System files lost on networked computers.

I'm sorry this is very complicated.

While downloading a limewire file, my husbands new MacBook (3 weeks old) got an error message and when he restarted, all his system prefs were gone and his system and dock defaulted to initial set up. We then connected his computer to my G4 over the network to try and back his up to an external hard drive connected to the G4 using Carbon Copy Cloner. It wouldn't work and then we remembered it couldn't work over a network (we just got the program) and we disconnected the external and hooked it up directly to his MacBook.

I had already backed my two partitions with OS 10.2.8 and OS 9.2.2 to respective mirror partitions on the external using Carbon Copy Cloner since my original 40 gb drive was clicking. I had set up scheduled backups for my two drives (2 partitions each) to the external.

We were not thinking VIRUS - MACs don't get them!

His MacBook drive was left on my desktop. He attempted his backup using CCC and it didn't work properly. It stopped at the Library and wouldn't continue. I left my desk.

A few hours later, I tried to start Safari and got the spinning ball. I had to force quit. When the computer restarted, I had lost my prefs too!! When I tried to open something I got the message that my computer was FULL! There should have been 8.5 gb available! I ejected his computer from my desktop.

Fortunately, I had the backup. I hooked up the external again restarted the computer with the backup as the start up disk and everything was there. The OS 10 partition had 8.5 gb available.

Unfortunately, I left it running and the scheduled backups took place but nothing seemed amiss. The partition still had the free space. I hadn't really done any work since we were troubleshooting, so there wouldn't have been any files to backup.

Why was the disk full? We thought a virus but since there aren't any for MAC's what happened?

Also, I took out the offending drive today (due to possible virus and the clicking noises it was making) with all my work files on it and my OS9 apps, since I had a bootable OS 10 backup drive in my backup. But when I looked for my work files - only about 20% of them were on the OS 9 backup drive and only about 5% of my applications and NO system. There are a lot of other files there.

NOW do I put the 40 gb drive back in and do the backup again with all the problems? I backed up my business files to one of the other partitions, thank goodness, but the OS 9 APPS are missing and now I'm not sure what else.

We had VIREX from .Mac but it no longer downloads updates.

Has anyone ever heard of such a mess? Would running disk warrior on the external pull up any missing files?

HELP please. I need my apps back. and want to know why CCC didn't clone the drive properly.

My husband is still working with his machine trying to figure out how to start over (he bought his own external drive (twice the size of his drive), when we got the store to do a recovery of the deleted files (but we neglected to have it partitioned by the store, so he would have an extra partition to put the mess on), but has a big mess to deal with now because the files are "unnamed" and it appears the computer was pre-owned and there are 40 gb of his files and 40gb of someone elses! Paid for a new computer!

Thanks for any suggestions.

that first error message you got was probably a kernel panic (the screen greys out and says reboot now in 5 languages), those are very rare and most often happen due to a hardware failure, and i saw that you mentioned that your hard drive was clicking, thats another strong sign of a hardware failure

basically everything you are saying points to a hard drive failure, your startup drive is probably badly corrupted and that what's causing things to not work, you may have lost files from this too

to fix this i recommend first booting off the OSX install CD, then go to "Utilities->Disk Utility", from there select every volume and click "repair disk" for it this will attempt to fix problems with the drive, then try rebooting and backing up your drive, if it still doesn't work then if possible put your hard drive in a plastic bag and then put it in the freezer and let it get nice and cold, this often will give you drive the extra few minutes of life that it needs for you to backup your files

if you successfully get your files off the drive i recommend buying a new drive and not using that one again as it sounds like your drive has failed

BTW, its not a MacBook, its an iBook or PowerBook, MacBooks have an intel processor and cannot run OS 9

Thanks for replying, but, sorry maybe I wasn't clear. The problem of the error began on the MacBook running OS10.4.

The problem of the missing system files began there and then seemed to move to my G4 when we hooked up to back up the MacBook files. And in the process of losing my system prefs, it also ballooned my OS10 operating partition so that it wasn't usable.

I do have a new 300 gB external hooked up to the G4 because the drive was clicking. It didn't die, it just expanded for some reason and the OS10 partition couldn't be used. I have a good backup of that partition - it's the OS9 partition that didn't backup completely.

Are you familiar with Carbon Copy Cloner?
If I start up on the good OS 10 backup (which I am running on now) and hook up the old drive again, can I do the OS9 backup again to try and get the missing business files, 0S9 system(with all of its parts) and applications only? I know you can select which files to back up, but we just started using CCC last week to mirror the system files on the external for safety.

Thanks