gludwig--thanks for the info. Having the download folder in the dock is a bit unusual, and Norton's excellent reputation on OS 9 took a beating in the early days of OS X, but I can't think of how this could have happened. I'll keep watching and post back if I find anything.

Cheers

btw--have you tried deleting files and seeing if UnErase can recover them, just to see how well UnErase works with OS X?