Restored files invisible

[Bonthron]

I approximately 3 months ago I did a complete 'disk file' backup on a users G4 Mac OS v9.2 from our Xserve running v6 on OSX Server 10.3.3

 

Last week we needed to recover a few files from this backup but upon completion of the procedure the backup set folder appears to be empty. 'Get Info' shows the folder to 38.4 MBs in size which should be the correct size and the Retrospect log/messages show no error messages, but the Finder window still only shows '0 items'.

 

I've done a search here in the forums and found 2 threads describing a similar problem:

 

http://forums.dantz.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=36268

(to which I foolishly posted to the bottom of not realizing that threads purpose )

 

http://forums.dantz.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=40881

 

 

I've attempted the suggestions provided in these threads, such as chmod and sudo ls but nothing seems to work and I really need to get these files back. Maybe I'm not doing something right, since I'm new to the Terminal program and command line tools.

 

Any assistance or other suggestions on this problem would be most welcome.

 

Chris

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

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'Get Info' shows the folder to 38.4 MBs in size which should be the correct size and the Retrospect log/messages show no error messages, but the Finder window still only shows '0 items'.

 

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Ignoring for a moment that Retrospect was involved, consider the fact that the OS X Finder is giving you confusing information.

 

The Finder's "Get Info" function is documenting the total size of the folder's contents as 38.4 MB.

But opening a Finder window shows 0 items.

 

It's not impossible for both of these to be true.

 

There are many ways that a Finder window will not display file names/icons. For example, any file who's name begins with a period will be invisible in the finder. So files named ".dog" and ".cat" will not show in a Finder window (at least without modifying the Finder's preferences to allow invisible files to be displayed).

 

The Finder also still recognizes the old style Finder flags from Classic days. So files with the "Invisible" bit set will also be hidden in Finder windows.

 

The unix terminal available to OS X is not fooled by any of these. Listing a directories contents with Terminal will show you the contents of that directory; it's up to you to understand how to ask.

 

The easiest way:

 

- Launch Terminal

- Locate the folder in the Finder, and drag 'n' drop it into the open Terminal window

- Note that Terminal will then display the path to your folder (so you don't have to type it in)

- Type "ls -l" and press return

 

What do you see?