I have a big problem (archive installed, couldn't preserve users)

[Yixian]

My Mac OS X installation got so badly corrupted that it simply would no longer boot up, so I had to reinstall, and without "Preserving users" etc. being available as an option, I had to archive and install having all my users and their files dumped into the Previous System folder.

I was wondering if there was any way of reincarnating those users? Actually there's only one. I am gonna get Leopard on release and maybe there is some way I can have it suck all their data in during installation? Or is there a way of doing it with Tiger or what?

I've got so many emails, settings, bookmarks, commercial app installations etc. etc., I just HAVE to get them back. Please help!

 

[mkrishnan]

Assuming that the files in there are not corrupted, you can try this, but it may lead you right back to square one:

Create a new user with the same name. Login as that user; open up the old copy of the user's home directory from the previous system folder. Copy all the contents of the folder into the new home folder. Then log out and back in.

 

[Yixian]

Ok, I'll give that a go and let you know how it turns out. I guess all the settings I need will be in the User/Library folder, rather than the system one.

 

[mkrishnan]

Ok, I'll give that a go and let you know how it turns out. I guess all the settings I need will be in the User/Library folder, rather than the system one.

That's right -- the vast majority are. The only exceptions are system-level things, like certain things controlled from Sys Prefs, and plugins that are installed at the sys level. You're going to have to redo some of that stuff... no way around that, since if you keep copying enough of that stuff over, chances are high you'll end up replicating something corrupted and you'll have to reinstall again.

 

[Yixian]

Ok I did it, but I don't have permissions for all the folder I have used the same name and password as the old user. Any ideas?

 

[mkrishnan]

Ok I did it, but I don't have permissions for all the folder I have used the same name and password as the old user. Any ideas?

You should be able to get info on the /previous ... version of your user folder, and then use admin privileges to change the owner to yourself. Then use the button in the get info window at the bottom to apply the new permissions to everything inside.

 

[Yixian]

It worked perfectly! I love you! ^^

 

[jmattix]

Why is it not working for me!

I need some serious help. I'm using Leopard 10.5 and have tried re-installing, but it sent all of my old account stuff to "Previous System." I'm trying to do what you have suggested in this post, but I'm having a lot of trouble.

My old user account is "joshuamattix." The new one is "jmattix." And I created a new user (after the reinstall) named "joshuamattix." So, I'm trying to get the Library from the old joshuamattix and copy it into the user account I just created. Is that right?

I, stupidly, clicked and dragged from Library to "joshuamattix" on the left bar of the Finder window. Now, all of my stuff is there, but it's not recognizing anything because it's just floating there. I think I'm going to delete the "joshuamattix" that I just created and create another user to start from scratch. However, I don't have a clue what to do next.

I have tons of info still on this MB. I can't use the Migration Assistant because the old user account is too big. Any thoughts?