file vault- corrupted sparse image- data loss?!!!

I use FileVault. Before 10.3.5 (or so), whenever my Mac crashed, I'd get the same problem. Some good news -- it's frequently recoverable! Here's what I did:
<pre>
Execute these procedures as root:

1) If /Users/.username exists and contains username.sparseimage;
a) Mount username.sparseimage to ensure it decrypts properly; unmount it.
b) Apply permissions, group, owner of /Users/username to /Users/.username
c) rm -rf /Users/username
d) mv /Users/.username /Users/username
e) Try logging in again.

2) If /Users/username contains username.sparseimage
a) Mount username.sparseimage to ensure it decrypts properly; unmount it.
b) mv /Users/username/username.sparseimage /Users/Shared
c) Turn off FileVault for username
d) Turn on FileValut for username
e) rm /Users/username/username.sparseimage
f) mv /Users/Shared/username.sparseimage /Users/username
g) Try logging in again.
</pre>

Note that you don't have to have the root account enabled to do this, you just have to be able to run Disk Utility and a command shell as root. I used Psuedo to do that.

More good news: After 10.3.5 (or so), even when my Mac crashed, it recovered my FileVaulted home directory without any intervention on my part. I've been using FileVault without incident for at least 6 months now.

Hi, I'm having exactly the same problem, I have a 5.67gb of sparseimage in my home folder which contains all my files, but i can't mount it. I did post a separate post, but have not resolved my problem yet.

This is my first experience with OSX, and I would appreciate if someone could explain the above procedures in plain and simple English, wer're not all Computer boffins!!

Thanks

OK, my post was rather cryptic. I'll walk it through step-by-step.

0) Log in to a different user account.
1) Install Pseudo
2) Start Applications > Utilities > Terminal
3) In the Terminal window, do 'ls -a /Users' -- look for an entry "<yourusername>.sparseimage". If it's there...
3a) Start Pseudo.
3b) Open Finder > Utilities.
3c) Drag Disk Utility onto Pseudo.
3d) In Disk Utility, select "<yourusername>.sparseimage", and press "mount".
3e) If it mounts OK, unmount it; close Disk Utility
3f) If you're not logged in to an administrative account, in Terminal do
'su - <admin>' where <admin> is the name of an administrative account.
3g) In Terminal, do 'sudo /bin/zsh'
3h) In Terminal, do 'ls -ld /Users/<yourusername>'. Note the first set of characters (mine are "drwx--x---"). These are the UNIX permissions for the file. You need to set the permissions of /Users/.<yourusername> the same way; do this using "chmod <perm> /Users/.<yourusername>" -- but <perm> is a little tricky to explain. Take the characters after the first -- in my case, "rwx--x--". Think of each column as a bit, where '-' is a 0 bit and any other character is a 1 bit -- so for me, the bits would be 111001000. Express that as an octal number (take each set of three bits and convert it to decimal -- in my case, 111 -> 7, 001 -> 1, 000 -> 0, so the octal number is 710). <perm> is 0<the octal number>, so I'd use 'chmod 0710 /Users/.<myusername>'
3i) In Terminal, do 'rm -rf /Users/<yourusername>'
3j) In Terminal, do 'mv /Users/.<yourusername> /Users/<yourusername>'
3k) Log out.
3l) Try logging in to the (previously corrupted) user account. If it works, you're done.

4) In Terminal, do 'ls -l /Users/<yourusername>'. Look for an entry for
<yourusername>.sparseimage. If it's there...
4a) same as 3a - 3e.
4b) In Terminal, do 'mv /Users/<yourusername>/<yourusername>.sparseimage /Users/Shared'
4c) Log in to the corrupted user account
4d) Turn OFF FileVault.
4e) Turn ON FileVault
4f) In Terminal, do 'rm /Users/<yourusername>/<yourusername>.sparseimage'
4g) In Terminal, do 'mv /Users/Shared/<yourusername>.sparseimage /Users/<yourusername>
4h) Log out of the corrupted user account
4i) Log in to the (formerly corrupted) user account. If it works, you're done!

Not exactly sure what to do if Disk Utility can't mount it...

Miriam

I'm having exactly the same problem, and I can't get any further than your last post.

Where are we going wrong please, computer boffins?

Miriam,

Yes, I'm in exactly the same position. My home folder is intact except all my important files have been consumed in this sparseimage. I can't mount it using disk utilty neither.

Heeeelp, somebody!

I put quotes around the command; when I say "type 'ls -a /Users'", I mean type

ls -a /Users

.

OK, so you can't mount your sparseimage. You should still be able to select it with Disk Utility, so that the "Repair Disk" button un-greys. Try repairing it; it doesn't need to be mounted to be repaired.