User account is misplaced after re-install

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NMgap Author

Level 1

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User account is misplaced after re-install

Disclaimer 1 - Yeah, shoulda done better backups, then I wouldn't care. All the *really*

important stuff is backed up, but. . .

Disclaimer 2 - Shoulda tried some UNIX-y tricks and tools first before resorting to Mac hammers.

Might still be in this pickle, but could have saved me several hours of panic.

Scenario: Mac locked up, then refused to restart. It would get most of the way thru the status bar

of "Mac OS starting up", then stall. I booted from the original install disks, which are a 10.3 flavor,

and tried the Disk Utilities. It said there were problems which it was unable to repair.

This is where a single-user boot and fsck probably would have come in handy, but I didn't

think of it. Went ahead with the re-install, asking it to please archive and save the previous

contents. Rebooted from the fresh image, although I had to go back to the install disks and

set the root password, as no users seemed to have survived. Not a huge surprise.

Now I'm logged in as root, and I can see the folder Previous\ Systems which supposedly

contains my previous user environment. NADA! The Users folder is empty! Account MyFamily

no longer exists, and there's no evidence it ever did!

After thrashing around for a while, and searching these discussions, I found another user

being advised to try some tricks in single-user mode. OK, I rebooted single-user, and again

wasted time in various folders before I did "ls -altr" from the "/" top-level directory. (For you

non-Unix types, this lists all files, long form, sorted by date, in reverse order, so you can

easily pick up the files/directories most recently changed.) To my surprise, the *oldest* files

were actually the most interesting. This computer has intermittent trouble retaining its date,

battery replacements notwithstanding, with the result that some actions during my re-install

yesterday (July 2011) allegedly took place in April 1976. There is the directory Users,

containing a directory for MyFamily, containing the old Library (read: Mail files), stray docs

in the Desktop, and other cruft that it would be nice to recover. Whew.

Now, how the heck do I convince the normal account management processes to re-create

MyFamily and NOT destroy anything in the process? Am I better off creating a new account

ThisFamily and copying files around?

Oh, and the Archive-and-install process says it saves all the old System files so that I

"can copy them to an appropriate location later." How do I sort thru all the old System stuff

to determine what should be copied, and where is an appropriate location anyway?

Sigh. Yeah, I'm more of a UNIX admin, but the Mac is easier for the rest of the family to

comprehend.

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.3.x)

Posted on Jul 4, 2011 2:27 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jul 4, 2011 2:30 PM in response to NMgap

I'm not sure if I can help, but I really haven't the time to wade through all of post to determine what the actual problem is.

So maybe you could state the problem concisely for me? 🙂

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Answer 2

NMgap Author

Level 1

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Jul 4, 2011 2:38 PM in response to Kappy

Right. Sorry, formatting got out of hand as well.

Re-installed OS via "Archive-and-save" to retain all info for account MyFamily

1. After restart, can't find MyFamily in the place it's supposed to be (Previous Systems...) but I CAN find it in the root-level directory /Users when I boot in single-user mode. How do I recover it now? Incidentally, how did that happen? but I'll survive without that info.

2. Which of the old System files might I want to retain, and where is the "appropriate location" to copy them?

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jul 4, 2011 3:04 PM in response to NMgap

If you did an Archive and Install with the preserve users option selected, then your account should be in the /Users/ folder. You need to log into that account. If you did not select that option then see How to get files from a previous home directory after Archive and Install.

If you need to manually transfer files or folders from the Previous System Folder, then simply drag them to the same location in the new system.

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Answer 4

NMgap Author

Level 1

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Jul 4, 2011 3:22 PM in response to Kappy

"If you did an Archive and Install with the preserve users option selected, then your account should be in the /Users/ folder. You need to log into that account."

That's the problem, account doesn't exist. I can't log in to it, and when logged in as root I don't see it in the Users folder.

"If you did not select that option then see How to get files from a previous home directory after Archive and Install."

And it's not where these instructions claim, either.

I can only find it in a top-level /Users directory if I'm in single-user mode at the command line. Guess I'll try creating a new username, and manually copy the old files and directories into it. Anyone see any pitfalls with that idea?

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Answer 5

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jul 4, 2011 3:36 PM in response to NMgap

Now, I'm confused. Account folders are supposed to be in the /Users/ folder. So, are you saying there is one in the new /Users/ folder or in the one in the PSF? Or are you saying the account is only visible in single-user mode but it is in the /Users/ folder where it should be?

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Answer 6

roam

Level 6

13,631 points

Jul 4, 2011 5:53 PM in response to NMgap

Is this the sequence of events?

Mac locked up, then refused to restart.

Disk Utilities....said there were problems which it was unable to repair.

You then did an Archive, and reinstalled the archive

/Users/Myfamily exists but you cannot log into it.

I'd say that the directory was corrupted at the beginning, and the problems have been carried along with the archive.

If the disk has errors that DU said it was unable to repair, you should not have proceeded until those errors were sorted out. The disk may even be failing, we don't know.

You could try booting into Safeboot mode as that runs the DU repair function, though that may not be enough as it previously could not repair it . Perhaps Diskwarrior may be needed.

Starting up in Safe Mode

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Answer 7

NMgap Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 6, 2011 5:41 AM in response to roam

Re: disk errors

True dat. However, my main goal here was to identify which MyFamily files may not have been adequately backed up, and try to recover them.

A command-line level fsck has since completed successfully, AND I found the old MyFamily account after all. Mission accomplished, now on to picking my replacement system.

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Answer 8

NMgap Author

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Jul 6, 2011 5:47 AM in response to Kappy

"Now, I'm confused. Account folders are supposed to be in the /Users/ folder. So, are you saying there is one in the new /Users/ folder or in the one in the PSF? Or are you saying the account is only visible in single-user mode but it is in the /Users/ folder where it should be?"

That's why I was confused, too. Files appeared to be in the right place when I was in Terminal, but not on screen. Turns out the restore helpfully enlarged the view well beyond the boundaries of the screen, so much so that I didn't even realize there were scroll bars. Happened to change the view to List for some reason and Walla! MyFamily was there after all.

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Answer 9

NMgap Author

Level 1

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Jul 6, 2011 5:58 AM in response to NMgap

So, back to the other question, which of the old System files might I want to retain, and how to go about it.

I hesitate to just copy all the Library and other System files into their shiny new location, just on general principles. One of the files Ive recovered was the crash log. Turns out DateTime is what was keeping the computer from booting, kept crashing on some problem. Seems obvious that I should avoid recovering anything to do with DateTime. Howe;ver, I'm also stuck not being able to use my Airport, and thus, anything internet. In fact, most applications refuse to start up, console log showing that they think they're missing various system components. So how did all the aps end up hobbled? Surely that's not how archive-and-install is supposed to work?

I'm just trying to get this thing functional enough to limp along until I replace it. How do I figure out which old settings, preferences, plists, etc, are useful?

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