to log into your user again.
whenever i click the .sparseimage file, it says "no mountable drives" whenever the little info box pops up. i opened disk utility under the original user name (when i tried a different name it said i didnt have permission to deal wit the sparseimage file), and then dragged it in and hit repair disk. the following error ensued:
checking HFS Plus volume.
Invalid B-tree node size
Invalid B-tree node size
Volume check failed.
Error: The underlying task reported failuer on exit (-9972)
Repair attempted on 1 volume
0 HFS volumes repaired
1 volume could not be repaired
what the ...?!
checking HFS Plus volume.
Invalid B-tree node size
Invalid B-tree node size
Volume check failed.
Error: The underlying task reported failuer on exit (-9972)
Repair attempted on 1 volume
0 HFS volumes repaired
1 volume could not be repaired
what the ...?!
Try moving the sparseimage to somewhere that another account would have access to (like apps, or something). Then log in as an admin and try again. I'm crossing my fingers.klowne said:
i got a little closer to fixing the problem, but im still not there yet. i copied the .sparseimage into my main hard drive folder and renamed it to a .dmg file. when i started disk utility, it recognized it, but gave me the same failure message. i then tried to restore the image but that also failed. all my programs are on here, they just dont have the preferences set. can anyone tell me how to get to the files that were on my desktop when i could log in normally? thanks
Corrupt sparseimage file
I've just experienced the same thing and I to am a designer. I've tried using "restore" in Disk Utilities but nothing works...the same errors as stated previously in this thread. I saw on a different forum that the problem appears to focus on FileVault and reclaiming disk space when restarting. I had just installed the 2004-9-30 Security Update before the problem developed. Someone mentioned that if the question to reclaim disk space would have said "Please corrupt my files" they would have not said yes.
I tried to "covert" my sparseimage file to a .dmg onto an external HD and restore from that, but get the same errors
Has anyone else found a solution? Or heard from Apple?
I've just experienced the same thing and I to am a designer. I've tried using "restore" in Disk Utilities but nothing works...the same errors as stated previously in this thread. I saw on a different forum that the problem appears to focus on FileVault and reclaiming disk space when restarting. I had just installed the 2004-9-30 Security Update before the problem developed. Someone mentioned that if the question to reclaim disk space would have said "Please corrupt my files" they would have not said yes.
I tried to "covert" my sparseimage file to a .dmg onto an external HD and restore from that, but get the same errors
Has anyone else found a solution? Or heard from Apple?
