Help! New mac login problems

[merge]

Just got a new imac, I hooked up the old computer over firewire to transfer files and settings.

I have 2 user accounts. Both are admin.
One user cannot login. There was no password on the old computer with that user.

I got in with the other user and changed the password for the first user.
It said it was changed, but it still would not let me in. Any ideas?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I don't know of any way to get into a user account that can't be logged into, but I do know of a workaround that you can use to salvage that user's data. Here's how it works:

Create a 3rd user. Doesn't matter what you call it, but make a note of the short user name, as you'll need this later.

From the Terminal (you'll need to use sudo to override your lack of access) copy all the files from the broken user to the new user. Then, change the permissions on all the files you just copied so that the new user owns them and has read and write access to them.

Once that's done, delete the broken user (you might want to choose the "save files in Deleted Users folder" option, just in case something goes wrong), and recreate it. Copy the files from the new user you created earlier to the recreated broken user, and fix their permissions again.

 

[merge]

thanks... I actually still had access to the old computer, and user files.
I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. I guess I was in panic more for a minute there... but I just copied everything from the users folders to a folder on the HD, and copied them to the new computer.

Works fine now. Luckily, I didn't need to go into the terminal. I would have been lost. Thanks!

 

[elmac]

I don't know of any way to get into a user account that can't be logged into, but I do know of a workaround that you can use to salvage that user's data. Here's how it works:

Create a 3rd user. Doesn't matter what you call it, but make a note of the short user name, as you'll need this later.

From the Terminal (you'll need to use sudo to override your lack of access) copy all the files from the broken user to the new user. Then, change the permissions on all the files you just copied so that the new user owns them and has read and write access to them.

Once that's done, delete the broken user (you might want to choose the "save files in Deleted Users folder" option, just in case something goes wrong), and recreate it. Copy the files from the new user you created earlier to the recreated broken user, and fix their permissions again.

hi.. im a new mac user ... could you please explain to me in detail how to get my user account data as well as settings using the terminal.. my corrupted user has the permission for viewing my external hard drive .. even though i created a new admin account i am still not able to view it. i even tried on other macs.
i am not able to view it ... i havent yet tried it on a windows system to see if i can. thanks ...