Critical errors after power out

[balaazs]

hi all,

i had a very nasty experience with Mail, iPhoto and Safari a few days ago.
i was working on my 14" iBook G4 (Tiger up-to-date), and out of the blue, the screen went black. i couldn't switch the machine on again. i removed the battery, and then put it back on, then the system finally started.

but mail, iphoto, and safari lost their preferences and some library stuff must've gone bad - mail doesn't find the messages, it wants to start the way it starts when you first open it.
iphoto only finds 92 out of my 6700 photos (although they are still there undamaged in the library, and i can't import them back again). safari also forgot some preferences.

what should i do? i'm quite angry and sad.
i appreciate your help.
regards,

balaazs

[SatCure]

Well the glib answer is "restore the files from your backup copy".

Anyone who doesn't make regular backups is running on borrowed time.

A backup system should be considered part of your computer. I have an external Firewire drive connected to each of my Macs, with "SilverKeeper" (my personal preference but not everyone's) doing frequent, scheduled copies. I also burn the really important stuff to CD or DVD.

Having got that unsympathetic answer out of the way, I'd advise you to make a copy of your 6700 photos NOW. It should be possible to trash iPhoto's preference files then reimport the images (but I don't know how).
Likewise with Mail - I'm sure that somebody will know how to get Mail to locate its messages. I have found a discussion that says someone imported his old mailboxes by selecting "other" rather than "Mail". Try it.

Anyway, be sure to Repair Permissions and make that backup copy.

[balaazs]

thanks for the help!

i do have a two week old backup of my mail files, you're absolutely right that archiving is a must. but i was hoping that i could skip the restore

thanks once again.