From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

Recently, after upgrading from OS 9 to Tiger, I made the error of drag
dropping everything in my old system folder (command-a) onto a second
internal drive which contains my most important client files; thus,
leaving it impossible to gain access to my most important files.
Thinking that I had safely copied those files, I trashed the entire
contents of my firewire backup drive.

Is there any way to make the files on my second drive available again?

I'm in serious trouble...Please help!

Nightrain
Dual 450 MHz PowerPC G4, 640 MB SDRAM, Quantum 30 Gig startup, Seagate
120 Gig internal drive 2.

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

In article <1145589453.289497.210180@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
Nightrain <Parkhurst@optonline.net> wrote:

Recently, after upgrading from OS 9 to Tiger, I made the error of drag dropping everything in my old system folder (command-a) onto a second internal drive which contains my most important client files; thus,
leaving it impossible to gain access to my most important files.

I don't understand what this means. Are the files gone? Was there a
folder in the batch you copied that replaced an existing folder? Are
you somehow locked out of the drive? WTF does "impossible to gain
access" mean?

Is there any way to make the files on my second drive available again?

If you erased the files off that drive, the answer is "probably not,
but you could try drivesavers.com if you have a lot of room on your
line of credit."

Lesson: A backup is useless unless you have established the integrity
of the files therein and your ability to restore those files.
--- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

In article <1145589453.289497.210180@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
"Nightrain" <Parkhurst@optonline.net> wrote:

Recently, after upgrading from OS 9 to Tiger, I made the error of drag dropping everything in my old system folder (command-a) onto a second internal drive which contains my most important client files; thus,
leaving it impossible to gain access to my most important files.
Thinking that I had safely copied those files, I trashed the entire
contents of my firewire backup drive.

If you pressed command-A to select all and dragged the selection in the Finder,
you wouldn't have copied invisible files, including the Desktop DF and DB.

What happens when you try to access this drive?

Have you signed in as root?

--
John Rethorst
jrethorst at post dot com
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

Hi JR,
In retrospect, I remember, now, that I specifically selected the DB and
DF files from another volume, which caused me to be locked out of my
secondary drive. In other words, my secondary drive will not show
contents, but only shows an empty window. I now realize that the DB and
DF files should have been left alone, and that my index on the
secondary drive is probably overwritten. Is there any way to recover
the contents of my secondary drive?
Nightrain

--- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

In article <1145621869.677231.318640@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
Nightrain <Parkhurst@optonline.net> wrote:

I now realize that the DB and
DF files should have been left alone, and that my index on the
secondary drive is probably overwritten.

The DB abd DF files have nothing to do with your drive index.
--- Synchronet 3.18b-Win32 NewsLink 1.113

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

Nightrain wrote:

Recently, after upgrading from OS 9 to Tiger, I made the error of drag dropping everything in my old system folder (command-a) onto a second internal drive which contains my most important client files; thus,
leaving it impossible to gain access to my most important files.
Thinking that I had safely copied those files, I trashed the entire
contents of my firewire backup drive.

Is there any way to make the files on my second drive available again?

I'm in serious trouble...Please help!

Nightrain
Dual 450 MHz PowerPC G4, 640 MB SDRAM, Quantum 30 Gig startup, Seagate
120 Gig internal drive 2.

Well...

From your description above, and your follow-up, it does not sound like
you have done anything that would actually erase these client files.

It _also_ sounds like you really don't know what you are doing (no offense intended - but you *are* quite new to Tiger and OSX in general, right?)

The very first thing that I would do in your shoes is - shutdown the Mac.

Find someone local who has some understanding of OSX who can look
at the drives and see if the files can be located.

What you should NOT do is continue the recovery attempts yourself, since
every false step you make reduces the probability of recovering the data.

If your file system has indeed been damaged, simply booting up on that
drive reduces the likelyhood of recovery of the lost files.

From your description so far, it is impossible to tell if:

Your file system has become corrupted
You copied over an identically named directory
You have somehow made the client file directory invisible
You have accidentally moved the client file directory
You have somehow lost read permission to the client file directory
Etc.

The first two scenarios are "pull the plug and contact an expert"
(if the files are truly critical), while the others are relatively
safe for you to poke around and try to figure out.

But if the Mac is up and running, you might as well type a partial
filename into Spotlight (blue dot w/magnifying glass, upper right)
and see if it finds the files.
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