No icons on desktop

[scottsan]

I have a 2006 13" macbook running 10.6.8. All of a sudden, I log into my account, but the desktop has no icons, no dock, and no menu bar. The guest account functions normally. Additionally, when starting the macbook in target mode while attached to my iMac running Mavericks, I cannot access the macbook. It appears on the iMac desktop, but when I double click its icon I get the following error message: The folder “ MacBook HD” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.

What happened and how do I remedy it?

 

[OGDK]

Sounds like insufficient permissions on your main account. On the MacBook, open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder, select your hard drive, and do a permissions repair. If you can't do that, put it in Target Disk Mode connected to your iMac, and use your iMac to repair its permissions (except remember to select the MacBook's hard drive).

To try accessing the hard drive when it's in Target Disk Mode, select it, press cmd+i, look near the bottom under "sharing & permissions" of the window that appears, press the lock icon on the bottom right if it appears locked, and give yourself read and write access. However, the fact that you even need to do this suggests a corrupted hard drive. Some 2006 MacBooks were even recalled for mechanical hard drive failure, so watch out. I had the same MacBook, and its hard drive died. Unfortunately, these laptops were not very well designed.