The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    restore lost folders / desktop?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by utente, Feb 18, 2009.

  1. utente

    utente Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I had a folder on my desktop and yesterday it disappeared. I also had some files in a folder "untitled folder" with some numbers after the "untitled folder" and, although I was able to save files to it, I can't find it on the hard drive.

    I've had my Mac for a few months (and love it) but there are still so many things that I haven't figured out. On Windows you can "restore" the computer to a former date and have things just the way they were on that date.

    Is that possible with OSX? It's not a disaster. Nothing critical lost (I hope) but I'm wondering what happened and what I might have done to "lose" those folders.

    Any ideas?
     
    utente, Feb 18, 2009
    #1
  2. StrongerThanAll

    StrongerThanAll Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    89
    Messages:
    994
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    what kind of files were they? were they files created by an application?
     
    StrongerThanAll, Feb 18, 2009
    #2
  3. joshuaLX

    joshuaLX Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    182
    Messages:
    535
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Are you using Time Machine at all?
     
    joshuaLX, Feb 18, 2009
    #3
  4. utente

    utente Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Oh, no! I thought that the folder on the desktop was just an "alias" and that the files were kept with the documents associated with the program: OpenOffice. I don't remember deleting the folder on the desktop or moving it.


    Now that I've checked, the file is gone (for good?) It was patient accounts (billing) and, no, of course I hadn't set up Time Machine.

    If the files were deleted, is there a way to restore them?
     
    utente, Feb 18, 2009
    #4
  5. Khris

    Khris Yes I am better than you!

    Reputations:
    655
    Messages:
    2,608
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Yes, it's called Time Machine. There are several posts already on the forums on how to use it/set it up, and a Google search will reveal even more.
     
    Khris, Feb 18, 2009
    #5
  6. utente

    utente Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Thanks. I was under the impression that Time Machine was only a backup program, not something that could restore the system (the way Windows does).

    Meanwhile, though, I found a program on the Apple site called "File Salvage" that's supposed to restore deleted files.

    Does anybody know anything about that program?
     
    utente, Feb 18, 2009
    #6