It appears that Apple’s Snow Leopard has gotten itself an appetite for your data under certain conditions. The issue; which cnet wrote about back on September 19 , has to do with how Snow Leopard handles guest accounts.
What happens according to all accounts so far is that shortly before the bug appears a Guest folder appears in the /Users directory. Interestingly enough previous to this point no such folder existed. Now when the computer is restarted you are somehow logged in as a guest and all your files stored under you main account get deleted.
As Ed Oswald at Technologizer notes the only way to recover from this requires that you have a full backup available.
Moral of the story here? If you’re on Snow Leopard, start backing up your home folder regularly .
Apple is currently looking into the issue, however has not provided any guidance as to when the problem could be fixed.
