Previous system folder?

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Level 2

417 points

Previous system folder?

It appears I did something foolish yesterday. I deleted the 20GB previous system folder on my wife's MacBookPro and now some of her programs are not working. And I don't see it in Time Machine.

1st off, why do I still need the Previous System folder for anything other than a security blanket after a reinstall?

2nd, If all my files are not copied from a previous system folder to the current system folder, then why isn't the whole Previous System folder backed up in Time Machine?

I have not saved anything to the mac since I deleted the files. Is there anything out there to help me undelete at this point? Getting desperate...

15" MacBook Pro 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo, 20" 2Ghz iMac G5, Mac OS X (10.5.6), iPod Video 30GB, AppleTV, Airport Extreme N

Posted on Jan 21, 2009 6:08 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 21, 2009 6:11 PM in response to jsunem

Hi jsunem;

Seeing as how my crystal ball is foggy at the present time, exactly what programs are not working?

Allan

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Answer 2

Jan 21, 2009 6:12 PM in response to jsunem

If it's not backed up in TM, than your out of luck. It's gone. DataRecovery software is worth a shot, but chances are the data was written over already.

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Answer 3

Jan 21, 2009 6:16 PM in response to jsunem

The Apple system architecture works somewhat like this.

When you delete a file, only the reference to the file is deleted, the file remains unchanged until the space is required again by the system.

(The previous system folder allows you to bring any settings and files you wish to keep to the new system folder.)

You could use a data recovery program like Data Rescue 2 to retrieve the files, Hopefully that will work.

You could use Terminal to recover the files but that is beyond my skills.

Hope this info helps you. (I've been in the same position of losing files so I know wht you mean...)

Regards,

Peter.

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Answer 4

jsunem Author

Level 2

417 points

Jan 21, 2009 6:16 PM in response to Allan Eckert

Quicken & Quickbooks are the only ones she needed since I did this. They show in the dock, but when you click on them a light question mark is superimposed on the icon. Only the most important programs to her. Not good.

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Answer 5

Jan 21, 2009 6:17 PM in response to Peter Miller

The hard truth is we always forget to backup until we need to files....

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Answer 6

Jan 21, 2009 6:18 PM in response to jsunem

O. Just drag off the dock, and drag back on from your Applications folder.

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Answer 7

jsunem Author

Level 2

417 points

Jan 21, 2009 6:18 PM in response to Community User

Is the previous system folder supposed to be backed up in TM? It certainly wasn't something I chose to exempt.

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Answer 8

Jan 21, 2009 6:21 PM in response to jsunem

It seems strange that the previous system folder would be required for applications to run, what specific applications are not working?

Did you lose any actual data, or are you just trying to get these applications working again?

It might be simpler to just reinstall the applications that are not working correctly.

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Answer 9

jsunem Author

Level 2

417 points

Jan 21, 2009 6:33 PM in response to Community User

O. Just drag off the dock, and drag back on from your Applications folder.

-If only I could. It appears the programs were not in the applications folder. Something more I didn't know about Archive and installing OS X

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Answer 10

jsunem Author

Level 2

417 points

Jan 21, 2009 6:35 PM in response to Craig Baron

Reinstalling sounds fine, but I fear that these aren't the only items missing. I'll only find out what's gone when I need it, and that could be days, weeks, or months from now. Makes e want to put it all back the way it was.

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Answer 11

Jan 21, 2009 6:40 PM in response to jsunem

This article details Archive and Installs. AFAIK, 3rd party software shouldn't be removed. However, it does state that some software may not work.

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Answer 12

Jan 21, 2009 7:58 PM in response to jsunem

I'm not sure "the way it was" was correct, current applications shouldn't be dependent on the previous system folder (which is why time machine probably ignored it). This seems like a good time to get the system sorted out (after making a good backup copy of what you currently have).

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