Revert to defaults after upgrade/"documents" folder recovery

[jcharney]

I updated the OS on my PowerMac G5 to 10.4.8. When I restarted the computer, I noticed that all items on the desktop had been removed and the background was the default blue thing. A closer look revealed that the settings for every single program and system had reverted to default, as if I was opening them for the first time.

Nonplussed, I then went to my Documents folder, and gasped at the contents: there were none. Everything in the folder was gone, amounting to thousands of hours of irreplacable work. Shame on me for not backing up my files!

Is there any way I can recover these files? They weren't even in the trash or anything!

The defaults in all the programs are reprogrammable...not that big of a deal there...just thought that detail might shed more light on what the problem is?