Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Password Problem COMPUTER ERASED!!

NickD

NickD

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 25, 2007
725
1
Colorado
All of a sudden (like within the span of 10 seconds), my iMac has stopped recognizing my password. Any time I try to enter it (to empty the trash, go into System Prefs, etc.), it tells me that it is invalid. I just used it a few minutes ago, and when I tried to enter it into System Prefs literally 10 seconds later, it locked me out. What's the problem with this? Any suggestions of how I can fix this?

NickD
 
Use your restore/intall disk to reset password.

make sure you dont have the caps lock or number lock on.
 
xJulianx said:
F6 on laptops.


Or is this a joke I'm missing? :eek:
Click to expand...

I don't get it either.
All of my keyboards whether laptop or desktop have a number lock key.
On my PB I tend to activate it by accident and then spend five minutes figuring out why my computer does not type properly...it not funny right before a presentation...!:rolleyes:
 
NickD said:
It's definitely not Num Lock or Caps Lock.
Click to expand...

Ok it was worth a look/try

how about keyboard language prefs?
I occasionally somehow set mine to French Canadian instead of USA
its up on the apple bar right by the clock - make sure the flag is the one you originally set it too.

If that is not the case try resetting with install discs.
 
OK. How would I reset with install disks? Would I boot in Target Disk mode?
 
OK, well some bad news.

I did as you said. I then restarted using my regular Startup Disk only to find that ALL THE FILES ON MY IMAC WERE ERASED!! It has reverted back to factory settings. What do I do?

This is not the best thing.

NickD
 
NickD said:
OK, well some bad news.

I did as you said. I then restarted using my regular Startup Disk only to find that ALL THE FILES ON MY IMAC WERE ERASED!! It has reverted back to factory settings. What do I do?

This is not the best thing.

NickD
Click to expand...

What do you do? We dunno, what you have described is magical... It doesn't erase files and restore to factory defaults all by itself. Either there is something you haven't told us, or there is magic happening.

Do you mean to say there are no files on your hard drive at all?
If there are files, what do you see when you look in the Users folder? How many folders and what are their names?

The most likely scenario here is that you have renamed your User folder and locked yourself out of your User folder and files. *You are not supposed to change the name of, delete or move any folder that OSX creates on its own* -- and especially not the one named after your user short name.

If this is the case, then all your data should still be there.

There is also the possibility that your machine's hard drive is failing and has corrupted the user folder, but that's not the prime suspect yet.
 
CanadaRAM said:
Do you mean to say there are no files on your hard drive at all?
If there are files, what do you see when you look in the Users folder? How many folders and what are their names?

The most likely scenario here is that you have renamed your User folder and locked yourself out of your User folder and files. *You are not supposed to change the name of, delete or move any folder that OSX creates on its own* -- and especially not the one named after your user short name.
Click to expand...

OK, looking at the Hard Drive, all of the files seem to be there, except for all of my documents. All applications are there, but they will not open because they cannot find the "profile location". Also, when trying to access many files or folders, I get told that I do not have sufficient access privileges.

All preferences seem to be gone.
 
NickD said:
OK, looking at the Hard Drive, all of the files seem to be there, except for all of my documents. All applications are there, but they will not open because they cannot find the "profile location". Also, when trying to access many files or folders, I get told that I do not have sufficient access privileges.

All preferences seem to be gone.
Click to expand...

You are logged in with a user other than the one that created those files. That is why there are insufficient priviledges and your personal preferences are gone.

Once again: what are the folders that are in your User folder?
 
NickD said:
In order:

Deleted Users (nothing in folder)
nickdanforth
Shared
Click to expand...

If you open nickdanforth, are the various folders (Documents, Pictures, Music, Library etc. openable, or are they blocked because of permissions?

Do you have another folder named nickdanforth anywhere else on the machine including the Trash or the Desktop?

Edit: sorry, I have to go, late for a concert.
Paging MadJew Paging MadJew
Click to expand...
- Priority tag team handoff!
 
There is nothing else on the computer named "nickdanforth". I can't get into any of the folders. They all have a size of "--kb", and I can't get in due to lack of "sufficient access privileges.

EDIT: OK, so I think I must have renamed my User profile and locked myself out. How would I go about trying to fix this, assuming that it is the problem?
 
I'm terribly sorry for the thread bump. I usually hate them myself, but I need to find a way to fix this ASAP, because I need to use my iMac and the files on it tomorrow afternoon for some business stuff that I absolutely NEED to get done.

NickD

P.S. - Please PM or IM me if you think it will help me solve the problem faster. Thanks so much!!
 
Thanks for the link. It looks pretty similar to my problem, but the only problem is this: I can't find the old directory. All that there is is a single "nickdanforth" (which was the name of my old directory, and apparently is my new directory now). Where would the old directory be?

Thanks,
NickD
 
NickD said:
Thanks for the link. It looks pretty similar to my problem, but the only problem is this: I can't find the old directory. All that there is is a single "nickdanforth" (which was the name of my old directory, and apparently is my new directory now). Where would the old directory be?

Thanks,
NickD
Click to expand...

If you have admin rights to it under your new profile can't you chmod the entire hard drive tree to give yourself full rights again and then browse to what you want?
 
Very sorry for another bump, but this is very urgent for me. Does anyone have any more tips or links that could help me in fixing this problem?

NickD
 
I tried to download, but I was not allowed to download the file with ANY browser on the iMac. I also tried downloading on my PB, and then tried transferring the file via the network, but was stopped because I did not have "sufficient privileges". It seems like there should be a simple solution, because . . .

All the files seem to be on the iMac

but

I cannot access them, and all preferences/bookmarks/caches/etc. seem to be gone

NickD
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back