Should I Reinstall Leopard?

[JPM42]

Hello,

When I installed Leopard for the first time yesterday through Erase An Install, everything went great. However, there was a glitch on my part and that was when during the set up, I accidentally made a typo when entering my Apple ID and thus my short user name (the one next to the house) was not what I wanted it to be. Since I could not manually change it, I started a new account and deleted the contents of the old one, which solved the problem. But that started new problems. Now I can't access any of my previous mail on Mail and so many folders on my external drive are locked because I do not have "sufficient access." I tried changing the permissions, and it worked, but there are so many folders with this message, I am wondering if reinstalling would do the trick and solve some of these glitches. If so, how would I do that? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[notsofatjames]

Try using the migration assistant to import your mail settings etc. That should solve most of your problem .

 

[JPM42]

Try using the migration assistant to import your mail settings etc. That should solve most of your problem .

The thing is that I had never used Mail before until I upgraded to Leopard, so there wouldn't be any copies of that stuff on my external HD to transfer.

 

[dops7107]

I guess re-installing would work, and since you haven't done much to the machine yet you haven't got much to lose. I think I would do it, rather than faff about trying to get little irksome problems solved. Just boot from the Leopard DVD and get it to erase the current installation. Pop the disc in and hold down "c" during boot up, after the chime.

 

[JPM42]

I guess re-installing would work, and since you haven't done much to the machine yet you haven't got much to lose. I think I would do it, rather than faff about trying to get little irksome problems solved. Just boot from the Leopard DVD and get it to erase the current installation. Pop the disc in and hold down "c" during boot up, after the chime.

Thanks! Although I think I might have goofed up. I put in the DVD, restarted my computer, held down "c", and then the installation came up. It asked me the typical stuff, like what language did I want, and then where did I want to install it, but after I did that, it just started installing. It didn't ask me what type of installation did I want or anything, so did I screw up? In other words, even though it didn't ask what type of install that I wanted, is it automatically erasing the previous installation? Just a little worried that I screwed up here.

 

[JPM42]

Anyone?

 

[fleacat]

So... you did a clean-install, right? All the previous data are erased.

If that is the case and your hard drive gives you a trouble: such as opening, erasing, transferring, and so forth. You should try these (you might have done this already.)

1. get "Get Info" on the folder.
2. on the Get Info screen, there is a "Sharing & Permissions" part on the bottom. Change it so that anyone can access.
3. That's all.

 

[JPM42]

So... you did a clean-install, right? All the previous data are erased.

If that is the case and your hard drive gives you a trouble: such as opening, erasing, transferring, and so forth. You should try these (you might have done this already.)

1. get "Get Info" on the folder.
2. on the Get Info screen, there is a "Sharing & Permissions" part on the bottom. Change it so that anyone can access.
3. That's all.

Yes, I did try that, and I did do an Erase An Install. Unfortunately, almost every folder on my external HD had that issue that it would have taken me forever to change all of the permissions, that's why I decided to reinstall. Although, as chronicled in my previous post, I am wondering if I screwed up the reinstallation process, at the moment.

 

[fleacat]

I believe your second installation attempt was "updating", not "clean-install". I say it because installation program should have asked you whether you wanted "erase and install" or "updating" By default, the software will "update" your OS to 10.5, you know...

 

[fleacat]

And, your hard drive issue.

Why don't you "get info" on your hard drive itself and check "Ignore ownership on this volume" at the bottom. That should work. I had to go through the same problem as you did. I changed my home name and had to replace it by making an fake home name. Oh, I clean install my OS, too.