Lost folder?

Before you panic, under the File menu select "Find ..." and try searching for the folder by name, or one of the files that was inside it. The Search tool allows you to search by name of the file or folder, or you can ask it to find files whose contents contain the string you specify. You can try that option also by providing a string that you know is in the contents of one of those files. Tell it to search across your entire computer.

Also, check in the Trash in case it somehow ended up there.

Do you have Time Machine? If so, you can restore it from a recent backup.

Have you tried Spotlight?

Ciao.

This sounds very unfortunate. I just don't understand where that folder went, however. It might still be around. When you say you moved it to the favorites toolbar, do you mean the sidebar? The Sidebar is on the side of the finder window and it has icons for your hard drive, desktop, home foler, documents, pictures, music etc. Or did you put it at the top of the finder window? Neither of these would have deleted or even physically moved the folder. Have you checked your desktop in case the folder accidentally got moved there?

I have a few more suggestions:

First, download a program called Easyfind. It will search your disk for folders and/or files a bit differently than the built in File Find tool does. When you use Easyfind, it also gives you the option of searching by filename (or folder name) or by contents. Also, the built in File Find program doesn't search every single folder on your Mac. You can tell EasyFind to do that by telling it to search in all "hidden" folders and to search for "hidden" files. This might help if your important folder accidentally got moved to somewhere that File Find doesn't look into when it searches.

If that fails, then you can look into a file recovery program such as FileSalvage or Data Rescue. For these to work best, one should stop using the computer if possible because as you use your computer more, the files will be overwritten more and more. Typically the files still physically exist but the system's file catalog has no way to find them once you empty the trash. These recovery programs scour the disk for such "deleted" files that still may physically exist.

Here's an article that explains how these recovery programs work:

http://www.cultofmac.com/67472/how-to-undelete-files-in-mac-os-x-macrx/

A third option is to pay a file recovery service but that is very expensive, hundreds or thousands of dollars.

I am running out of ideas once you try these things. To avoid this in the future, do obtain a backup disk, or at the minimum get a jump drive for a few dollars and copy your important files to it periodically. My daughter just finished her first year in college and I set her all up with a Time Machine backup drive but she doesn't connect it to her laptop very often, I am always harrassing her to do that, drives me crazy. I symphasize with what you must be going through. If any of the above suggestins works, do post back so others can benefit from your experience. Good luck.

OGELTHORPE wrote:

Have you tried Spotlight?

Ciao.

Spotight is the same as using File Find except that File Find gives you more options. Should give the same result. Worth a try in any case. To search with Spotlight, type the name of your folder or one of the files or even the contents (a character string) from one of the files into the little box at the upper right of the finder window. It has a little magnifying glass inside it.

One more question -- was this folder on the main hard drive of your Mac, or was it on an external drive? If it was on an external drive, it would go away from that favorites sidebar when you shut down and restart yur Mac. The original would still be on the external drive. Is that a possibility?