Accidentally deleted trash bin from dock!

[Bruno09]

I have tried checking and repairing the disk, but will try the 2 installations you have mentioned (do I also install and run the "Maintenance" app in safe mode?)

You should also repair the permissions, but Maintenance will do it.

No need to be in safe mode to install the combo update and Maintenance.

BTW : did you try booting in safe mode ?

I guess I'll just have to do a system restore.

Is it possible to do this through recovery or do I need the install disks?

On Snow Leopard, there is not "Recovery". You need the install disk.
You can re-install the OS on top of the current system without erasing the disk and without losing your applications, data and settings.
Have a full backup in case something went wrong during the install.

Also, if I copy the 3rd party applications from my Applications folder onto a thumb drive, is reinstalling them (in most cases) as simple as copying them back into the Applications folder?

This would only work for "standalone" apps.
For example, apps from the App Store are standalone apps and can be copied.
This would not work for iLife or iWork apps, M$ Office, etc...

 

[Gregg2]

I deleted first the com.apple.dock.plist file (from Macintosh HD / Users / MyUserName / Library / Preferences), then logged out and back in again... The file was not restored to the directory location...

Next, I deleted the com.apple.dock file (minus the .plist), then rebooted, and neither file has been restored, after the reboot

That is very odd. Maybe you said you did this, but, did you create a new account, then try deleting a plist file and seeing if Restart makes a new one?

 

[Weaselboy]

I had actually found that thread and tried everything mentioned in it, before I even replied to this thread... Thank you though

Try this.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

killall Finder

Run the two commands above one after the other in Terminal to show hidden folders. Now open Finder to your personal user folder. You should see the Trash folder shaded like this.

Now drag that Trash folder into the right side of the Dock where the trash normally sits and drop it there.

If that works run the two commands below to hide hidden files again.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

killall Finder

 

[inscrewtable]

Warning, this is extremely dangerous

If you ever 'accidentally' delete the Trash do not, I repeat DO NOT go to Menu > Finder and then empty the trash because your entire computer will vanish into a black hole and it could take you with it.

 

[kevinbakon]

That is very odd. Maybe you said you did this, but, did you create a new account, then try deleting a plist file and seeing if Restart makes a new one?

I did create a new user account (admin) and tried copying over the plist file, but it did no good.
I have not yet tried deleting the new user account plist file though, to see if it makes a new one for the second account.

I have noticed a gambit of issues with my primary user account at this point and am wondering (if possible) it might be best to delete the primary account all together. Here are some of the issues:
No dock
EXTREMELY sluggish (minutes to even open a finder window)
Display will not go to sleep
Securely emptying the trash took days and didn't even make a dent in the progress
I finally just did a regular empty of the trash which took all night
In Disk Utility, I attempted to perform the 7 time disk emptying and it forecast 45 days & 3 hours
I'm sure there are other issues I have not noticed as well

At this point I logged in to the machine under the new admin account and have started the 7 time disk empty, which forecast 13 hours. When I get home I hope it is finished. This second account has a dock and virtually no performance issues...
Again, I cannot locate my install discs, so I am reluctant to just do a complete wipe (not to mention losing the installed applications).
I have not checked the forums yet, but does anyone know if I can just delete the primary user account, then manually add it back, as long as I have the second admin account? If so, are there any precautions or checks I should keep in mind before doing so?
Thank you

----------

Try this.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

killall Finder

Run the two commands above one after the other in Terminal to show hidden folders. Now open Finder to your personal user folder. You should see the Trash folder shaded like this.

Now drag that Trash folder into the right side of the Dock where the trash normally sits and drop it there.

If that works run the two commands below to hide hidden files again.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

killall Finder

Unfortunately, I do not currently have a dock for my primary user account.

 

[iamMacPerson]

I have noticed a gambit of issues with my primary user account at this point and am wondering (if possible) it might be best to delete the primary account all together. Here are some of the issues:
No dock
EXTREMELY sluggish (minutes to even open a finder window)
Display will not go to sleep
Securely emptying the trash took days and didn't even make a dent in the progress
I finally just did a regular empty of the trash which took all night
In Disk Utility, I attempted to perform the 7 time disk emptying and it forecast 45 days & 3 hours
I'm sure there are other issues I have not noticed as well

All these are symptoms of one of two things. Either A. your system folder is hosed in which case you will need to find your Snow Leopard disc, boot from it, run Disk Utility, format the disk and reinstall OS X. Of course you will loose all your data, but you can backup what is needed and move on. The fact that a 7 time disk wipe would take an estimated 45 days tells me there is a possibility your issue is B. the hard drive is toast. (Btw, for reinstalling OS X, a 7 Pass 0-write wipe is not needed, just format the disk)

If you hard drive is toast, now would be a great time to think about an SSD if you plan on holding onto the machine for any length of time. SATA SSDs are running about $.50 a GB right now and would certainly speed things up. What system do you have?

 

[AxoNeuron]

If you ever 'accidentally' delete the Trash do not, I repeat DO NOT go to Menu > Finder and then empty the trash because your entire computer will vanish into a black hole and it could take you with it.

I deleted the trash from inside of my trash once. I can confirm that I was sucked in to a black hole. But fortunately, over time via the emittance of Hawking radiation, it spit me back out and here I am. It was rather painful though, so I would suggest following this man's advice.

 

[Gregg2]

I did create a new user account (admin) and tried copying over the plist file, but it did no good.

Of course not! The idea is to see if the plist file is the problem. If you copy the suspect, you have discovered exactly nothing. The odd thing is that you say a new plist file is not created. It certainly should be, but only after a Restart in some cases. Be sure you are looking in the correct Library/Preferences folder: the one inside your Users/Your User Name.

 

[kevinbakon]

Okay, so here's what I've done so far, but unfortunately I am still basically in the same boat...

From my second admin account, I freed up over 250 GB of free space, using the 7-pass wipe. Next, I tried verifying the HD, but was prompted to repair it using the install disc.

Luckily, I found my install disc, so I repaired the HD (completed with green message) and then repaired the permissions.

I rebooted, logged in with my primary admin account and trashed the com.apple.dock.plist file (from HD/Users/primaryuser/Library/Preferences). I then rebooted, logged back into my primary account and verified that the file was NOT created.

Then I logged out and logged in using my second admin account. From there, I trashed the com.apple.dock.plist file (from HD/Users/seconduser/Library/Preferences). I noticed that the file immediately reappeared, so I trashed that one too. (Upon reviewing the contents in Trash, I noticed the 2 files... com.apple.dock 18-23-52.plist and com.apple.dock.plist.) I then rebooted, logged back into my second account and verified that the file WAS created for this account.

Since my only concern at this point is the installed applications, is it possible to just delete my "primary" account, since all of my problems seem to exist when I'm logged into that account? I have absolutely no observed issues with my second admin account and awesome performance, so I'm wondering if by simply selecting the "-" button next to the primary admin account, will this will put all of my issues to rest... Thoughts??

 

[kevinbakon]

All these are symptoms of one of two things. Either A. your system folder is hosed in which case you will need to find your Snow Leopard disc, boot from it, run Disk Utility, format the disk and reinstall OS X. Of course you will loose all your data, but you can backup what is needed and move on. The fact that a 7 time disk wipe would take an estimated 45 days tells me there is a possibility your issue is B. the hard drive is toast. (Btw, for reinstalling OS X, a 7 Pass 0-write wipe is not needed, just format the disk)

If you hard drive is toast, now would be a great time to think about an SSD if you plan on holding onto the machine for any length of time. SATA SSDs are running about $.50 a GB right now and would certainly speed things up. What system do you have?

I get what you mean about the possibility of the HD being toast, but the 7-pass wipe under the second account only took 13 hours and provided ~250 GB of free space, so I'm hoping the HD is okay...

In the event that I do need to (or should) get a new HD, do you have any recommendations on sources? Sure I could go into an apple store, but I'd rather pick something up that I know is compatible and swap it out myself.
On that note, I am currently unable to upgrade to the latest OSX, due to insufficient memory on my machine, so if you have any recommendations for my computer, I would also greatly appreciate some direction...

I've upgraded the OS to 10.6.8, but here's the specs listed on the box my 2007 20" iMac came in:
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4MB shared L2 cache
1GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; supports up to 4GB
320GB Serial ATA hard drive
etc.

Thanks again

 

[iamMacPerson]

I get what you mean about the possibility of the HD being toast, but the 7-pass wipe under the second account only took 13 hours and provided ~250 GB of free space, so I'm hoping the HD is okay...

In the event that I do need to (or should) get a new HD, do you have any recommendations on sources? Sure I could go into an apple store, but I'd rather pick something up that I know is compatible and swap it out myself.
On that note, I am currently unable to upgrade to the latest OSX, due to insufficient memory on my machine, so if you have any recommendations for my computer, I would also greatly appreciate some direction...

I've upgraded the OS to 10.6.8, but here's the specs listed on the box my 2007 20" iMac came in:
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4MB shared L2 cache
1GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM; supports up to 4GB
320GB Serial ATA hard drive
etc.

Thanks again

Well to get to the hard drive in that iMac, you would need to take the glass off. I do not know how much Apple would charge to replace the hard drive. I do know they do not offer upgrades for machines. If you are comfortable taking the glass and LCD off, you have two options:

1. Spinning Hard Drive. I would not personally recommend one if you plan to use 10.9 or newer (your machine will handle 10.10 Yosemite when it is out of beta BTW). If you do end up going this route, I would recommend a 7200rpm hard drive. Your machine uses a standard 3.5" desktop hard drive. Western Digital makes a pretty good hard drive (just stay away from the Blue series) and so does Seagate. For everyday use, I would recommend the Black series from WD. The smallest size they currently sell is 3TB, but the price difference between it and a 4TB drive is only about $30. 4TB WD Black Drive from B&H Photo. $239

2. Solid State Drive. I'm not sure if you know about these, but basically they use flash memory chips (like the newer Macs, the iPhones, iPads, etc) which allows it to load data quicker. This is going to make a huge difference in terms of performance. Now, flash chips are a lot more expensive then a spinning hard drive platter, in fact a 500GB SSD goes for about $250 right now. Prices have gone down considerably though; 5 years ago a 160GB SSD would set you back $800+. There are a lot of brands in this market, but I have personally used and found 4 that I consider the best SSDs: Crucial, Intel, SanDisk, and Samsung. About 95%+ of SSDs are 2.5" sized, meaning they are meant for laptops. However, you can get an adapter. I find this adapter from Icy Dock usually works great in desktop settings.

There are so many options for SSDs, its hard to list. But a 250GB SSD will run about $109 on Amazon and a 500GB about $250. Let me know approximately what capacity you would like and I'll see what I can find for you.

RAM I usually buy used off a bid on eBay, however there are so many listings I wouldn't even worry. Crucial is who I usually go with, but Samsung and Hynix are really good too. Crucial is owned by Micron, and all three are OEMs for Apple factory RAM. OWC is a trusted Apple site, and I have never had a problem with their products. A 4GB kit (2x 2GB modules) directly from Crucial will run you $71.99. OWC ran a test on some machines, and found that they could actually use 6GB of RAM (1 4GB module, 1 2GB module). This model of Mac is one of those machine, however the additional 2GB is going to cost you. OWC 4GB kit is $60 meanwhile, the 6GB kit is $130.

If you need any further assistance, please just quote one of my posts and I'll try to help as much as I can. Hope this helped!

**NOTE** I'm not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned above. I'm only listing them to give the poster an idea of the price and where to get them!

 

[lawrence williams]

If your signed into icloud then go to icloud drive in finder and press shift + command + .
and find .trash and move the trash to the dock

 

[pmiles]

If your signed into icloud then go to icloud drive in finder and press shift + command + .
and find .trash and move the trash to the dock

Holy necro Batman!

 

[tubular]

Holy necro Batman!

Also, if you have to do a hard reset on your iMac G3 model A, and you can't do it from the keyboard because the USB is locked, there's a little door in the back with a place where you can stick the end of a paper clip.