Error code -8060, can't access files that were once there

[needsomehelp]

Hey guys, thanks in advance for helping me out-- I've googled this to the ends of the internet and haven't found a single solution.

So I do this stupid thing in which I organize music and stuff that I find on a daily basis and put them in folders so I can have this sort of zeitgeist of when I found this and so on.

I create a new folder for each time I do this, right?
Aaaaand I got to "untitled folder 52".

So last night, something weird happened-- whenever I tried to quick look a file, it froze for thirty seconds, then finder would just crash. This happened every time I tried to quicklook something in one of those folders.

Then I was like "oh maybe because I have too many folders in one place it's slowing up", so I made a new folder, and put "untitled folders" 1-49 in there.

Like so:

BUT now, when I try to just open one of the folders to see the files in it, Finder says it's empty. These folders used to have a ton of stuff in each of them. This happens with all the folders in "untitled folders 1-49", but not the other ones like "url" and "untitled folder 53" shown above.

(sorry if there's any confusion here, too much folder talk I know.)

The really weird thing is that when I search for something that used to be in one of those folders, like say the one selected in the following image (don't judge, it's... it's exactly what it looks like. No shame.) it comes up as an "alias" with no trace of the original file.

Plus it doesn't let me move the file. Double-plus whenever I try to move/copy one of the folders the infamous, purely evil error code -8060 pops up.

So... is there anyway I can get all of that back?
It's not just creepy jpeg's of chicks from "Community", it's also some school documents and other important stuff like that.

(I'm running Mac OSX 10.6.8 right now.)
Thanks a bunch!

 

[DeltaMac]

From googling for that error -8060 - that appears to be a problem with file aliases, or perhaps a directory corruption of some kind.
Boot to your Snow Leopard installed DVD, and run Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
Choose your drive from the window, and click the Repair Disk button.
You can quit and restart when that Disk Utility repair successfully completes - there's no reason to continue with the OS X install (although that might be necessary if the Disk Repair won't successfully complete)

You would more likely run into issues because of really long file paths, than simply large numbers of folders. A long file path = folder inside folder inside folder inside folder, etc
A few hundred folders in a single path would give problems, I think, if not just very inconvenient to use. Someone else may have better insight on your error - hopefully the Repair Disk will take care of it.

 

[DeltaMac]

Do you ever name your folders something relevant to the contents?
Hundreds of "Untitled folder" names are inconvenient at best.
"untitled folder 2673" means that you have to (somehow) remember which number is automatically added to the name, and what's in that folder
Name the folders yourself! That will help make your Mac easier to use.