Help! all files went missing!

Question

so. i was using my mac mini, its a G4. everything was fine. then i went to iTunes to play some music and when i clicked on a song it said that it couldn't find it or something. then when i said to browse for the folder, i couldnt find my music, movies, or other media folders.
then i exited iTunes (at this point my settings were still normal), and opened the finding. When i tried to click on movies, music, or anything, the message "the volume 'movies' cannot be found."
frustrated i then went back to 'Macintosh HD' to find that my available harddrive space was 65GB, when it was 30GB before. I lost a LOT of movies and music, or so it seems.
i then restarted, and once i logged back into my account, everything was as it was the first time i logged in; the standard icons in the dock, the big dock, and the desktop background was the standard blue one when before it was the stones.
i checked my folders and got the same message. but it was peculiar because all my settings were different, but my account user icon was the same. anyways, when i started all my programs they were as if they had never been used before. Also, when i went under Applications, all my old applications that i had downloaded were there but none of them were on the dock, or set up; they too were like they had never been used before.
I ran disk utility and when i picked repair disk nothing happened. when i pick to repair the other thing, (i dont remember what it was) it repaired some things, but when i restarted my computer, nothing different.
Because i cant access the movies or music part of my hard drive, something tells me the hard drive just isn't finding them and that all my files are still there (this is just hope probably).
Anyways, I want to know what i can do!
And i didnt backup anything. yes is was irresponsible, but please dont chew me out about it or anything.

Answer 1

Hello Andy,
Yes, we definitely need more information to diagnose the problem fully.
But, since the primary mission is to locate and retrieve those files, the amount of tinkering needs to be kept to a minimum as well.
Ideally, the computer would remain "off" until a data recovery tool were available to use. Then, it may be possible to boot from the recovery tool's CD and locate and retrieve the missing files.
The problem is that OS X is continually creating and adding to it's swap file. And, browsing the Internet creates cache files and cookies. And, in general, the more the computer is used, the more likely it becomes that those files are being over-written (if they have been deleted).
So, that is why I approached it from a more aggressive "recover first" approach.
If the space had not been freed, then it would be less concerning. But, as it is, the more the computer is used (even in trouble-shooting), the less they are likely to be able to recover if the files have been deleted.
In a file recovery mission, the first step is to avoid writing anything to the disk, and immediately employ the recovery tool. Since OS X is constantly writing to the disk (it's swap file), the risk of losing files permanently increases by the minute.
Since it sounds very important that the files be found, I would approach it from that angle first.
If they are deleted (and still recoverable), then the recovery program will find them and restore them. If nothing is left to recover, or after they have been recovered, then you would proceed with finding-out why.
And, if the files have not truly been deleted, then obviously trying to recover them would not harm anything.
It's a gamble to try and trouble-shoot before recovery since that could lead to losing files permanently (due to over-writing).
It would be less of a risk to try to recover first. You see, if nothing has actually been deleted, then naturally the program will not show them to be recoverable (because they will not be found in the "free" space).
In that case, you would then proceed to trying to see where they are, and trouble-shoot the system.
Given the priority expressed, I believed their primary concern to be getting the files back.
Naturally, you may disagree with the method. But, I think they should consider the ideas expressed above and weigh them in the decision of how to proceed.
Naturally, we need more information to understand what happened. But, understanding what happened may be less important than recovering the lost files.
I know if it were me, I'd want to recover the deleted files first, and then figure-out why it happened. Especially if tinkering meant sacrificing the ability to recover some of those files. For that reason, I naturally put recovery first.
Understand, I'm not arguing with you. I am just explaining why the recovery tool may be a higher priority to this user. Ultimately, it is up to them to decide which route they want to go first.
I hope this helps.