Lost files and preference settings

[horsenation]

I have a MacBook 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB running OS X 10.5.6. Had it for over a year, no problems until tonight. I was having trouble connecting to a printer via Airport and rebooted the MacBook. When it loaded, my desktop photo was gone, my customized dock had reverted to the first-run configuration and my entire Documents folder was empty. The capacity info at the bottom of the Finder window reassured me that my files were still there. I restored them to an external HD with Data Rescue, then ran the repair utilities from Disk Utility using my Leopard disk. Rebooted with no change. Then, attempted to reinstall Leopard with my original disk and after I selected the language, it told me that Leopard can't be installed on this computer. About this Mac still shows version 10.5.6. All apps are intact and boot up but they all boot in first-run mode. Entourage has lost my mail database and my multiple email accounts/passwords/instructions. I've been on Macs for 20 years and never run into anything like this. How do I straighten this out? I'm willing to put in the hours to reinstate passwords, preferences, etc., but I really want to know what's behind this in case it happens again.

 

[fdowe]

I have a simiiar problem. Lots of properly named folders but zero contents. I had been having troubles and ran Onyx,Disk Utility,etc so I guess something corrupted the filing system. Are my files still there even though reported as zero kb? Can I get them back ? Using Leopard, just recently.