[Audity01]

I use Dropbox which is synced to a Windows Vista laptop and an iMac. I accidentally overwrote the files on my laptop and they synced to Dropbox. When I get to work on Monday, I need to make sure that I turn on my iMac and Dropbox doesn't sync ANYTHING otherwise I will lose all my work.

I could just load it up and quickly 'pause syncing' but because one of the most important files is tiny I'm worried it might sync too soon to save it.

Is there any way of preventing the iMac connecting to the internet before it loads? Or any other solution?

Thanks, this could save endless hours of work.

[Headrush]

FYI, you know that Dropbox maintains previous versions of your files for up to 30 days so you can recover ones you think you over wrote?

Edit: http://www.dropbox.com/help/11

[Audity01]

I didn't know that thanks for the useful info. I just tried to 'view previous versions' though and the previous version wasn't there - only the one that it was overwritten with. It also seems you can only 'view previous versions' on files rather than folders, which means it would take quite a while to restore everything!

[Headrush]

Originally Posted by Audity01

I didn't know that thanks for the useful info. I just tried to 'view previous versions' though and the previous version wasn't there - only the one that it was overwritten with. It also seems you can only 'view previous versions' on files rather than folders, which means it would take quite a while to restore everything!

That is true about file and folders, but if it's very important, good still to have. (even if time consuming)

Where you doing the view previous through the web interface or directly on a computer?
Was it a machine that didn't have the changes propagated to it yet?

If when you log into you Mac user account and hold the shift key down, your account should load without starting Dropbox.
You can then use the web interface to go to your Dropbox account to do anything you need to to save files/backup etc.

Hope that helps.

[Audity01]

@Headrush Thanks, that's just the advice I needed. Although I might add for anyone else that uses this solution that the following steps are recommended: shut down Mac completely, only hold shift after hearing Mac's startup tone, release shift when you see the grey Apple icon and the progress indicator (spinning gear).

Thanks again.