.plist are the preference files of Mac OS X, which are named after the application linked to them. As the name suggests, preferences are the customized user settings that it performs for an application. Most of these preference files are located in a folder called Preferences in the Library folder of your home directory. At times, the Mac OS X installed computer might become unable to boot with a .plist not found error. While preventing to access your stored data, this may compel you to reformat the entire disk. To restore the data while the process, you are recommended to use your last completed backup or a Data Recovery Mac utility to effectively recover it.
For example, consider you use a Mac OS X installed computer. You attempt to boot the computer but cannot do so as you receive the below error:
“System config file
‘/com.apple.boot.S/Library /Preferences /System Configuration/com.apple.boot.Boot.plist’ not found”
The error suggests that you cannot boot into the computer to access the stored data.
Cause
The above error might occur if any of the following conditions is true:
You have recently installed Mac OS X but the process didn’t go successfully
com.apple.boot.Boot.plist file is missing or damaged
Disk partitioning scheme is faulty
Solution
To solve the described issues and boot into the computer, you need to apply these methods:
Use your Mac OS X install DVD to boot into the computer. You can then choose ‘Erase and Install’ method to perform clean installation of the OS
If the disk partitioning scheme is problematic, you might need to recreate all the existing partitions by repartitioning and reformatting the disk. To do so, boot into the computer using Mac OS X install DVD and use Disk Utility to accomplish it.
After the above troubleshooting is done, restore data from backup. In any case if you find issues restoring from backup, Mac Recovery Software can aid. These are the special-purposed tools designed to scan and locate missing or lost data after logical crash of Mac disk. Data Recovery Mac utilities come available with graphically-rich interface and hence, prove easy to implement.
Stellar Phoenix Macintosh Data Recovery is a globally trusted and known product to recover lost data for Snow Leopard, Leopard, Tiger and Panther systems. It supports HFS, HFSX, HFS+, HFS Wrapper and FAT file systems. It is a powerful Mac File Recovery Software providing impressive features and graphically rich user interface.