Author Topic: Applications Folder missing from HD (Read 5610 times)

dakota · « **on:** October 08, 2006, 02:17:50 PM »

All of a sudden, there is no Applications folder on my HD. On the left side column, it shows up, but does not appear as an icon on the HD. The only applications folder whch appears is OS 9. If I do a "find", it says it's on the HD Where on earth did it go?

Gregg · « **Reply #1 on:** October 08, 2006, 02:30:52 PM »

When you do the "find" can you see the "path" to that folder???

Maybe it moved within the window it resides in and it's out of view?

dakota · « **Reply #2 on:** October 08, 2006, 03:16:23 PM »

QUOTE(Gregg @ Oct 8 2006, 03:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

When you do the "find" can you see the "path" to that folder???

Maybe it moved within the window it resides in and it's out of view?

Find shows Macintosh HD - Applications. It's not visible, though.

kbeartx · « **Reply #3 on:** October 08, 2006, 04:58:41 PM »

I have two theories -

1) It's been made invisible somehow.

2) You have significant directory damage, and it's not where the directory says it is, so the OS can't locate it.

dakota · « **Reply #4 on:** October 08, 2006, 05:19:28 PM »

And if theory #1 is correct?

?

kbeartx · « **Reply #5 on:** October 08, 2006, 05:45:48 PM »

I believe there are several utilities [some of them Freeware] that will make invisible files and folders visible again [I vaguely recall that it's also possible w/o any third-party program, but I dunno how it's done].

I do remember that the Find command can be configured to locate invisible files / folders [it's in the additional options at the bottom of the Find window].

MamaMoose · « **Reply #6 on:** October 08, 2006, 05:58:49 PM »

Since it showsd up in Find, use the following (from Help menu):

1. In the Finder, choose File > Find.

2. Select the location where you want to perform the search.

3. Define your search using the pop-up menus.

Choose Other from the pop-up list, then select Visibility in the search
attributelist. To add this attribute to the Find dialog's pop-up menu for easy
access, select "Add to Favorites." Click OK to finish.

Choose Invisible from the second pop-up menu.

4. If you want, click the Add (+) button to add additional search criteria.

5. Type letters or words in the search box to begin searching, or click the Search
Again button in the lower-right corner of the window.

You can save your search as a Smart Folder if you wish. Click Save, then type a name and choose a location for the folder. Select "Add to Sidebar" to access the folder more conveniently later.

MamaMoose

dakota · « **Reply #7 on:** October 08, 2006, 06:32:21 PM »

Well, new problems. Folder showed up on a search for "invisible", but now appears to have lost the "A" on the folder. Do I dare try Disk Warrior???

kbeartx · « **Reply #8 on:** October 08, 2006, 08:46:11 PM »

FWIW, I've never heard word one about DW causing any probs, so IMO you've got nothing to lose by running it.

I think the A on the folder is something the OS does to it, and since the OS can't see it, I'm not surprised that its A is missing.

dakota · « **Reply #9 on:** October 08, 2006, 10:14:40 PM »

Followed Mama Moose's instructions and somehow wound up trashing all my applications. I then ran Disk Warrior, still no Applications folder. Then reinstalled 10.4.6, doing an archive and install, and still no Applications folder. Finally figured "What the heck" and did the update to 10.4.8. Still no Applications folder. The icon in the sidebar DOES have the "A", and if I click on it, it brings up all my apps, which mysteriously reappeared. However, Versiontracker is not picking up any of my apps, even when I try to add them, since, I am assuming, they are invisible on the HD window itself. Any more help before I throw this computer out the window?

krissel · « **Reply #10 on:** October 09, 2006, 02:23:42 AM »

Are you looking at your open folders in icon view? If so try changing that to List or column view to see if that makes any difference.

I think something like this happened to RobW if my brain is not fooling me. Will see if I can search for it.

sandbox · « **Reply #11 on:** October 09, 2006, 08:44:57 AM »

Applications is part of the system, open terminal and type this
ls -l /
small L small s space dash small L space slash

it looks like this
ls -l /
tell me what you see.

if you can see it in finder, click to highlight it, Get-info
Under Detail>ower>system should be locked

RobW · « **Reply #12 on:** October 09, 2006, 09:04:50 AM »

QUOTE(krissel @ Oct 9 2006, 03:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Are you looking at your open folders in icon view? If so try changing that to List or column view to see if that makes any difference.

I think something like this happened to RobW if my brain is not fooling me. Will see if I can search for it.

Kris, your brain and memory is doing pretty darn well. If I remember correctly--and I should, since it was my question back then--my apps folder was present in my home folder--but I happened to discover that the folder itself was empty. The apps only showed up in the apps folder on the sidebar. If I can find the thread, I'll post it just to see if there was anything relevant in there.

EDIT:

Ok, here it is from back in May 2005. Not sure it'll help, but it may apply to somebody else's problem down the road.

Paddy · « **Reply #13 on:** October 09, 2006, 09:55:40 AM »

Um...is this just a VISIBILITY issue? It would appear to be so, from the description of the symptoms. If so, this should help:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?m...44&#3003944

And further instructions, if needed: http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.a...Num=10&rl=1

Of course, this doesn't answer the question of just how it became invisible in the first place...

dakota · « **Reply #14 on:** October 09, 2006, 12:29:21 PM »

Don't know how I managed it, but I am back up and running. Found the folder with File Buddy. It showed up as being in home folder/.trash. I can't even repeat the steps I went through, but I finally had it appear in the reglar trash bin, and I had my App folder back on my HD. Now I have one small problem, other than having to reinstall Norton Antivirus, since those items would not copy over. I am missing half my sounds in the Sounds folder in the Library in system. I can't copy them over, since it says they can not be modified. How do I get them into the current Sounds folder?

News:

Author Topic: Applications Folder missing from HD (Read 5610 times)

MamaMoose