Repeated corruptions of preferences folder on Mac IL CS4?

Hello everyone
a quick question; despite me removing old versions of the corrupt preferences folder, I get non-regular, but periodic corruptions of the preferences folder. They result in me having to reinput all my serials and generally waste my time.
Now I'd rather not reinstall my Illustrator so I am wondering what other solutions there could be for this problem?
I cannot trace an exact event to when it started doing this, but it could have been when I got very, very low on hard drive space on my Macbook pro [which isnt a problem anymore, I have a few gig to spare]
Thanks

Clean out your system caches using a tool like OnyX. Some of them are persistent and don't respond to disk space allocation changes which in turn may make them interfere by being in the wrong place or too small to hold more data, resulting in corruption of plists or things that acces the font cache. Just wipe them clean. Takes a little longer on next system startup, but you will pleasently notice that your system will generally regain some of its snappiness. Regardless of what most Mac people think, OSX pollutes itself over time just like Windows does... If the issue persists after that, you may wish to check your spotlight settings and Time Machine and exclude your user pref directory from their indexing and backup.
Mylenium

Similar Messages

Where is the Preferences Folder in Mac OS X 10.9?

Hi,
I'm having some problems learning the new operating system Mac OS X 10.9.1. I'm looking for the Preferences Folder or the Library Folder for a User Account. Can anyone tell me where to fine it, please?
Thank you in advance of your time,
Mel.

You can make it permanently visible by going to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder.
Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.
You might need to redo the View settings after an update.

Illustrator has not been responding for over a week, I can't open or force quit it. I've already uninstalled, reinstalled, and deleted the preferences folder, but the icon in my dock seems corrupt and is causing the program to not respond and I can't dele

Illustrator has not been responding for over a week, I can't open or force quit it. I've already uninstalled, reinstalled, and deleted the preferences folder, but the icon in my dock seems corrupt and is causing the program to not respond and I can't delete it.

Tamara,
Did you reinstall using the full three step way (otherwise strange things may linger)?
Uninstall (ticking the box to delete the preferences), run the Cleaner Tool, and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

Changing or deleting the user name administrator folder in Mac OS X system preferences

Hello!
Does changing or deleting the user name administrator folder in Mac OS X system preferences affects my Creative Cloud license?
[personal information removed... Mod - https://forums.adobe.com/docs/DOC-3731]
[This is an open forum, not Adobe support, please do not post personal information]
[If you are posting using email, please turn your 'sig file' function OFF for posting]

Moving this discussion to the Creative Cloud Download & Install forum.
Rodrigolima74 at minimum it is likely you will need to sign back in after changing the name. I have not personally tested the behavior so please feel free to update this discussion after you have made the change.

Repeated Corruption of Spotlight Database on Time Machine disk?

I'm going to try this here since I don't seem to get much traction with this question in the Time Machine forum, and there is no forum here specific to Spotlight issues in Leopard:
I've been seeing repeated corruption of the Spotlight database on my external, Fireware 800, LaCie drive which is used exclusively for Time Machine. The symptom is that searches done in the Finder window after entering Time Machine produce no results or partial results.
There is no problem with Spotlight on the main hard drive for my laptop.
I received instructions from AppleCare for how to find and delete the hidden folder which makes up the Spotlight database on that drive -- an action which causes Spotlight to immediately rebuild the database on that drive from scratch -- but within days after doing that the database is corrupt again.
An additional symptom is that errors appear in the Console during a reboot -- but only if the Time Machine drive happens to be attached during the reboot. If the drive is attached AFTER booting and logging in, no such errors appear. The errors are from the "mds" process, and indicate either that a portion of the Spotlight database's "Stores" folder is having problems "storing dirty pages", and/or that a portion of the Spotlight database needs to be "recovered". Once those error messages start to appear, they will appear (identically) on every reboot where the drive is attached. No "recovery" happens. And searches after entering Time Machine fail to produce full results as described above.
There are no other Console complaints that appear relevant. No corrupt files during Time Machine backups, no errors when having entered Time Machine to view or restore files, no errors during searches themselves while in Time Machine.
Attempting to rebuild the Spotlight datbase on that drive by dragging it into the System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy list and then removing it are fruitless. Spotlight indexing fires up for only a couple seconds after removing the disk from Privacy and there is no change in the search failures. And no new error message are entered in the Console. The same thing happens when attempting to use the "mdutil" command from Terminal to force a rebuild (as instructed by AppleCare). Only completely trashing the hidden Spotlight database folder on that drive suffices to get Spotlight to rebuild the database from scratch and start over in a fresh, uncorrupted state. But that doesn't last!
Meanwhile, Time Machine backups themselves are working just fine. No errors -- everything seems to be getting over to the drive -- and viewing within or restoring from Time Machine continues to work without problem. That is, the problem is entirely and ONLY within Spotlight for the Time Machine drive. (Again, that drive is used only for Time Machine.)
And as stated above, Spotlight continues to work without issue on the main hard drive.
Disk Utility > Verify Disk also has no complaints about that Time Machine drive (or the main hard drive)
And the usual panacea cures (booting once in Safe Mode, reset PRAM, reset PCU, Repair Permissions) also have no effect on this problem.
The computer in question was an "upgrade" install from 10.4.10 and has two accounts on it -- a non administrative account for normal work and an Administrator account that is almost never used. Only the one drive, the main hard drive, is being captured by the Time Machine backups. Nothing has been excluded from the Time Machine backups. I've even done a successful "full restore" of the system from that Time Machine. I.e., this is all very plain vanilla stuff. I can't fathom why I'm having this problem.
My Time Machine dates back to after installing 10.5.1. I've tried the process of deleting, and thus recreating, the Spotlight database several times without any luck.
Yesterday, after applying the "Time Machine and Airport Drivers" update to my 10.5.2 system, I decided it was time for a fresh start just in case there was something about the data put onto the drive by the older, 10.5.1, Time Machine that was causing Spotlight such grief.
So I erased the Time Machine drive and did an entirely new initial backup.
That completed without errors.
I then did a few incremental backups on top of that. After which I did a reboot to see if there were any Console error messages from mds. There were none, and my tests of searches while viewing in Time Machine all produced correct and complete results.
So far so good.
However, this morning, after I booted up with the Time Machine drive attached, I went immediately into Console and found the dreaded error messages from the mds process. And sure enough my searches inside of Time Machine now only produce partial results again. Here are the two messages I'm getting at the moment (with personal information "xxx"d out):
3/20/08 1:48:48 PM mds[26] (/Volumes/xxxxx Time Machine/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/4CE0F19E-8757-43F1-A5DD-06B1DCAD0E50)(E rror) IndexStore in SIStoreDirytySDBChunks:Error storing dirty sdb pages: 30
3/20/08 1:48:48 PM mds[26] (/Volumes/xxxxx Time Machine/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/ABE285E8-4E3D-45BD-A3EF-D9A5B4A149DA)(E rror) IndexStore in SIStoreDirytySDBChunks:Error storing dirty sdb pages: 30
So far I have NOT yet seen the messages saying that the Spotlight database "needs recovery".
I'm at a loss on this one. Again, the Time Machine backups themselves seem to be fully complete and fully functional. And Spotlight was perfectly happy after the new, initial backup, and a few incremental backups.
But I just can't get Spotlight to STAY happy with this Time Machine drive.
Any suggestions?
--Bob

OK I've completed the repartitioning test and the results are unexpected! Here's what I did and what I've spotted so far:
First, the only differences between what I'm going to list here and what I've done before is the repartitioning of the drive and the fact that I decided to do things this time entirely while logged in to my Administrator account. In the past, I did this stuff logged into my "standard" account and supplying Admin passwords when requested:
@ Rebooted with the drive attached and logged in to Admin
@ In System Preferences > Time Machine, did a Change Disk to No Disk to turn off Time Machine backups.
Note: In what follows, each of the several times Time Machine asked me if I wanted to use the external drive as the new Time Machine drive I selected "Cancel".
@ Used Disk Utility to re-partition the Time Machine drive into 2 untitled partitions (Apple Partition Map since this is a Powerbook Mac, Mac OS X Extended (Journalled) formatting, Mac OS 9 drivers turned off). I then partitioned it AGAIN back to 1 partition titled as my Time Machine drive (same settings). I did this two step process to make SURE the partitioning data was actually being re-written.
@ Used Disk Utility to Erase the single partition just created -- using the option to Write 0's to the drive to make sure all of the drive was exercised.
@ Checked and found the Time Machine volume was now identified as disk1s3.
@ Used Disk Utility to Verify Disk on my main hard drive.
@ Checked in Console after all of this and there were no I/O or other errors logged.
The next few steps were done to maximize the chances that my new "initial backup" would be as clean as possible.
@ Shut Down the computer and rebooted once into Safe Mode to let the Safe Mode boot delete caches and do its other background maintenance tasks. Shut Down immediately from the Safe Mode login window instead of logging in.
@ Rebooted while resetting PRAM. Just because.
@ Logged in as Admin, and used Disk Utility to Repair Permissions on the main hard drive. No messages were generated by this.
@ Rebooted once again and logged back in as Admin to get things into a fresh state.
At this point I was now ready to start the new, Time Machine "initial backup". However before I did that I decided to check the Console one more time.
Imagine my surprise when I found one each of the two Spotlight related error messages I reported above! There was one "needs recovery" error and one error trying to "store dirty pages"! (Note that normally I see TWO of each of these.)
Keep in mind that the drive had just been freshly partitioned and then erased again. Time Machine had never been given access to the drive. And no other user applications had been run. And yet the Spotlight database was ALREADY generating errors on that drive!
Upon checking further, I discovered that the first pair of these error messages was generated during the Safe Mode boot above. They were generated again during the boot where I reset PRAM.
BUT, there were NO ERROR MESSAGES in the most recent reboot I had just completed!
At this point I decided to do a 2 more reboots and there were NO ERROR MESSAGES in either of those.
Curious indeed! Well perhaps some sort of recovery had happened.
In any event, at this point I decide to do the "initial backup".
@ In System Preferences > Time Machine, I selected the drive for Time Machine use and let the initial backup complete. I also had Console running during this. The backup completed without any significant messages. In fact one additional incremental backup also completed without errors before I noticed it was done.
At this point, I entered Time Machine and tried my usual test searches which have demonstrated the Spotlight corruption in the past, and there were no problems. Spotlight was apparently good.
I then rebooted and checked the Console and son of a gun but the Spotlight error messages were back -- this time 2 of each.
However, when I checked searches in Time Machine -- THEY WORKED! This is the first time I've ever seen a case where the presence of those error messages during reboot wasn't accompanied by search failures inside of Time Machine.
I immediately did another reboot -- AND NO ERROR MESSAGES!
I've since done several additional incremental backups and several reboots, and I can't find a pattern anymore. The error messages OFTEN appear on reboot (if the Time Machine drive is attached), but not ALWAYS as was the case in the past. And up to now searches inside of Time Machine are working without problems.
I can see several possible explanations:
1) The error messages are spurious (or there is some sort of automatic recovery that is working now when it didn't work before) and the repartitioning above actually fixed the problem.
2) The database is indeed corrupted, but the corruption has moved to a portion of the database that my test searches aren't exercising.
3) I need to do more incremental backups before the database corruption will actually become visible in my test searches. I.e., the problem just hasn't had time to develop yet.
Meanwhile I heard back from LaCie support that they have not heard of a problem like this for Time Machine or Spotlight on this particular drive. I've also pointed them at this thread for details.
So I'll just continue to use this Mac normally over the next few days, while periodically checking to see if the Spotlight search failures reappear and to see if I can spot any pattern as to why those Console error messages sometimes appear on reboot and sometimes not.
I'll report back when I have more info.
Again, if anyone has any insight into what those 2 Console error messages actually mean, or if anyone else is seeing those error messages, or is having Spotlight search failures when inside Time Machine whether or not you see those error messages, please chime in.
--Bob

Corrupted Mail preferences file

Dear all,
My com.apple.mail.plist file got corrupted somehow. My Home/Library/Mail folder looks fine though. What do I have to do to restore everything back to normal? Bear that I don't have a preference file backup. I would <never> think a simple, tiny file could ruin all my e-mail capabilities... For one moment it reminded me of my Windows days...
Anyway, I'd appreciate your help in this matter.
Cheers,
Leonardo

The Mail.app preference file stores all account information and general Mail.app preferences.
With the Mail.app quit and using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Mail. Copy the Mail folder and place the copy on the Desktop for backup purposes.
Using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.mail.plist. Delete the com.apple.mail.plist file and empty the Trash.
Note: Moving or deleting the com.apple.mail.plist from the Preferences folder will require re-entering all email account information when re-launching Mail.
The only exception to this is if you have a .Mac account which will be recreated automatically.
Launch Mail and decline any prompt to import mailboxes. After re-entering all email account information the same as before, the Mail.app should rediscover the existing account named folders and mailboxes at Home > Library > Mail.
After confirming all mailboxes were successfully rediscovered, you can delete the copy of the Mail folder from the Desktop.

Preference folder/No such file or Directory

Hello knowledgeable ones!
So I'm using single user mode to move/delete my preference folder in hopes that it will recreate itself and upon start up, get past the grey screen of despair.
I tried what it says on the Apple.com site about renaming/moving preferences and the iMac only responds "no such file or directory". Possibly because I don't remember what I did for the short name on my account? I don't know 100% which exact version of OS it is either.. This is because I've only had the computer six days, it was the family computer my younger brother mainly used but he passed away 4/nearly 5 months ago now, and my dad asked me to take it on my birthday, kinda TMI I guess but it does sound stupid that I don't know. My dad's computer is close to same/or maybe it is the same as this one, so this computer may have 10.58 like his, my dad however much he's infatuated with Mac products knows next to nothing about them.
The endless grey screen started after I installed avast! because dumbly I thought I'd check for viruses since I hadn't used this computer in ages (I've been working with an outdated snail-speed PC since I moved out of my parent's house). avast! told me something within my preferences was corrupted something like media_preference and I assumed after deleting it, it would remake it on start-up anyway and avast! gave no other option and refused to quit..
Sooo I have an idea of what's wrong but not what to do?
I have an install disc that may not be the correct one. The iMac won't boot it on start-up from 'c' or 'option' and the disc is Tiger v. 10.48 but this computer has been upgraded before maybe, it is 10.58 now? I have nothing but the keyboard plugged in, I've tried many times doing safe mode start-up with 'shift' 'command 'v' and it says generating crash report and something with the computers name and error with loginwindow. My account is the admin, and my brother's doesn't have admin rights and it doesn't automatically log you in on start-up if that makes a difference?
Is there a way to clear a cache of some kind to make stuff work? I tried making a new user in single user mode to log-in or maybe that will recreate the deleted preference, honestly maybe I'm not doing it right? I haven't made much progress in single user mode. I don't think my dad has a firewire cable and I know I don't, I read that maybe we could hook them up to restore stuff though I have no idea how and he doesn't actually know the computer isn't working since it was my brother's, I feel incredibly bad and am very reluctant to tell him.
How do I get past this grey screen + spinning wheel? Sorry this was long! Thank you for reading!

My preferred scheme is : save on the machine in a defined folder.
Attach a folder actions script to this folder to copy every new or modified document on the server.
The backup tool installed on the server will be of absolutely no help.
If the document is corrupted, it's during the save process so the tool will backup a corrupted file.
I assume that the described problem is not linked to the folder where you try to save the beast but to the folder in which document's components are stored before it's converted to a package or to a flat file.
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) lundi 8 mars 2010 19:16:04

Fireworks CS5 wont start up in lion (error in preferences folder)

Ok, after 10 days with out FW CS5 on my new Lion installment. I finally cracked some kind of bug where FW would freeze just after loading and the last text in the CS5 logo was tabs and then the processor would go up to around 81% and just freeze.
Apple and Adobe, both blame each other and none could give an answer, but to re-install everything, which i just had done. (Man the big dudes are lost sometimes!)
"My" problem turned, that I seemlessly had a corrupt file in my ~/Library/Preferences/
But i couldnt figure out which one it was.
I ran a Terminal plutil -s *.plist and no errors showed up.
The solution turned out to be:
Deleted the entire macromedia folder in the ~/Library/Preferences/ folder and now its working.
macromedia is the name of the old FW creators before Adobe took over.
So i am guessing there is some kind of error, but who can tell. I cant, adobe cant and apple cant.
Well hope this helps somebody!

Hi Folks!
Its because the macromedia folder is recreated each time flash is used somehow.
I made an Automator App that
1) Locates the ~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia
2) Moves the Macromedia Folder to the Trash
3) Runs Adobe Fireworks CS 4
So all I need to do is click this Automator App instead of the Fireworks App in my Dock, and then I am sure it will start.
(I Know that this is not a 100% cool in the end fix, but seems like Adobe are ignoring this error after several of attempts of direct action to tell them.)
Here is how to build your own automator app that does these three steps for you.
My finder is in danish, but I translated it in red text for you. Guess its easy to figure out:
Remember!!! If you are running Adobe Fireworks CS5 then choose that in step 3 instead :-)

How can I view the number of items I have in a folder on Mac 10.9.2 (Mavericks)?

I have only been using Mac OS X 10.9.2 (Mavericks) for a little while so I'm having to deal with many inconveniences that I didn't have to face with Mac OS X 10.6.3 (Snow Leopard). It's frustrating that 10.9.2 (Mavericks) doesn't let me tap twice on the trackpad in order move or drag something, but at least I figured out how to do this in a different way. One part that I cannot figure out is how to view the number of files in each folder. With Snow Leopard, I was able to view the number of files on that folder automatically by looking at the bottom of the folder (*See the example on the photo). On the bottom of that folder, you will see the number of items, which it 10. Every time I add new files (or folders within that folder), it will update the number of items to the appropriate number. This is especially useful to me if I'm going to have many items within a folder and when I need to make sure that the number I have is exact. For example, sometimes I have to save files in a precise number and order. If I miss saving a file with a specific number, and I don't catch that the number of items is off as early as possible, I may have to waste time looking through files to try to figure out what is missing. For this reason, I have to find a convenient way to view the number of items in each folder with Mac OS 10.9.2 (Mavericks) or else using it will be a hassle.
Now that I'm using Mac OS X 10.9.2 (Mavericks), I don't see any information on the folder that tells me how many items are in it (*See photo below). I keep looking to see if it's located somewhere else on the folder or if I can change the folder preferences to make it become visible. I also clicked on the folder and on "Get Info" (which would be inconvenient if I had to do this constantly). This showed me the number of items in that folder but I can't always keep checking like this because it's time-consuming and distractive.
I need to find a way to make the number of items appear on the folder itself, while it is open.
Do you know a convenient way to view the number of items in a folder?
Is there some way I can change the preferences so that the number becomes visible on the folder itself?

Open the Finder's View menu and choose 'Show Status Bar'.
(111921)

How do you find out what application is generating a plist file in your preference folder?

I have had two similar warnings come up in Drive Genius 3, a program that I use to manage my drives. The warnings occur during a daily verification of preferences on my main drive, a 256GB SSD.
They state:
"The preference file at '/Users/me/Library/Preferences/com.analogsolutions.Football.plist' may be corrupted."
"The preference file at '/Users/me/Library/Preferences/org.machinedevelop.National.plist' may be corrupted."
Per Drive Genius' advisement, "Corrupted files can cause appplication crashes and should be moved to the Trash." I delete the files, however they are regenerated each day.
Q: How do you figure out what application is generating a preference file? And is there a way to tell if this is a OS generated preference file?
I have searched online and cannot find any information about either Analog Solutions or Machine Develop nor am I able to discern what these particular .plist files are for...
Q: Are these two .plist files truly potentially harmful?
Thanks for the Help!
iMac
model iMac12,2
3.4 GHz Intel Core i7
8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Hi Everyone, sorry for the late response. I have been monitoring my Preferences Folder; every moment I am on my computer trying to catch what application/process generates these files. I was hoping to try your suggestions, but oddly enough the offensive .plist files have not returned since the last time I deleted them about a week ago.... strange...
In any case, I have responded to some of your suggestions and questions that I have information on:
X423424X wrote: Ok, can you double click the .plist file? If so it should attempt to launch the Property List Editor (in your Utilities folder). That way you can look at stuff in the plist. Maybe (hopefully) there's something in there that can shed some light on who is creating it. If Property List Editor cannot open the file (some apps create files that have the .plist extension but don't actually create the proper XML format -- probably what ProSoft was alluding to) then try opening it with a text editor.
The .plist file when opened in text editor contains a string of (what to me seems to be) an arbitrary list of numbers.
Linc Davis wrote: Those files have been given obfuscated names so you won't know what created them. They must contain encrypted registration data for some third-party commercial software that you use.
Yes, seems likely...
Linc Davis wrote: It should be fairly easy to find out what application is creating them, if you really care. Move the files to the Desktop, then log out. Log back in while holding the shift key as you click the "Log In" button. That will prevent your login items from loading, among other things. Open your account preferences and launch the login items one at a time by double-clicking them in the list. After each one, check to see whether the files have been recreated.
Ran through login, one by one, no luck in identifying the application(s).
X423424X wrote: Another thought, lock the plists on the hope that whatever is using them will "choke" and complain about it (no guarantee that will work but worth a try).
Thanks, the lock idea is the one I will try next if they ever reappear...
X423424X wrote: Also, I don't recall if I asked this but if those plists are deleted while logged in will they be recreated during that same login session. Or do they only appear after you deleted them and then and then logged out and back in? Or do you have to reboot to recreate them?
Unfortunately I do not know for certain. Though from all my login/startup/reboot tests I believe that they are not directly linked to starting up the machine or loging in either.
I'm not really certain why the .plist have not returned. I haven't uninstalled any programs, though I did run a couple updates for some widgets within the last week; however that was about 3 days after I deleted the last set of .plist files and usually they reappered everyday. In any case, given that they have not been regenerated I guess my problem is solved per se, at least I am no longer getting that annoying warning everyday. Still, it's a bit of a mystery
Thanks again for all the help!

Move System Preferences Help file back into System Preferences folder?

How do I move System Preferences Help file back into System Preferences folder. I unintentionally moved it. My Mac blocks putting it back. Suggestions? Thanks!

Somehow I managed to delete my System Preferences shortly after upgrading, and was able to use the 10.4 one for a while until I applied the patch. Luckily, I already had Pacifist, and with your directions I was able to get close enough so that I could find the Applications folder within the ContentsofEssentialsSystemSoftwareGroup > ContentsofEssentials.pkg > Applications > SystemPreferences.app.
For that, I owe you the deepest gratitude and a gigantic THANK YOU. My System Preferences is now fully reinstalled and working wonderfully.
Pacifist might actually be worth purchasing.

System Preferences Folder

I've lost my System Preferences folder on my mac & need to know how to get it back.

Welcome!
This may not be the same problem at all - it's hard to tell from what the OP has posted so far!
In your case, if the application is still there but won't open, it would probably not help to use Pacifist to reinstall it.
It may be that your system needs little more than a bit of maintenance. Try repairing permissions with Disk Utility (in Applications>Utilities), and if that doesn't work, download a copy of YASU from www.versiontracker.com and set it to run all tasks, then leave the system alone for about 10 minutes while it runs and reboots. Reboot will take longer than usual and the system will appear slow after that for a few minutes, but that should fix it.
If it does not, download a copy of Preferential Treatment (again from versiontracker) and set it to scan both system-level and user-level properly lists. If it finds any that are problematic, let it remove them.
If none of the above helps, post back with details of what you did and what happened.

TA20605 the system preferences folder is missing

Until step 9 everything works ok but at step 10 after I shoose ''all applications'' and locate the application folder, I can 't find the system preferences folder anywhere. What should i do?

Are you really using Mac OS X 10.1? If not, please state the Mac OS X version. If you select About This Mac (from the Apple menu), it should show the version of Mac OS X.
System Preferences is not a folder. It is an application. If it is not in the Applications folder, you may have accidentally deleted it, or maybe moved it, or maybe renamed it.

How To Unhide the Library Folder in Mac OS X Lion

How To Unhide the Library Folder in Mac OS X Lion

Ken30 wrote:
How do you unhide in a Time Machine File?
What are you trying to do?
If in the Time Machine interface you wish to restore something in your Library, type cmd-shift-g, then type ~/Library into the path field and hit Go.
If you are browsing the Time Machine backup using the Finder, I hope you never wanted to use that backup again as you are more than likely going to corrupt it to the point of it not working any longer. If that is the case, you can do the same thing with the Go to Folder command above, just use the full path to where your backup is mounted. The easy way to find the path would be to open another Finder window and navigate to your home folder on the backup. Drag that home folder to an empty Go to Folder path field and it will fill in the full path, then add /Library on the end.

What are the text files that suddenly showed up in the Preferences folder?

I just noticed a group of text files in the Preferences folder that I haven't noticed before. All of them were created within a 3-minute period on 12/31/2008. The names are in sets of 4 or 5 that follow this scheme:
np_334572current
np_334572services
np_334572servicesnew
np_334572sets
np_334572system
The default app to open these is Property List Editor.
They haven't been modified since they were created, even though I've been adding, deleting, and modifying apps and their preferences since then. Anybody know what they are? Can or should I delete these?
Thanks in advance.

Dick,
To be honest I don't know what program they are related to. However If the files are located in ~/Library/Preferences (Where is ~ = your home directory) Then You should be safe in moving/deleting them, at worst you will have to reset the settings in one of your apps. What that folder is mainly used for is say for example you have your dock show/hide it self. That will be saved to a plist file in the preferences folder. If you delete or move the dock's plist out of there your dock on your next login will go back to the default view of Mac OS.
Now To be honest you don't have to move/delete those files that are there, especially since at most you will probably reset some of the preferences you set in an application. But its up to you. Also you could always move it first to see what app it is and either move it back or delete it later.
Hope that helps,
Weston

Repeated corruptions of preferences folder on Mac IL CS4?

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