Restore goof

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I was trying to help my dad out with his G4 and he had not done anything with the software in 3+ years of use, the machine was really beginning to bog down so we stuck in his restore disk and tried to spruce up the software and get it back to top shape. Silly me, I didn't use the Iomega backup utility that we had just downloaded and then we went ahead and did a job on the hard drive.



Now the machine is running like new, but there is no sign of his address book or his bookmarks for his browser. This has been a little disconcerting since normally I'm pretty good about backing things up (I border on obsessive with this for myself.)



Does anyone have any idea of where we might find his address book etc? We have all the other files on the drive except for the ones involving the web browser/email.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    Well...it's very possible that you wiped them from existence. Even if you are obsessive about backups yourself it's possible that you missed them. All you can do is search around. If you don't find them on the backup, they are gone. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Good luck!
  • Reply 2 of 5
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mark853

    I was trying to help my dad out with his G4 and he had not done anything with the software in 3+ years of use, the machine was really beginning to bog down so we stuck in his restore disk and tried to spruce up the software and get it back to top shape. Silly me, I didn't use the Iomega backup utility that we had just downloaded and then we went ahead and did a job on the hard drive.



    Now the machine is running like new, but there is no sign of his address book or his bookmarks for his browser. This has been a little disconcerting since normally I'm pretty good about backing things up (I border on obsessive with this for myself.)



    Does anyone have any idea of where we might find his address book etc? We have all the other files on the drive except for the ones involving the web browser/email.




    What type of restore did you do? Did you do a clean install or an archive and install? BTW, this is Genius Bar material
  • Reply 3 of 5
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    The restore disk did exactly what it was intended to do. It restored your dad's Mac to its out-the-box state. That means that his address book is exactly where it was when he bought his computer, non-existent.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    johnqjohnq Posts: 2,763member
    Slight potential for data recovery.



    I have used Data Rescue X with limited success.



    Likely not worth the investment for you but depends on what is missing, I guess.



    An iota of hope perhaps.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    Quote:

    Originally posted by johnq

    Slight potential for data recovery.



    I have used Data Rescue X with limited success.



    Likely not worth the investment for you but depends on what is missing, I guess.



    An iota of hope perhaps.




    Thanks guys, he's got it to about 90% of where it was and there's not so much junk floating around on it anymore. He'll be missing a few email addresses and some bookmarks, but most of them he can live without. He does need to get some more RAM and I have an Adaptec scsi card I'll stick into it so we can use a scsi Zip drive rather than the IDE thing he has in it now.



    I think this whole thing should work out for the best in the long run, however, I think being pathological about backup is still the best longterm solution.
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