Boot drive icon as disspeared!

Hi guys,
My boot drive icon has disappeared from the desktop. The Mac boots up fine but its hard drive icon can't be found anywhere!
Any ideas how to restore it or where it went? I repaired permissions from the Leopard install disc and the boot drive but nothing
Thanks
B

I don't have tiger/diskwarrier. what am I suppose to do?
do you mean leopard is destroying directories? Maybe that's why I'm getting all these recovered files in the garbage can. what am I suppose to do with that? how am I suppose to get back my internal hard drive icons?
disk util is taking at least an hour to check preferences. gheezus is it slow in leopard.

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Message was edited by: differenxe

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Hi, never used support before - here goes!
My Mac G4 MDD no longer shows the start up hard drive icon. The one with all my files on!
It shows the other 3 hard drive icons and boots up OK.
Has my start up hard drive failed? Can it be fixed?
Thanks.
Machine Name: Power Mac G4
Machine Model: PowerMac3,6
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.2)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 1.25 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.5.7f1

Doesn't sound like any hard drive failure to me - more a Finder preference.
Finder -> Preferences -> General -> Show these items on the desktop -> Hard disks
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Hi,
Navigate here....
Black Apple > System Preferences > System > Start up Disk.
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Regards.
Ian.
Note to self - Must learn to type faster than V.K.
Message was edited by a man in a dark suit, wearing sun glasses.

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If the problem exists in both your regular account and your Test account odds are that it is at the system level. You can try a Safe boot (hold down the shift key at startup) to see if there is a third party startup item or one of the optional Apple functions that is causing the problem. You could also boot from the installer disk and use the Disk Utility->Repair Disk function. If you have a utility such as Tiger Cache Cleaner which will do a deep cache clean you can also try that.
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I recently used SuperDuper to clone my primary OSX 10.4 Tiger startup disk to a second internal hard drive in my Intel MacPro, and now I am experiencing strange behavior when booting from the Cloned drive...
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So when running my OS from my new Clone OS drive, everything works fine when the OS is running, and things are fine and dandy...When I restart my computer, the machine loads right back up as if everything is totally normal and functioning perfect.
But then I went ahead and shutdown the machine for a short while, and upon returning and attempting to power up again, the startup process brings me to the FLASHING QUESTION MARK icon shortly after hitting the power button (as if for one reason or another, its not seeing my OS)...
The only way I can get the machine to work again, is by force-quitting the flashing question mark screen thereby powering back down; then restarting holding the 'option' key, and choosing my Clone boot drive from the list of startup discs (as it does show up as the only available drive in this list...)...Then my computer loads back up again, and things are working as normal, again, as if there were no problems...I test restarting a few times - no problem...I then re-test shutting down and powering back on again...QUESTIONS MARKS AGAIN!!
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Are you sure you have the startup disk set correctly in System Preferences -> Startup Disk?
If so, try zapping the PRAM. Reboot while holding down command-option-p-r. Continue holding them down until after the third startup bong, then release. After the Mac boots, try setting the prefs again and see if it sticks then.
If not, I suspect you might have a dead PRAM battery. Try shutting your Mac down, then disconnect the power cord and the internet. Reconnect the power cord but leave the internet disconnected. Boot the Mac. If your time and date is set to sometime last century, you need a new PRAM battery.

Permissions problem with new SSD boot drive

I recently installed an OWC SSD drive as a boot drive on an iMac I've had for many years. I’m having some sort of permissioning error that I can’t figure out how to resolve.
I’ve setup the SSD as the boot drive (created user named “Boot Admin”). 10.9.3. All data and files remain on my old spinning disk
When the computer first boots, as expected, I’m presented with 2 users at the login screen (“Boot Admin”; Original User Account). If I choose my old user account, I receive the following error:
"You are unable to log in to the user account “<name of original user account>" at this time. Logging in to the account failed because an error occurred.”
If I choose the Boot Admin user I’m able to login without issue as the Boot Admin user (no access to my original apps and data). At that point, I can choose Log Out from the Apple menu and then login using my old user account. When I follow that sequence, I’m able to login with no issues. Apps are there, data is accessible etc. I can enjoy the speed of the SSD.
Although, if browse within Finder to the Boot Admin user on the hard drive, none of the folders are accessible (the little red icon is on the folders). Similarly, if I boot straight into the Boot Admin user and browse to my original User on the hard drive, none of its folders are accessible!
I am at a loss on how to troubleshoot. Ideally, I would like to login in directly to my old user account (eliminate the 2 step — login to Boot Admin, log out, login to Original User) and have full file access to things within both the Boot Admin user and my original user account.
Any guidance or tips on how to troubleshoot? thanks in advance

I appreciate the continued assistance. I'm clearly overlooking something and Google is not my friend! I've tried.
At the expense of repeating myself, I'll share my current configuration:
10.9.3
2 hard drives (new SSD with name "Boot Drive" and original spinning disk "Macintosh HD")
Startup Disk in System Preferences is "Boot Drive"
"Macintosh HD" has 3 User Folders: bootadmin, jayelevy, shared
jayelevy is my home folder - all my documents are in tact
bootadmin has the normal home folder structure
"Boot Drive" has 3 User Folders: bootadmin, jayelevy, shared
jayelevy is empty; no folders
bootadmin has the normal home folder structure (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Movies, etc), but each is empty with the exception of Movies and Pictures. I've moved my Aperture databases to these 2 folders to take advantage of the speed of the SSD
When I restart the iMac I'm presented with 2 user choices: jayelevy and bootadmin
If I initially select jayelevy, I receive the error mentioned at the start of the thread
If I initially select bootadmin, I can login without issue, but get the standard Mac desktop (not my home).
If I then log out of bootadmin (not restart, but logout) and then choose jayelevy, the signin completes successfully and my desktop/home folder is restored to it's normal and expected condition.
I am still trying to avoid this step of login/logout/login.
I imagine I'm overlooking the obvious, but I'm in uncharted grounds for me! Here I thought the hardware swap to replace my optical drive with SSD would be the hard part. That was simple! I've stumbled on the software side!

Q: Restore Boot Drive from Backup?

I've used Retrospect for years with good results. On several occasions, I've needed to restore my boot drive from backup, and it worked flawlessly.
Not this time.
After the restore I can boot okay from the restored volume.
What's weird is that many of my preferences are gone! My dock has reverted to default (all icons I'd added are missing). When I view my "Account" in the System Preferences, my "Picture" is still there, but my Login Items are gone!
It would be easy enough to manually reconfigure these things. BUT this makes me wonder what else isn't being properly restored, that I may not stumble across for weeks, only to find that I've recycled my backup and can't do anything about it?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
-- Jim

You're welcome. As to your questions, by the numbers:
1. I don't know. I wasn't there to watch you perform either the Backup or the Restore. As I said earlier, and as confirmed by the responses received on the Retrospect forums, you went about the Restore by a convoluted method. I suggest you review the information concerning Restore in the Retrospect Users Guide.
2. Again, beats me. How would I know? I've never seen this problem, nor had the other Retrospect experts who responded to your post on the Retrospect forums. Technically, if you used Restore to "Restore an entire disk" then everything should have been restored from the Backup Set so that the restored disk reflected its state as of the last Backup.
Don't take this the wrong way, but you've been a bit "light" on details both here and in the Retrospect forums. It's impossible to perform a forensic analysis based on the limited details provided. If you try to jog your memory this long after the event, your recall may be imperfect. In your Retrospect forums post, you noted the possibility of "Probably an operator headspace malfunction."which I found amusing, but is often the case in trying to recreate what one did. Next time, take step-by-step notes.
If I had to guess, it was something in the process you used, i.e. the first failed Restore attempt from using the incorrect option, followed by the second correct attempt using "Restore an entire disk." You may have done things between those two attempts that led to the issue. WIthout a record, it's impossible to reconstruct the events other than based on potentially imperfect recall.
I generally recommend checking backups after they're performed. This is easily done with bootable Duplicates, since you can start up from them, look around, try a few applications. Since Backup Sets are not bootable, one cannot check them in this way. I recommend using a Safe Boot from the backup since, if you have Mail as a Login Item and new mail was received since you initiated the backup, then the new mail would be downloaded to the backup, which you'd probably like to avoid.
Using Retrospect's Verification option is also helpful. It increases the time required to perform a backup, since afterwards the destination files are compared against the source files, but it can let you know about problems, if any. Verification does yield some false positives (Execution Errors) on cache and log files (generally date/time or size issues), but these can be ignored for such files if you're performing a "hot backup" — backing up your startup disk while booted from such — as cache and log files on your startup disk are constantly being updated. The differences in such files are irrelevant w.r.t. the integrity of the backup. One can avoid these false positives by performing a cold backup: running Retrospect from another bootable volume, e.g. booting from a Duplicate of your startup disk to then backup your normal startup disk to another volume. In a cold backup, your normal startup disk hasn't been used as the startup disk, hence cache and log files on such aren't updated. Any execution errors you see then are worth examining in the Retrospect Log.
What I suggest you do is the following:
• Let sleeping dogs lie. Keep the Backup Set from which you restored the drive around for awhile in case something else turns up missing in the next couple of months, specifically personal data. Create a new Backup Set for future backups of the disk in question. Consider implementing bootable Duplicates in addition to Backup Sets.
• If the OS becomes problematic, perform an Archive and Install. For important tips on this, see my "General advice on performing an Archive and Install" FAQ.
• If any third-party apps become problematic, uninstall them, then reinstall them.
• If you're regularly having to restore your startup disk due to "corruption" there may be something amiss with the disk. Keep an eye on its SMART status by checking such in Disk Utility. For one approach to this with step-by-step instructions, see Steps 1 and 2 of the Procedure specified in my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ.
Finally, you wrote: "P.S. - Apologies if this bothers anyone, but I plan to cross-post this to the Retrospect forum, since it appears to get a somewhat different set of users."It doesn't necessarily bother me, but cross-posting to a variety of different forums or Discussions is generally considered "very bad form" as one risks wasting some subset of responders' time. It's a "newbie" mistake and one does not want to gain a reputation for using the "shotgun" method.
Cross-posting is very annoying when one spend one's time answering a question in one place, only to find the same question posted by the same person on another forum and also answered there: one of the responders who answered the question in that exchange had their time wasted. Think how you would feel in the same situation.
When I found your post on the Retrospect forums (which is where the question really belongs) I almost skipped answering your question here for that very reason.
I think we're done here.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Finder window settings not "sticking" after restart (boot drive only)

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G5 Dual 2.7ghz Mac OS X (10.4.3) 3gb Ram

Hi Larry,
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[email protected]

Installing OS and Apps on SSD boot drive on early 2008 Mac Pro while keeping all other data from old iMac on hdd

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(27008)

Boot drive icon as disspeared!

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