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General discussion

Macbook Pro lost all application settings & mail

Nov 30, 2010 6:14PM PST

I've had my macbook pro for 4 years and we've always enjoyed a very harmonious relationship.

Until yesterday. After doing nothing at all that could trigger the ensuing events, I went to my mail to find that none of my messages would open. I then realised that other software needed serial numbers reentering. Hoping that turning the machine off and on again would remedy the glitch, I was really alarmed to find that my macbook had reverted to factory settings in all departments and needed reconfiguring.

Although I didn't lose any files or applications I seem to have lost a large chunk of my mail archive. I re-imported as much as possible from Library/mail but unless I'd stored emails in separate subject mailboxes, my main unfiled inbox and all of my sent mails don't seem to have properly backed up for 10 months. I've tried to import the ones that are there from my back up external hard drive but mail keeps crashing when I attempt the import.

So
- does anyone know a solution to my mail archive problem?

- does anyone have an idea why my mac would have done this in the first place?

Although I don't have loads of memory left I always make sure to keep enough spare to keep the machine happy . I certainly didn't receive any 'start up disk is almost full' messages before this happened.

If this was a relationship, I'd be seriously questioning our future together.

Discussion is locked

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At 4 years on a laptop
Nov 30, 2010 10:10PM PST

At 4 years on a laptop, I would strongly suspect the HDD may be in the early stages of dying. Just by some fluke, the first affected areas (that you noticed anyway) were where some of your settings were stored.

If you still have the original restore media, fish that out, and follow the instructions on the disc which has Apple Hardware Test on it. It's far from a definitive test, but it's marginally better than nothing.

It could also be that whatever it is you were doing, really were enough to trigger the ensuing events. Difficult for us to say, since you don't provide any details. Still, at least you own up to SOMETHING, as opposed to trying to claim it just magically happened when you turned your back for 5 seconds like most people.

And if you've upgraded your OS to a version that has Time Machine, and you've been making regular backups with it, that would be an easy way to restore the missing data. This also might be an excellent time to start backing up things if you haven't already.

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Macbook Pro lost all application settings & mail
Dec 1, 2010 1:48AM PST

Many thanks for the reply Jimmy.

I have been backing up but not as frequently as I clearly need to.

I use my mac a lot and was using photoshop a few hours before 'the event'. I know that software is processor heavy, so maybe that was the trigger.

If what you're suggesting is the case, can I replace my HDD or has my whole machine begun an inexorable march to its grave?

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If I'm right
Dec 1, 2010 9:40AM PST

If I'm right, it should be a pretty simple matter to replace the drive. A bit more difficult on your model than some of the newer ones, but if you have a set of precision screwdrivers you should be set.

Just take out the battery, and you should notice that there's a metal piece that kind of runs around a corner and there are three small screws holding it in place. Just remove those three screws (PH00) and the metal piece pops out. Then you can access the RAM and HDD. It's a standard 2.5" SATA laptop drive, so just about anything you might buy at an electronics store would work. Just transfer the rails screwed to the side of the old drive to the new one and pop it back in, replace the metal piece (start in the corner by the HDD). Getting those three small screws back in will be a real pain, but so long as you can get the battery back in, don't worry about making it perfect.