Hello everyone,
I'm going to try and explain my problem as briefly as possible.
I've had a MacBook for about four months, completely standard version, no modifications, no nothing. It's been working perfectly. I've the latest version of Leopard and any other software update that comes with.
Today I've been working on setting up a new user account entitled "Work" - for obvious purposes. I've copied my regular account's home folder as well as applications and such to make "Work" as much of a copy of my regular account as possible - let's call that account "Me".
And so I've mostly been browsing around "Work" trying to give it the same access to files as "Me" has - "Me" is an administrator, "Work" is standard - by changing access and privileges. I had some problems getting "Work" to save - when I would log out and then log in again, "Work" would have lost the preferences, e.g. Stacks and Dock settings. I also couldn't change the desktop picture for whatever reason.
So then I was going to log out "Work" to see if it still had the saving problem, and it lagged behind a lot, so I did the emergency-turn-off-by-holding-down-power-button-that-you're-not-supposed-to-do thing. And then when I tried to restart, it wouldn't.
To explain the problem, it starts up as it usually does, with black screen to gray to Apple and "Process Wheel", but then it just stops dead. I get a blue screen that shifts between two different shades every now and then (not the "deadpan"-blue you see when Windows screws up, but the "Mac-blue" that's usually behind the login pane), and the "Process Wheel" comes up sometimes, disappears, and comes back. That's as far as it goes. I've tried letting it load for fifteen minutes or so, but it doesn't change.
I've looked for an hour or two for different support texts and such - including here. I've tried booting in safe mode (nope), rebooting (nope), resetting the PRAM (nope), Command-Option-Power (nope). The same thing all over. Also, a CD is stuck in there now from when I tried inserting the Installation Disc to reinstall OS X. A problem is that there's no start-up chime on my computer (I usually have the computer on silent when headphones aren't plugged in), and this seems to be a necessary indicator in order to know when to press the different commands.
It should be clarified that I know close to nothing about computers, other than the usual usage of one.
So basically, any help as quicklyquicklyquickly as possible would save my worried bum endlessly. Is there anything else I can do? And maybe most importantly: is there any chance of recovering my files?
I'm sorry for the long post, but I'm really in deep trouble here. Thanks so much in advance.
//P
Edit: I tried rebooting once again, doing the command-S thing. Instead of writing Reboot as I was told, I did what the screen told me and wrote Exit. Now it seems to be trying to reboot - I don't speak computer speak but it keeps switching from black screen/white text saying something about "crash using uid", to blue screen, to black saying "Login Window Application Started", and blue, and all over again. It seems to be trying to boot but it can't? Man, I think I've killed it.
Edit again: I did get the disc out, but the problem remains.
I'm going to try and explain my problem as briefly as possible.
I've had a MacBook for about four months, completely standard version, no modifications, no nothing. It's been working perfectly. I've the latest version of Leopard and any other software update that comes with.
Today I've been working on setting up a new user account entitled "Work" - for obvious purposes. I've copied my regular account's home folder as well as applications and such to make "Work" as much of a copy of my regular account as possible - let's call that account "Me".
And so I've mostly been browsing around "Work" trying to give it the same access to files as "Me" has - "Me" is an administrator, "Work" is standard - by changing access and privileges. I had some problems getting "Work" to save - when I would log out and then log in again, "Work" would have lost the preferences, e.g. Stacks and Dock settings. I also couldn't change the desktop picture for whatever reason.
So then I was going to log out "Work" to see if it still had the saving problem, and it lagged behind a lot, so I did the emergency-turn-off-by-holding-down-power-button-that-you're-not-supposed-to-do thing. And then when I tried to restart, it wouldn't.
To explain the problem, it starts up as it usually does, with black screen to gray to Apple and "Process Wheel", but then it just stops dead. I get a blue screen that shifts between two different shades every now and then (not the "deadpan"-blue you see when Windows screws up, but the "Mac-blue" that's usually behind the login pane), and the "Process Wheel" comes up sometimes, disappears, and comes back. That's as far as it goes. I've tried letting it load for fifteen minutes or so, but it doesn't change.
I've looked for an hour or two for different support texts and such - including here. I've tried booting in safe mode (nope), rebooting (nope), resetting the PRAM (nope), Command-Option-Power (nope). The same thing all over. Also, a CD is stuck in there now from when I tried inserting the Installation Disc to reinstall OS X. A problem is that there's no start-up chime on my computer (I usually have the computer on silent when headphones aren't plugged in), and this seems to be a necessary indicator in order to know when to press the different commands.
It should be clarified that I know close to nothing about computers, other than the usual usage of one.
So basically, any help as quicklyquicklyquickly as possible would save my worried bum endlessly. Is there anything else I can do? And maybe most importantly: is there any chance of recovering my files?
I'm sorry for the long post, but I'm really in deep trouble here. Thanks so much in advance.
//P
Edit: I tried rebooting once again, doing the command-S thing. Instead of writing Reboot as I was told, I did what the screen told me and wrote Exit. Now it seems to be trying to reboot - I don't speak computer speak but it keeps switching from black screen/white text saying something about "crash using uid", to blue screen, to black saying "Login Window Application Started", and blue, and all over again. It seems to be trying to boot but it can't? Man, I think I've killed it.
Edit again: I did get the disc out, but the problem remains.
