On 4/28/04 11:18 AM, "Diane Ross" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> On 4/28/04 9:31 AM, "Domenico Bettinelli" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
...snip...

>> 
>> Right there, at the root level of the hard drive, in a hidden folder called
>> "lost+found" was the complete Main Identity folder.
> 
> This is truly strange. I have never heard of this folder before and did a
> search and didn't find it on my computer.
> 
> It's possible that when you did the archive and install, the directory was
> so messed up it created this folder, but that doesn't seem reasonable.
> Usually files are visible and named  as recovered.
> 
> I would certainly like an explanation. I hate not knowing why something
> happened. 
>> 
>> I'm still curious about how the files ended up in there. Was it OS X or
>> Entourage? Why put a recovered file in an invisible folder? That seems to
>> defeat the purpose.
>> 

"lost+found" is a folder used by the unix "fsck" [file system check] utility
to "reconnect" folders which are "orphaned" when the pointers to them get
messed up.  

I believe "fsck" is run whenever Mac OS X is booted after a non-normal
shutdown.  If the machine was shut off or unplugged while running before
being moved, the file system was likely to get problems, "fsck" would be run
at the next boot, and the "lost" files would be reconnected by putting them
in "lost+found".  This is the Unix way inherited by Mac OS X.

Of course, this sounds too complicated for the Mac user experience, so Apple
chooses to simply hide/ignore it.

Advice to all:  NEVER power down before you shut down (sleep is NOT enough).
If it happens (e.g., because of a power outage),  look for files in
"lost+found".

I don't know if the new disk utility versions for OS X [DiskWarrior, Tech
Tool] handle this gracefully.

My $.02...

-- Joshua



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