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Please Help

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Polaris69

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 28, 2008
14
0
Hi guys,

I'm new to the forum and new to Macs. Glad to be here and hope to learn as much as I can from some of you seasoned Mac Pro's. I have two problems with my Powerbook G4 running Panther 10.3.9.

Problem 1: Yesterday I went in to the Admin Icon in order to delete the former Admin/owner of computer and make myself the new Admin. While deleting the former Admin I thought that only the name would be deleted and no files. Apparently when I restarted my computer this morning I could not locate my Office Mac X suite, no Word, Excel, Entourage etc.. I suspect that many other files have been accidentally deleted with the former Admin name. I have nothing in my trash bin, only a (deleted image) from hard disk which I CANNOT open and undo. No recovery disks or anything came with computer.
I urgently need to restore my computer and retrieve the files, there appears to be 5GB of data on this image. I only meant to delete former Admin name and nothing else.


Problem 2: "Sometimes" when I start my computer I get an odd grey screen. Hit the power button, hear the quick chime, grey screen loads with what appears to be a world icon (flashing) endlessly preventing me from getting in to the computer. Nothing loads it just hangs on grey screen flashing Icon.
What is causing this and how do I fix it?

In addition to question #1: Yesterday I downloaded Opera browser and along with Mac Office, other files which I don't know, Opera seems to be gone as well. I didn't see it on my Doc at the bottom of the screen. Maybe all these files are still in the system and I just don't know where to look but I'm very worried.:confused:
 
First thing to remember is that the Dock is just a list of shortcuts, not the files themselves.

Secondly, applications are usually not stored in user account folders, but in the /Applications folder off the root directory. Try looking there to see if the missing apps are there.
 
swiftaw said:
First thing to remember is that the Dock is just a list of shortcuts, not the files themselves.

Secondly, applications are usually not stored in user account folders, but in the /Applications folder off the root directory. Try looking there to see if the missing apps are there.
Click to expand...


How do I go about doing this step by step? Thanks..
 
Polaris69 said:
How do I go about doing this step by step? Thanks..
Click to expand...

Click on the Finder icon in the dock (the one that looks like a face)
When the finder window appears, hit the Shift+Apple+G key combination
This will bring up the "Go to folder" dialog box
Type in /Applications and hit enter
You should now see your applications folder
 
swiftaw said:
Click on the Finder icon in the dock (the one that looks like a face)
When the finder window appears, hit the Shift+Apple+G key combination
This will bring up the "Go to folder" dialog box
Type in /Applications and hit enter
You should now see your applications folder
Click to expand...

Ok, I will do that. I'm leaving work right now and headed home. Will be online in an hour or two. Hopefully I don't get problem #2 mentioned above so that I can do this.
 
I did all that and the applications came up but nothing in the list of icons showed anything for Opera browser or Mac Office X:( What should I do now?
 
Well, I have spent several hours researching the net and Apple's web site to remedy my problem and nothing. I can't restore Panther to an earlier time because supposedly that option only exists in Leopard. I searched every file on my HD and nothing comes up. Unless I missed something, which is a possibility, I suspect my Office suite and browser are part of the deleted image which I can't open. This on top of system freezes and startup problems has been a tremendous disappointment with the switch to Mac.
 
There is a warning that Deleting the user will delete all files.
There should not be anything in the trash after deleting an user.
Deleting the user should not have deleted the apps, did you open a new window, and click Applications on the left pane?

Office alternative google: NeoOffice
It's open source and donationware if you do not want to pay for office or iWork.

Browser: use Safari, or you can download Firefox or Opera from their site.
Free download.
 
I think one of the best way to look for files and applications is just to use spotlight.

On your desktop, top right corner is the search box, just type in what you are looking for.
 
angelneo said:
I think one of the best way to look for files and applications is just to use spotlight.

On your desktop, top right corner is the search box, just type in what you are looking for.
Click to expand...

I don't see this feature on my computer, no search box and no icon called spotlight in right hand corner. Is this in Panther or are you referring to Tiger or Leopard?
 
Consultant said:
There is a warning that Deleting the user will delete all files.
There should not be anything in the trash after deleting an user.
Deleting the user should not have deleted the apps, did you open a new window, and click Applications on the left pane?

Office alternative google: NeoOffice
It's open source and donationware if you do not want to pay for office or iWork.

Browser: use Safari, or you can download Firefox or Opera from their site.
Free download.
Click to expand...

That's just it there was no message saying that all files will be deleted. In fact, I have never heard of that happening, but then again I'm a PC user and new to Mac. Surely Apple engineeers could have incorporated a more user friendly OS where files would not be deleted forever as well as telling you what specifically would be deleted. I deleted an Admin name, next thing I know 5GB of data is accompanying that name and I have no clue as to what files are on that image on the HD as I can't mount them. I looked in the Applications menu to see if I could find Office and Opera and neither showed up! They are either hidden somewhere on the system where I can't find them or on the deleted image which I can't access. Either way this Mac is causing me alot of frustration!
 
Polaris69 said:
I have no magnifying glass on the top or bottom screen. I'm using Panther.
Click to expand...

Ahh.. sorry, missed out that part where you say you were running panther. When you deleted the user, did you specify that you want it totally deleted? If not, look under the "Users" folder, the user might still be there.
 
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