jhill835

Q: "lost and found" folder?

Just cleaned house on my MacBook Pro;  backed up all of my files, ran disk utility and then carefully trashed a number of duplicate files (not system or library files), restarted and reran disk utility.  Everything appeared to be fine and then rebacked-up everything on an external drive and Time Capsule.  Restarted again and then ran TechTool Pro 7.03 (all the tests plus Volume Rebuild, File Optimization and Volume Optimization [which self-cancelled]).  Looked at my main drive and a new folder "Lost + Found" had been built.  It includes 75 sub-folders with a wide variety of content, most of which consists of System or Library files.

 

What have I done?  The computer appears to be running fine.  Can I safely trash the "Lost & Found" folder?

 

Thanks.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on May 3, 2014 10:33 AM

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Q: "lost and found" folder?

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  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece May 3, 2014 1:12 PM in response to jhill835
    Level 5 (7,659 points)
    Notebooks
    May 3, 2014 1:12 PM in response to jhill835

    I can't see an Apple technote on the subject, but this covers what the folder is…

    http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/explained-lost-found-folder-in-os- x-712519

     

    I would consider copying the files to another disk as a backup (just in case) & then delete them & reboot.

     

    I believe the folders can be created when the disk journal needs to be 'replayed'. Basically this is usually after a forced shutdown or hang occurs, but some files are still being written etc. Prehaps one of the reboots caused the disk to be left in an 'unclean' state.

     

    The disk utility.log or fsck_hfs.log may indicate when or why this happened, use Applications/Utilities/Console to view it, it should be under ~/Library/Logs IIRC.

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon May 3, 2014 1:23 PM in response to jhill835
    Level 5 (5,707 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 3, 2014 1:23 PM in response to jhill835

    Drew is correct. These are files saved when your computer does not shutdown properly.

     

    The 'lost+found' directory is created by fsck if it finds orphaned files during the boot process, or by the user running Disk Utility.

     

     

    See this link on how this applied to an Entourage Identity that went "poof".

     

    http://www.office.mvps.org/troubleshoot/user_exp.html#user1

     

    If the dates are old, it's a pretty safe assumption you no longer need them.

  • by Nancy Hayes Neill,

    Nancy Hayes Neill Nancy Hayes Neill Feb 20, 2015 7:28 AM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Feb 20, 2015 7:28 AM in response to Drew Reece

    I can't figure out how to see what is in my Lost+Found folder. I put it in the trash and things seem to be working okay except for internet connectivity. I'm at work so I don't have my backup disk with me and want to wait til I get home to delete it. But I don't know where to put the file now. So, I'm asking what is the file path for lost+found and also how do I see what is in the folder? I command/click on it and it opens in text edit.