HELP please! All my preferences are gone!

Question

HELP please! All my preferences are gone!

When I started my computer half an hour ago, i was greeted with Leopard's default "Star nebula" background. My dock was full of things I deleted from it long ago (iChat, Time machine, Mail, Safari) and lacked everything I added (Firefox, Thunderbird, iMovie etc.) Desktop looks

Shortly after, I discovered that ALL my personal preferences (mail account, product registrations, keyrings, caches, startup objects) have been deleted, creating a "clean install" of Leopard. Everything else (files, applications etc.) is still there. No application is registered or has any preferences set except Apple's defaults. root/library is intact, but users/myAccount/library has been completely reset.

Does anybody know what might have caused this catastrophe? Is there any way to restore this mess?

Or is it back to stone age?

Thanks, M:A:

PowerMac G5 2x2, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Dec 6, 2008 3:09 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Dec 6, 2008 3:22 PM in response to Martin E. G. Anhalt

Usually this happens when you try to rename your Home folder. Do you now have more than one user account in the /Users/ folder?

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Answer 2

Dec 6, 2008 4:05 PM in response to Kappy

No, I didn't DO anything nasty to my home folder or anything else. The contents of my Home folder are still there, except the Preferences. I always had two accounts, one in case something bad happens (but with only basic "equipment"). And they are still as they were.

This all happened without warning, and without myself doing anything. (I hope...)

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