Firewire Target Disc Mode-User account not showing up

[pistolsteve]

Here's the situation: I have an old slot-loading G3 iMac that won't boot. So, I hooked a firewire cable between it and my brand-new Intel iMac and started the old slot-loader in "target disc mode" with the hopes of being able to rescue some old files off of it.

It worked.... kinda. My old iMac had two user accounts: my account and my wife's account. When I started the old iMac in target disc mode, the only account folder that showed up under 'Users' was my wife's account.

I was able to rescue basically everything off of her old account, but where is my old account folder? The only thing I can think is that maybe I had my account set up to where I had to enter a password at the Start-up screen, and maybe my wife's account was set to not require a password. Could that be the case? And, if so, how do I now access my old user account.

Unfortunately, a lot of our old family pictures were in my user account, so I'm really hoping to salvage it. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[windowpain]

Have you tried starting up the intel imac in target mode and copying the files to it from the G3?

If you log in as a root user it will (should) give you the access privileges that you need.

If it is an old G3 I am assuming that the far larger hard drive of the newer intel will be big enough to copy it all. Then you will be able to access the files (and import them to iphoto or whatever..)

 

[pistolsteve]

Have you tried starting up the intel imac in target mode and copying the files to it from the G3?

If you log in as a root user it will (should) give you the access privileges that you need.

If it is an old G3 I am assuming that the far larger hard drive of the newer intel will be big enough to copy it all. Then you will be able to access the files (and import them to iphoto or whatever..)

Interesting. Hadn't thought of that, but I don't think it will work, as the G3 hangs up upon booting and wont' go further than a spinning beach ball.

Talked to a techie co-worker, and I think what I'll need to do is maybe go into Terminal's command line to see if the folder I'm looking for even exists anymore. I fear it got trashed, or that part of the hard drive is corrupted or something.

If that's the case, this will be my second lesson in "why one should back up frequently."

 

[windowpain]

.. but I don't think it will work, as the G3 hangs up upon booting and wont' go further than a spinning beach ball.

hehe..I really should read things properly before I post. Sorry.

Have you thought about just pulling the drive, and attaching it to a case. It should let you see everything that is on the drive. I'm not quite sure why your user account isn't showing up.

When you say it won't boot, do you mean it won't boot at all? Have you tried booting from a cd/dvd and trying to repair the drive (assuming it is broken.)

Can't help with the terminal commands I'm afraid.

If you are worried about the g3's hard disk being corrupted and dying or whatever. Then my advice would be to get whatever data you have on it, off as soon as possible.
If you mount the drive again in target mode and use something like silverkeeper to copy your account off. If it can see it that is.