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MAC defaulted, Lost Data, Why???
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Hi, I hope someone can help me! I got a Mac bout month ago, it was used in an office before so the ‘home’ folder is called after the workplace. I set up my own user account and have been storing all folders (just a few word docs etc) on my desktop. Have itunes and all my pics in i photo. Have downloaded skype, real player etc…..Yesterday, noticed the screensaver suddenly changed from one of my pics to a Mac default one. didnt pay any notice, then I restarted computer and opened again as my user and everything gone! Everything seemed to default; no pics in i photo, music all gone in i tunes, folders wiped from desktop etc. When i opened i photo, it was as if opening it from new, same for i tunes and safari. Mouse speed defaulted back to slow, desktop pic default. all favourites gone from safari. So I started to search for everything and finally found in folders in ‘home’ folder, the one named after the previous workplace. Anyone know why it seemed to suddenly change on its own and why when I restarted, everything defaulted and folders etc gone from my user??? I have a feeling it something to do with the home folder that is named after the office it was in but not sure. So when I found everything, I put it all back in folders, music into i tunes, pics in to i photos. Shut down, opened up this morning, all there, restarted it to test and everything gone AGAIN!!! I need help!! any advice what is going on and how I can stop this? Is it some kind of security thing? I dont understand why the screensaver changed on its own to a default one?
I’m not sure what’s going on, but-
Have you got ‘fast user switching” (I think that’s what it’s called) turned on?
should be in the accounts pane of system preferences-
and there should be an icon that controls it in the top right of the menu bar-If it were me, I’d back up all your data in an external drive,
and do a fresh install of the os under your own name, as admin-
then replace everything-Check your user accounts in your preferences to see if what accounts are there and check to see if your own account still exists. It could be that when you shut down that your Mac automatically logs in under a different account rather than the new one you set up. If you see that your preferred user account is visible in the preferences folder than set your Mac to use this as your default on start-up. To do this, at the bottom of the User Accounts list there is a panel which has ‘Log-In options’ on it. When you click on this a new box will open and you will see on this an option to set your preferential user account default.
Hopefully this will solve your problem,
David. . . and if that works, do what JB says above – BACK UP
If you are on Mac OS 10.5 + it would be worth your while to get Time Machine running. It’s very handy.David
Hi guys, thanks for the response. I am not very computer friendly so struggling to understand what problem is but I think it is something to do with the user accounts for sure. I think what I did was try to change the home name or short name or something like that. Only thing is, I did this about month ago and this only happened once before but then was working perfectly fine, even when i would switch off, restart or log off, when I went back into my account, everything was always still there.
When I access the MAC hard drive icon on desk top, and go to users, there are some folders with just A, B, B2, B3 and then there is the home icon folder and there is another folder which is in my name, there is also the deleted users folder and finally a shared folder.
There is only one account on the computer, it was originally a work account but I think what I did was change the name.
So basically, when I switch computer on, there is only the one option to log in, my name. When i am in that screen, and I go to finder and go to home, it gives the name of the company as the home folder.
When I look for my lost files, I find them in the user folder in my name (the first time this happened they were in the home folder with the company name). So if I find them in my user folder, and I am logged on as me, why then do they not appear on my screen, on my desktop etc and all my applications, music and images all there too?
any help would be great!!!
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