I think I've deleted some essential files.
Thanks to 2 hours of sleep, a glitch in WhatSize which led me to believe the files were something that they were not, and my genius, I may have deleted some important files. My OS X Tiger installation disc is in the U.S. and I am currently in France. I have also not yet restarted my computer after deleting these files.
I went back into WhatSize and had it 'reveal in finder' the 'private' folder from which I deleted various files. I'm not sure if this is in any way informative, but there are some folders whose icons have small 'Do Not Enter' signs in the bottom corner. If these are of any significance, I have them written down.
I believe I've deleted several swap files. In WhatSize under private/var/vm I see 3 files: sleepimage (1GB), swapfile0 (64MB) and app-profile (0 bytes).
My big question is what do I do now? If the answer is to reinstall OS X, will I need to back up my important files on a separate hard drive before doing so? If I turn off my computer will it turn back on?
Thanks in advance.
And, yes, I now know not to delete ANY files unless I am 100% sure what they are. Double-check and triple-check. I blame the sleep deprivation.
Thank you very much for your response. I see what you are saying, but the sleepimage and the 64MB swap file are not what I deleted- they are what remain after deleting god knows what. Then again, I imagine that if I had deleted something truly essential to the functions of the computer, I would not be able to write this. I'm just nervous about restarting the machine for fear of losing 90G of music (of which only 60G is backed up- I know that's bad, but I'm saving up for new external & internal hard drives). That's really my only concern since I know I can reinstall OS X if need be.
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Warning: permanent data destruction on the entire drive or partition selected. No recovery possible. All programs, files and operating system gone.
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Deleted some (root) files & now finder won't start...now stuck in Classic 9
I have an eMAc 10.2.8 and was re-installing the system X and classic 9.2 software with all security updates etc, when I accidentally wiped some of the quicktime (root) files and extensions.
When it rebooted, Finder would not load - I can see everything on the dock but there is no top menu bar and nothing on the screen. Although some of the software (safari, explorer etc) will open and the top menu shows the normal file, edit etc.
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