No Administrator?!

[Oblivious]

Okay, this is just ridiculous, but there is no system administrator on my computer. I just migrated all of my info from another mac, and as soon as it was done I deleted the administrator account that was already on the new computer. But the fact that I was able to delete it means that this account was an admin. However, for some reason my account is listed as "standard." But it is the only account on the machine... no root, no anything. I tried reinstalling OSX but that didn't solve any problems. So basically I cannot edit any of the system preferences, or do much of any advanced tasks. Does anybody know what the *curse* is going on here?

 

[robbieduncan]

Follow these steps to create an Administrator user at the command line. The password for the sudo command will be the password you set of the Administrator account you have deleted (or should be).

 

[Oblivious]

Follow these steps to create an Administrator user at the command line. The password for the sudo command will be the password you set of the Administrator account you have deleted (or should be).

Phew... finally got it working. Thanks a lot.

 

[giovanni1979]

I do not have suffcient privilages!! HELP!

I think I need to create an admin account. My admin is missing. will this work?

 

[skunk]

First thing I'd do is restart from the Install DVD and run it through Disk Utility.

 

[giovanni1979]

First thing I'd do is restart from the Install DVD and run it through Disk Utility.

i've already done that... if you mean Install disc + C to override the firmware, yeah

 

[skunk]

Next thing I'd do is wring your nephew's little neck.

 

[giovanni1979]

I'm toying with the idea... but there is some way of correcting the situation, isn't there? I'm freaking out, man. This is all of my work for the past ten years.

 

[skunk]

I'm toying with the idea... but there is some way of correcting the situation, isn't there? I'm freaking out, man. This is all of my work for the past ten years.

Can you not find out from him what he did? In order to have deleted you, he must have gained access as Root, if I'm not mistaken. Clearly not clueless.

 

[giovanni1979]

well, he must have been logged in under my name. I do know that. I'm the only one with that access. usually he switches over to his user settings because his stuff is on it, however, there are things that i have blocked him out of, i guess he was excited because he could get into a bunch of stuff i told him not to @$%! with, which is why i made a separate account for him... but silly me, i was not diligent in my monitoring of the little @$!&.

 

[Westside guy]

I think I need to create an admin account. My admin is missing. will this work?

On the PPC Macs, if you're comfortable booting into command-line mode these instructions will work. I haven't tried command-line mode on my new Macbook Pro yet, so I don't know if it's different with the Intel Macs (since they're using EFI instead of Open Firmware).

I should probably point out that I wrote that page, in the interest of full disclosure.

 

[skunk]

Of course, that might not help you to find your files...