Apple Working on Fix for Snow Leopard Data Loss

So...is the Guest account to Apple ~ to the Guest account in Windows? Is it disabled by default like in Windows?

If so, there are probably only about 200 people on the planet that actually ever use the thing. It would (or should) be as rare as the Apple rep. says.

... not me...

"Apple. It just deletes all your shit at random."

or wait, was that not their slogan?

Well, at least it isn't a virus, because macs don't get them. Viruses are bad!!

I thought that MacOS was fault-proof... the only OS with problems was MS Windows...

Wait, so simply using a Guest account means your main account could get wiped out? That is definitely a major bug. I assume not too many people activate guest accounts, but the fact that activating them causing other, full accounts to be wiped out is a crazy problem.

Fortunately for anyone who lost data, your computer is still virus-proof*, it was just Apple who deleted your files.

*virus-proof claim based on Apple advertising. We all know it's B.S.

Apple should move to storing user files on hosted servers like Microsoft/Danger/T-Mobile.

Its a feature.

Lol, don't worry guys, it's one of Apple's new "features" that wipes your hard drive every time you log on to keep it running smoothly...lame

need added security for those "guests" trying to steal you data? Theres an app for that!

So you're telling me they don't have an app for this?

damn kyeana beat me to it

Looks to me like a good reason to have an extensive testing period before release. Some Gnu/linux programs spent over 10 years in beta.

This happened to me not too long ago on my 13 inch Macbook Pro. I took the time to call Apple and report the problem, and while going in circles between their customer service department, and technician's department they did very little to assist me. I was left in the dark about the issue and customer service was skeptical about my problem, since it was not a known problem. Usually, I am pleased with Apples assistance and their compensation when their software (Snow Leopard Upgrade) decides to wipe my home folder, but this time, they make me think twice in spending my money with them.

Kanye West: All your data are belong to Beyonce.

Lawl

This is weird. If you had a guest account activated (default in OS X is off) and then did a upgrade to Snow Leopard it causes this issue. The upgrade disks are creating this issue. If you do a full clean install this issue is not there.
Tiger was their best release and I used it for years on a G4 Powerbook. Apple always seems to have several bugs on their new releases and I admitt this one is a biggy. The MS fanboys are sure loving this and this site is full of them.
I have moved on to Ubuntu now but I still love OS X. Now you MS fanboys flame me, you know who you are, those who have only seen or used OS X at their Best Buy store, moved the mouse curser maybe and went, "Yuk I don't like mommy, where is my gaming machine?"

Apple, just working as designed. thank goodness for all those beta testers.

There's a difference between those that flame apple and those that are MS fanboys. While I would definitely consider myself a hater of all things apple, I don't necessarily advocate anything MS. I, like you made the switch to linux awhile back, and am quite happy there. Admittedly, given the choice I'd probably go with windows simply to ease the burden on my 401k and frankly, I think both OSX and windows are mediocre products.

Moral of the story, flaming the apple fanboys (which, admittedly is a rather entertaining past-time), does not make one a MS fanboy.

Notice, I'm not flaming you because you don't strike me as an apple fanboy. I simply want to make a needed clarification.

I'm not sure what's worse. Stealing important data (Virus) or randomly deleting important data (Apple). /boggle

I seem to recall a couple of weeks ago, an article about Apple OS security (or lack thereof), and the subsequent tirade of all things Microsoft by the Apple fanboys who told us that the things in the article weren't true and that Apple is just so awesome and never had any problem and is so much better than Windows, yata, yata, yata. Well, here we are again, examining yet another problem with the Apple OS, proving once and for all, that Steve Jobs is mortal, and that Apple (to borrow a quote from Top Gun) neither be doing it better nor cleaner than the other guy.

The moral of this story is, we would avoid most of these stupid arguments if the Apple fanatics would stop trying the convince the world of Apple's supremacy, and acknowledge the fact that it's just another operating system.

This reminds me of then Tiger had an update to their encryption software that decided it was going to fuck you out of your user account. Apple's solution was to log on as the admin, and move around some directories... but, in my gf's case the account it screwed over was the ONLY admin account.
-Apple: "We're sorry our update completely screwed you over, but if you pay us a few hundred dollars we might be able to recover the data."

And what's so wrong with that? It is Apple, and they clearly know what's best =)

I've never actually used the OSX Guest account so I've never had the problem. But I am surprised Apple actually admitted to a problem.

Jellico,

So your arguement is that one relatively insignificant bug that affects almost no one, is therefore justification that Apple is not a better OS? With logic like that, I can see you going far in life, you might even making it to McDonalds store manager! Bravo!

Would you like me to list some of the Windows 7 bugs? How about Vista bugs? or WinXP bugs? You wanna really compare or do you just wanna make stuff up as you go? Do you even own a Mac? Let alone Snow Leopard OS?

Fanboys are those of you that comment on hardware/software you have NO experience with on a day to day basis. You wanna talk about something, then own it and use for a while, otherwise you're a fanboy (doesn't matter if you talk about OSX vs Windows vs Linux or ATI vs nVidia or Intel vs. AMD) -- if you have no regular experience in the subject your talking about, then you have NO creditibilty and you're indeed a fanboy.

Since I work with several operating systems day in and day out, I can assure you the bugs I've encountered in OSX are far far far less than under WinXP, Vista, Win7, Win Server 2008, and the numerous other flavors of Windows. Oh and Linux has bugs too. All OS's have bugs, the key difference is the quantity and impact of those bugs AND more importantly how they are resolved. Windows (all versions) are by far the buggest OS's I've had to develop on and for.

Regulas,

I agree with you, the fanboy ignorance in this place is THICK.

BiometricsGuy,

So you hate Apple - why? Because OSX will not load on hardware other than Apple's hardware/EFI? (at least not without EFI hacking, but a simple EFI dump on existing Mac hardware and then finding compatible hardware/motherboard to load the EFI dump on would solve that problem).

I use and enjoy Linux -- it's very cool to be able to load OS components and reduce one's footprint and have a very efficient OS specific to my needs. But you realize OSX is just a compilation also right?? At it's heart the kernel is unix, only difference being the components selected and the EFI Apple proprietary firmware.

Assume you are aware of this: http://developer.apple.com/mac/lib [...] intro.html

Linux is a favorite amoung hackers for the very reason it's easy to build your own OS (something neither Apple nor Microsoft would ever want). Heck, I've made Linux boot CD's to hack into Microsoft account passwords (at least to clear them so there is no password) which will gain me access to ANY Windows PC (including Windows 7). Of course I need physical access, but so much for Windows 7 security.

Every OS has "issues", but the how a company deals with those issues is the key. Windows was built on no security (yes, going back to the DOS days and the 80's now, that's how long I've been doing this), patch to get some security, and some key design decisions were made at Microsoft to NOT do security the right way because it would have broken compatibility -- and at the time compatibility was Windows selling point and reason it was taking marketshare. So rather than do security right, they opt'd for $$$ easy road. Unix/OSX, security has always been at it's core. So what we have today is a band aid OS called WinXP, Vista, Windows 7 that's just getting more and more complex with more and more interactions that just no longer work.

Microsoft need to stop the band aids, and build a proper OS from scratch dumping compatibility. Why they will NOT do this is simple, it would be admitting Apple's approach is actually the better concept. This IS the fundamental decision that Ballmer refuses to accept - he's going down with the ship and if you look at OS marketshare it's a pretty clear picture of Microsoft's slow but steady decline.

LOL!!!

And my Apple rep told me the other day that Mac's are PERFECT... HA!

Maybe because almost no one enables the Guest account? I used t disable the Guest account on Winddows machine before finally disabled it by default. It's disabled by default in Mac OS X as well, so there aren't many people using it. The only people affected by this are those who:
1. Enabled the Guest account prior to installing Snow Leopard, and
2. Did an in-place upgrade to Snow Leopard rather than doing a "clean install"

While the potential for data loss makes this a serious issue, only a very small group of users are potentially affected. It would have been easy to miss that in beta testing given the very uncommon conditions under which it can occur.

Then again, anyone who performed an OS upgrade without making a backup first was foolish and careless. Especially, given that Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) includes Time Machine, an automatic backup feature that is trivial to set up and use, and that Carbon Copy Cloner is $10 shareware and it also makes it trivial to make complete backups of a drive. Bottom line, the users have to accept responsibility for failing to back up their data.

Nobody here is impressed (well, except maybe Regulas and the other Apple fanboys) by your self-aggrandizing statements professing your extensive proficiency in every operating system known to man. The fact remains that Apple is just another operating system. That it has fewer bugs is a testament to nothing more than the fact that the developers only have a limited number of hardware configurations to worry about; as opposed to non-constrained OS developers which have to contend with an inconceivable number of permutations in hardware configurations. Apple used to be IT when it came to desktop publishing, video editing, and graphics design. Now, PCs can do the job just as well, and for far less money. The vast majority of businesses use Windows-based PCs. Since businesses are productivity driven, you would think that if Apple was that much better, we would see more of an even distribution.

I could go on and on, but I think I’ve made my point. I like PCs because it allows me to customize my own hardware and software according to my wants and needs, not that of Steve Jobs. Sometimes what I need is on a Linux partition; sometimes it’s on a Windows partition. I have YET to need an Apple platform.

Just because you haven't encountered bugs and especially because Apple rarely admits the bugs are there does NOT mean that the bug aren't there.

And you're clearly not an Apple fanboy at all /sarcasm

Seriously you took up a huge part of the comment area with your rant. ( -1 )

Get a life, not a Mac

Will there be a commercial of the apple guy entering to the windows guy home as a gest and going out of the backdoor with the PC Hardrive? That guy always looked like a burglar to me until apple whippedout his background.

So, I got rate down for pointing out that this problem is serious, but rare, and therefore could easily have been missed in beta testing? Or maybe I got rated down for pointing out that it's foolish to perform an OS upgrade without making a backup first?

Oh, I forgot, this is Tomshardware, where you get rated down for failure to bash Apple at every opportunity.

Almost as bad as M$ owned Danger deleting ALL sidekick users data.
Its still, a fkn embarrassment, but at least for Apple, things like this don't happen frequently and aren't systemwide.