Desktop is Gone, Mail and Safari were reset and a host of other problems

Question

So, I opened my iMac G5 today and the first thing I noticed was that some of my widgets were gone, particularly all the ones that didn't come with the OS X installation (meaning the other ones I downloaded from different sites). And then I noticed that I couldn't access any of my mail when I looked at them in Mail. I was given an error message that read something like this: "you cannot view this message. it has not be downloaded from the server. you must go online". So anyway, I decided to shut down and turn my computer on again. And I was shocked to see that my desktop was gone, and my wallpaper had reverted back to the default wallpaper (but I was atleast able to find all the files that used to be on my desktop). And now, Mail has been reset (meaning, when I launch it, it asks me to set up a new account). iChat has been reset the same way as well. And for some very odd reason, my Safari browser has lost it's tabbed browsing ability, and I've lost all my bookmarks. I checked the version, and it says 2.0.4. Did I somehow revert back to on older version of Safari. So far, those are the only problems I've discovered. I'm terribly hesitant to turn my computer off again in fear that I might lose some more files for good.
Anyway, I have an idea of what the culprit might be. I downloaded this program from VEOH.com and decided to uninstall it last night. It came with an "uninstall how to" that asked me to type some stuff in Terminal (I knew I should have just kept that **** program!). This is what it asked me to type:
prompt> sudo /Applications/Veoh.app/Contents/Resources/uninstallveoh.sh
And then Terminal asked for my admin password, and I hit the Return key. Would anyone know, if this is what could be causing me all these problems? I also recently installed Yahoo 3.0 Beta 1. It conflicts with Mail. I can't open Yahoo 3.0 when Mail is running.
Also, I found the bookmarks.plist file for Safari. I'm wondering if I can somehow do something with this file so that I can get my old bookmarks back. Would really appreciate any help!
Ugh! I feel like a such a Windows user right now.

Answer 1

Hi, Barry.
Thanks for the reply! I've found all of my files (the ones that used to be on my old desktop), and I've been able to restore my bookmarks and all my old mail. Also, I just had to recheck "enable tabbed browsing" in Safari Preferences. I think I just figured out what I did wrong: I renamed my "home" folder. I was gonna change it back to it's original name, but I forgot to. Stupid me. So after restarting, I think it just moved all of my files into a new folder which I can still access by going to Macintosh HD >>> Users. All the files are there, including the widgets that I thought were missing. So now, I essentially have 4 folders under users, but I only have 3 user accounts. You think I can restore everything back to normal by just copying all of the old files back into my home folder again? But at any rate, I think I can live with having all my files just living in another folder. I lost my old "music", "pictures" and "movies" icons though (the ones at the left sidebar of the Finder window). Those are the only things I can't seem to find. So I just downloaded new icons.
What's a good brand of external firewire drives? I'm thinking of getting a Maxtor OneTouch III. Would you recommend that?