Installed El Capitan Macbook Pro won't boot

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Installed El Capitan Macbook Pro won't boot

I downloaded and installed El Capitan. After several failed attempts by the laptop to boot using my profile it eventually started up as a brand new profile with everything as you would fine if I'd just bought it new. Then when checking my storage it shows that my memory has been taken up by my old stuff. I shutdown the laptop again and my profile came up but again would not boot. I am currently in the new profile and seeking advice on how to access my old files. Thank you

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)

Processor 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory 4 GB

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Oct 6, 2015 5:15 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 6, 2015 5:50 PM in response to Dukeyz11

Mac OSX is inherently a Multiple-User system. System Stuff is kept completely separate from User stuff, and each collection of User stuff is kept completely separate from each other User. There is no way to force it to pool everything and make it all available at once.

What you are calling a profile is the stuff associated with ONE Userid. It includes almost everything about your Mac, except maybe the built-in screen size. If you log in with a different Userid, everything could look completely different, including "all your files are gone!" (because they belong to a different userid.)

Many Macs have both an Admin User and another regular user. All the Macs in my house have five or six users. Each time you log in with a different Userid, you get COMPLETELY different stuff.

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