Can't drag/drop or copy/paste; spotlight missing

I can no longer drag/drop or copy/paste files or folders. I can select "copy" but the option to "paste" is grayed out. I also no longer have spotlight on the menu bar.
One possible cause - there's a tmp folder in my trash bin. I have no idea how it got there. Is that the cause? if so, how do I reinstall the tmp folder?
I'm running 10.5.8 on a Macbook Pro. Thanks.

BDAqua wrote:
Hello, the ones in the link I gave...
Mac OS X 10.2.8 or earlier
Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/).
Type:ls -la / | grep tmp
Press Return.
Look at the resulting text. If it matches the following line (which would indicate that /tmp is still present) then this document does not apply to you, and you should stop here and try another troubleshooting path.
lrwxrwxr-t 1 root admin 11 Jan 15 11:00 tmp@ -> private/tmp
The timestamp following "admin" will reflect the current date.
If you do not see the line above, then type:
sudo ln -s /private/tmp /tmp
Press Return.
Enter your administrator account password when prompted, the press Return.
I still have a question, but first.....
THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH! I can't express how thankful I am for this post! Had the same exact problem as the discussion starter. I didn't even notice Spotlight was gone until finding this post! I thought the issue was Adobe/app related until copy/paste didn't work!
***If you try the code, after entering your password successfully, make sure you RESTART your computer!!!***
Now to my questions. Please help if you can:
1) I can see that the tmp folder is an alias folder now; but can I still delete the original folder that's still in the trash (which is minus two files now, because I tried emptying the trash)?!??
2) Also, I have a x2 backup of the original folder before putting it in the trash (and emptying; that's how I know the tmp folder is minus two files). So my second question is, can I put the backup folder BACK where the alias folder is, and them delete the alias!???
Thanks for any answers! That last thing I want to do is mess up again!! :/

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Message was edited by: leonidr321

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