Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

8 points

Home folder lost - user account restored to default

I installed SL last weekend, no major problems but many annoying bugs. This morning when I woke up the computer had hung - screen saver was frozen. I held down the power key to shutdown. Turned the computer back on, clicked on my user account icon, and it was like I'd just picked up a new computer... my home folder had been replaced with a "straight out of the box" home folder. Standard desktop, standard dock, nothing in my documents folder, standard library. My entire home folder is gone.

All apps are still available - they are on a different partition with the OS.

The partition where my home folder lives is now virtually empty. I used stellar pheonix to try to recover the files from my home folder, but it did not find them as lost not as deleted files. It gave me the option of recovering about 40GB of deleted files, but they were legitimately deleted files.

I have repaired the disk - no problems. Any suggestions would be appreciated...

MacBookPro5,1

Posted on Sep 3, 2009 12:11 PM

95 replies

Oct 12, 2009 4:52 PM in response to dubaidan

Some information for the Bug Reporters out there, Also to see if you got the same issues as me

Updated from X.5.8 to 6.0 then to 6.1
Guest account was Activated in the 10.5.8 environment and was still activated as a log on in the 10.6 and 10.6.1
Logged on to Guest (after backing up ) and got the Same issue, Data gone
Brought back the Data tried again but could not Reproduce,

Have a mac book with not much really on it just some music and stuff that is normally on the Pro
also Followed the same upgrade path as the Above,
but instead of logging in to the Guest Logged in as a Admin account Disabled Guest Rebooted,
Enabled Guest,
Logged in as Guest and logged out again
Logged in to the Admin account and all data is still there...

Im going to see if i can Reproduce in something like Parallels so im not Destroying working computer's and post my Findings in the next Few days

ubernaut

Level 1

78 points

Oct 12, 2009 5:41 PM in response to johnno_syd

possible good news folks:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10373212-263.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Ma cFixIt

uber

LukeD

Level 4

3,144 points

Oct 13, 2009 10:10 AM in response to Johnny MacHappy

Johnny MacHappy wrote:
Does this issue affect users who have their Guest Account set to "Sharing only" - which I believe is the Mac OS X default?

Thanks in advance.

"Sharing only" means that your Guest Account has been disabled, so you are fine.

psngray

Level 1

0 points

Oct 14, 2009 6:05 AM in response to dubaidan

One user here mentioned seeing a "(2)" after his computer name on the network accessible list in finder. Is that a symptom of the bug? If it is, I'm bummin'

ubernaut

Level 1

78 points

Oct 14, 2009 8:19 AM in response to psngray

doubtful, that happens from time to time when a machine leaves then re-enters a network (sometimes caused by putting your machine to sleep). but thanks for the input anything is possible.

Yuvi.adb

Level 1

0 points

Oct 15, 2009 5:24 AM in response to dubaidan

I encountered this exact problem on my Macbook Air quite inadvertently... after restarting the computer, I was presented with the log in screen and in a rush to log in, I accidentally clicked on the guest account... not so bad, I thought at worst I'd lost a few seconds of my time due to impatience but then when I logged back in to my own account, everything had been reset (and for a minute there I thought I'd somehow managed to get back in to the guest account)... it was only later I realised that all my data had simply vanished and I thought I'd done something terribly wrong. Fortunately all my data was backed up via Time Machine so I was able to recover everything. I've also installed Snow Leopard on my iMac and Mac Pro and looking at it now, I'm glad I never accessed the guest account on them since they hold way more precious data than my MBA does.

Oct 18, 2009 7:18 AM in response to Yuvi.adb

hi
i have lost everything as well please please can someone help me.... and just to let you know... i have no back ups or mobile me or time machine..... so don't go there..... 😟 please say i can get the photos... i have notting itunes iphoto iworks address book mail everything gone this is really bad so much work on the imac as well please please help not sure what went wrong with it..... must have been my last up date 10.6.1

can i get whats on my iphone back on the computer i don't want to delete everything off my iphone can i save that much only 8gb so there not much on it again please help many thanks

Oct 22, 2009 9:00 AM in response to dubaidan

This is the WORST BUG EVER!!!
Is that even a joke? I just lost days of work because of this and I have a session tomorrow!
I never thought I'd say this one day but Apple just did worse than Microsoft ever did here, how can this seriously happen??? I am SO ****** right now 😟

JonB8305

Level 1

4 points

Oct 24, 2009 3:44 PM in response to Tower Studio

This is seriously the worst issue I've ever had with an electronic product. I have years of memories completely lost. Guess I should've backed up my system. I think I'm going to sell my macbook pro and buy a windows 7 laptop, this is absolutely ridiculous.

Oct 25, 2009 2:23 AM in response to JonB8305

Hey Jon,

I do back up but still lost some data and worse it corrupted some of my studio plugins which has seen me doing a lot of work just to get my studio stable again.

With a macbook it can be inconvenient doing a Time Machine back up unless you have a wireless networked drive like time capsule which does not help if your house burns down...

I use BackBlaze which is an unlimited online storage/backup site costing only 5 dollars a month

http://bit.ly/EugFI

Sorry to hear you lost data - don't delete anything else on your machine as there is software that can get some or all of that data back!!!!

Data Recovery check out Data Rescue 3 for Mac by prosoftengineering.. I have used it before and it rescued all my pictures!!!

good luck and let me know if you need anything else

Ivan

Oct 28, 2009 9:42 AM in response to LukeD

When will Apple get off its Apple and RELEASE 10.6.2

Snow Leopard is turning into Vista

dubaidan Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 28, 2009 10:29 AM in response to Johnny MacHappy

Snow Leopard is not turning into Vista. That's just ridiculous. As the user who started this thread (first hit?) affirm that it is a serious bug - but I was for the most part backed up with TM, and now I'm over it. I love SL.

I can't believe you would compare OSX with Vista in this way.

Oct 28, 2009 10:37 AM in response to dubaidan

Not so ridiculous actually! I would go further and say Apple is turning in to Microsoft. It's silence on the issue has mean't that it protects its reputation at the potential expense of its customers. That is ridiculous!

The fact that the bug was there in the first place assures it of a place next to Vista in the chart for most ridiculous episode for a software release.

Great that you were totally backed up with TM fella but in the real world not everyone is and whilst it is easy to lambast them for not using TM or an alternative back up solution blindly defending apple was the only ridiculous thing in your post!

dubaidan Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 28, 2009 11:02 AM in response to Ivan Clarke1

So buy yourself a PC.

Oct 28, 2009 11:17 AM in response to dubaidan

LOL you are being ridiculous again!

Home folder lost - user account restored to default