Intuit's business accounting software QuickBooks reportedly has deleted data from several Mac users' Desktop folders. This awkward incident happened after applying a patch released over the weekend. Apparently they worked out the bug but it won't bring back lost user files:

There was a problem with the update for QuickBooks Pro MAC for version 2006 and 2007. The update displays the following message: "there is not enough disk space to install." Intuit has resolved the problem that caused this on the server.

However, an employee earlier said on a company forum that Intuit is working to develop a solution to recover deleted files. In order to keep your chances high they recommend you turn off your computer and do not use it further. Using your computer further may have the area on the disk where the deleted data is stored overwritten, preventing any recovery efforts from being effective.

The update was pushed to QuickBooks users over the weekend without any prompt which would let the user cancel the update. The actual prompt that users saw was the error which read either "not connected to the internet" or that "there is not enough space to install."

Some people are not able to use their systems at all after the software updated itself. In order to restore functionality of your Mac OS X, you should go to your User folder and remove any file/folder named Desktop. This will not get your old files back! Reboot and everything will work ok, except that your files are still gone.

You can cancel the auto-update function, but now it's either too late or the update will not show up as the company has already canceled it. You can do this following these steps:

1. Launch Applications/Utilities->Terminal
2. Enter the following string: defaults write com.intuit.QuickBooks2006 QBCheckForUpdatesKey NO
3. Press Return to execute

Of course, this is THAT time of the year when you probably wanted your accounting software running. The update apparently did not destroy Desktops running the 2005 version of the software. Also, all PC users seem unaffected.

Meanwhile, angry QuickBooks-on-Mac users are waiting "for an apology and a check" for their unexpected troubles.