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Snow Leopard users hit by data loss
by Jaspreet Virk - October 13, 2009 - comments
Users who have been affected by the bug could lose their data permanently unless they have a backup application
New York, October 13 -- After several complaints of loss of personal data by the Mac OS X Snow Leopard users, Apple has finally acknowledged the problem.
Admitting the problem, an Apple representative said in a prepared statement Monday, “We are aware of the issue, which occurs only in extremely rare cases, and we are working on a fix."
Users complain about data loss
Since its launch in late August, many Mac OS X users have reported through Apple’s support forums that when they logged into the guest account on the Mac and then logged into their regular account, all the data was wiped and their accounts completely reset.
A user named dubaidan had posted a comment on Apple’s support forum on Sept. 3, “I installed SL last weekend, no major problems but many annoying bugs. This morning when I woke up the computer had hung - screen saver was frozen. “my home folder had been replaced with a "straight out of the box" home folder. Standard desktop, standard dock, nothing in my documents folder, standard library. My entire home folder is gone.”
Another user named carlodituri commented on the same forum on Oct. 10, “Nooooo!!! This morning I had access to Guest Account and than all my data were lost!!! I had 250 GB of data without backup and I lost everything: years and years of documents, pictures, video, music!!! Is it possible to recover something? Please help me!!!!”
“Add my parents to the list of people waxed by this bug. Brand new iMac, less than 1 month old, EVERYTHING lost. Just as I convinced them to go Mac (after years of trying). My god...how can ANYONE advocate Apple now?” stated another user named Ratty Mouse on Oct. 12.
Work around for the problem
It’s yet not clear how many users have lost their personal data. There are less than 100 posts on several forums discussing the problem but that does not mean the problem is limited to only a few users as many Mac users do not have discussions accounts.
Users who have been affected by the bug could lose their data permanently unless they have a backup application.
A work around to the problem is that users should do away with their guest account.
Users running Time Machine, Apple's backup software, or any other backup software on their systems can easily restore the data from their home folder by holding down the "C" key during start-up and then selecting the "Restore from Backup" tab from the "Utilities" menu.
The data loss problem is yet another problem related to Mac OS X Snow Leopard. The new operating system has witnessed problems like Finder hanging or crashing, inaccessibility to certain application, limited anti-malware feature etc.
The problems, which have gone unaddressed in the recent upgrade, will hopefully be taken care of in the new version presently in beta testing.