I have a mac mini OSX 10.4.11 (Tiger), Intel Solo. I changed the name on my account (the administrator account, and the only account I have) in the System Pref./Accounts/Password window. The short name remained the same. Upon rebooting (restarting) the computer I can no longer access any of my previous files. No e-mail, itunes, iphoto, address book, bookmarks, etc. --- I am presented with the equivalent of a new computer. --- The "home" file (w/ the house icon) has only desktop, library, and a music file. No content relating to what was previously in the Home file.
I found everything (all the files) including my itune & iphoto libraries, e-mail messages, address book etc. after opening the hard drive and going to the "users" file. It was all in a file with the new name I had chosen for my administrator account. In the Users file there is also the Home file (the one that is now empty) and the Shared file. As such, the Hard Drive was showing two "users", the Home file and the file with all my files in it.
I changed the name on that file and my administrator account back to what it was in the beginning and rebooted but nothing changed. I tried dragging the renamed file, with all my stuff in it, into the Home file, rebooted, but still I am not able to access anything that was previously available. Its as if I just took the computer out of the box and turned it on for the first time.
So, I have two questions:
1) How did the account name change cause this happening (assuming that was the cause) and is there a way to get things back to the way they were? i.e. get the OSX to operate/relate to all the stuff in the renamed folder rather then the new empty Home folder, that being everything that was accessible before I made whatever mistake I made?
2) The computer should have an internal data record of what it has experienced, and what changes took place. Maybe that would shed some light on the problem. How do I find that? --- Any help will be appreciated -- Jeremy
I found everything (all the files) including my itune & iphoto libraries, e-mail messages, address book etc. after opening the hard drive and going to the "users" file. It was all in a file with the new name I had chosen for my administrator account. In the Users file there is also the Home file (the one that is now empty) and the Shared file. As such, the Hard Drive was showing two "users", the Home file and the file with all my files in it.
I changed the name on that file and my administrator account back to what it was in the beginning and rebooted but nothing changed. I tried dragging the renamed file, with all my stuff in it, into the Home file, rebooted, but still I am not able to access anything that was previously available. Its as if I just took the computer out of the box and turned it on for the first time.
So, I have two questions:
1) How did the account name change cause this happening (assuming that was the cause) and is there a way to get things back to the way they were? i.e. get the OSX to operate/relate to all the stuff in the renamed folder rather then the new empty Home folder, that being everything that was accessible before I made whatever mistake I made?
2) The computer should have an internal data record of what it has experienced, and what changes took place. Maybe that would shed some light on the problem. How do I find that? --- Any help will be appreciated -- Jeremy