Accidentally deleted Volumes/Mac/Library/Extension

[ivanchan]

HELP!!
In an attempt to delete the Bitdefender Antivirus for mac, I think I accidentally deleted Volumes/Mac/Library/Extension.

I started up my mac in Recovery mode, starting the terminal
and I wrongly typed rm -rf /Volumes/Mac/Library/Extensions/
Then, I remember I saw a word UNLINKED".
Then I typed LS /Volumes/Mac/Library/Extensions/, and it said the file or directory does not exist.

I was scared as hell, and I somehow managed to start up the mac again normally.

Does it affect anything? should I get the file back? How can I get it back?
Now I am scared that if I turn it off I cannot turn it back on again.

Please help and thanks for reading!!!!!!!

Ivan

 

[honestone]

Have you been making backups to an external device? That is so, so critical!

 

[ivanchan]

The last time i did was in April.

And I just did another one after i deleted the Extensions folder.

What should I do now?
Cheers

 

[honestone]

Normally I'd say embark on doing a restore from your backup. But April is just about 4 months ago. Do you have any time sensitive information on there, like bank transactions with a financial program (like Quicken) which you use?

Also, what software do you use for your backups? If it's Time. Machine, need to let you know that the restore process will be time consuming. Also, there is some free software which will be good for you to have.

 

[ivanchan]

Nothing time sensitive. Mostly photos and work related document.
I use time machine.
Should I even restore it? I can still turn on my mac normally. Although I don't know if there is any potential problem that i haven't discovered.

Do you know what potential problem I can have if i don't restore it?

Thanks honestone!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

The folder Macintosh HD/Library?Extensions basically holds kernel extensions for older hardware like hard driveRAID controller cards from companies like ATTO and Promise. Sometimes a printer extension will be loaded there as well. As you can tell, your Mac is still running normally, so you aren't using anything in that folder.

Since you do have a Time Machine backup, I would run Time Machine and update it. Then, I would simply reinstall OS X over the top of your current installation, without erasing the drive. That should "reinstall" that folder and all should be good to go.

C

 

[ivanchan]

Thanks Cory

Thats reliving to hear.
How can I reinstall the OS without erasing the drive though?
Recovery mode--> Time machine recovery? I was thinking if i do this, the extension folder won't "reappear" as there is no extension folder in my time machine backup.

Cheers
Ivan

 

[honestone]

Hello and welcome.

The folder Macintosh HD/Library?Extensions basically holds kernel extensions for older hardware like hard driveRAID controller cards from companies like ATTO and Promise. Sometimes a printer extension will be loaded there as well. As you can tell, your Mac is still running normally, so you aren't using anything in that folder.

Since you do have a Time Machine backup, I would run Time Machine and update it. Then, I would simply reinstall OS X over the top of your current installation, without erasing the drive. That should "reinstall" that folder and all should be good to go.

C

Thanks Cory for the informative clarification.

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries.

You should be able to simply use the App Store app > Purchased section and re-download the OS X El Capitan installer, then run it. It will reinstall El Capitan over the top of your installation without erasing the HD. I don;t recommend recovering only that folder from a Time Machine backup, since parts of the Library and System folders have special permissions.

Of course, I would update your Time Machine backup first.

C

 

[honestone]

Yes, that would be the way to go.

 

[ivanchan]

You guys are truly life savers.
Thank you so much Cory and Honestone!

Ivan

 

[honestone]

You're welcome. Hopefully things work out well with this.