Favorites file vanishes!

[dickedup]

My gal's 1st generation imac running OS 8.6 has been working like a hose until today.

She left the computer running for a few hours and came back to revive it from sleep mode.Then........no more Favorites File.

Gone!

She rebooted several times with zero luck.

Where did they all go?

Thanks.

[Cheryl]

Have you run a disk Utility on the machine? You should have something like Norton Utilities, Tech Tool Pro for OS 8.6. Start up with the CD and have it scan and repair all the problems it finds. Then see if that folder has reappeared.

[dickedup]

Originally Posted by Cheryl

Have you run a disk Utility on the machine? You should have something like Norton Utilities, Tech Tool Pro for OS 8.6. Start up with the CD and have it scan and repair all the problems it finds. Then see if that folder has reappeared.

Not only has the Favorites disappeared, but any "new" Favorites you add, also disappear in under an hour or so.......as do the items under the Go file. The last places visited.

Another thing is that no jpeg images will load that have been saved to the desktop or in the hard drive...."No such device or address". Also get the same error message when I click on "Mac OS Info Center".

Explorer, Outlook and Claris work fine.

Thanks for any help.

[Cheryl]

Use the OS 8 CD to start up the computer and then use Disk First Aid. It sounds like the hard drive is a) losing blocks on the hard drive or b) hard drive is failing.

In either case, you need to back up all the important information. Once you have saved all those files, do a format and install. This will totally erase the drive, but if there are bad blocks, the drive set up will close them so they are not used.

Your alternative is to get a replacement hard drive or a new machine.

p.s. I could be wrong and others on this site will correct me.