The home folder for user “*” isn’t located in the usual place or...

Question

The home folder for user “*” isn’t located in the usual place or...

...can’t be accessed.

This is brand new mac mini, fresh out of the box!!!! Setup an admin account. then setup a non admin account for my wife. When I log out of my account and login to her account for the first time, and every time thereafter, I get this message:
*The home folder for user “*” isn’t located in the usual place or can’t be accessed.*

AGAIN THIS A BGRAND NEW MAC, ORDERED DIRECTLY FROM APPLE.

Any solution? I see threads from back in september that are still unanswered by apple.

If this isn't fixed I'll send it back and do a chargeback if they won't refund it.

MINI 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Mini - 2GB 1067 MHz DDR3, Mac OS X (10.6.1), Brand new

Posted on Nov 2, 2009 4:04 PM

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Answer 1

Dah•veed

Level 9

64,645 points

Nov 2, 2009 9:20 PM in response to presidio_studios

I see threads from back in september that are still unanswered by apple.

Go back and read the Terms of Use list over to the right of this page. This is a user to user help forum. Apple does not participate here other than to moderate the forum; keep the peace, edit inappropriate comments, remove unruly guests, etc. They do not answer questions here, we do, the volunteer users.

If this isn't fixed I'll send it back and do a chargeback if they won't refund it.

Silly threats is not the way to win friends and get someone interested in assisting you with the issue that you are having.

Does the Admin account seem to function properly? Have you tried to create another user account?

Dah•veed

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Answer 2

Dec 26, 2009 11:26 AM in response to presidio_studios

I had the same problem with a new user account I had created, got the error "The home folder for user [user] isn’t located in the usual place or...."

First thing I did was use Disk Utility to "verify disk" and found it was messed up; permissions were messed up too.

Second thing I did was a Time Machine backup AND copied my entire "user" folder to another external hard drive.

Next I got out my Snow Leopard install DVD, inserted and booted off of it, used Disk Utility and performed the "repair disk" and "repair permissions" off the install DVD, fixed everything, made sure to quit the Install Utility properly where it lets you select the startup media upon exit (after about a minute of that little circle thingy swirling the hard drive finally appeared).

I went back to log into the new user account I had created... no more "home folder" error, everything works fine now.

A few comments...

The MacBook Pro I had problems with has a 750GB hard drive that I installed myself, along with a clean install of Snow Leopard. I verified the disk and permissions before and after installing the OS (I make sure all is ok before throwing my life's work onto it), so some other software installation must have corrupted the hard drive. Final Cut? iLife? iWork? That's all that's on this MacBook Pro so far.

Instructions on using the utilities on the Install DVD SHOULD be included along with the Max OSX Snow Leopard install DVD, which would be useful even to those who already do their own installs so you don't have to search for things like "hold down C to boot the Install DVD".

I figured out this "home folder" fix on my own, didn't see anything useful after hours of searching on this site or with Google. Makes me think that all those other folks with OSX server issues have corrupted hard drive issues too.

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