User Setup Issue?

[Bossone]

I lost my hard drive and when it was reset up I had some issues with the name the vendor used for the user name. So I added added a name and deleted the old one, which may of been a mistake. When I look under the user name (name next the house icon), I see a different folder structure that I have on my Mac Pro. For example I missing Library folder etc. I have an application folder that won't even open up.

How do I repair that?

 

[r0k]

I lost my hard drive and when it was reset up I had some issues with the name the vendor used for the user name. So I added added a name and deleted the old one, which may of been a mistake. When I look under the user name (name next the house icon), I see a different folder structure that I have on my Mac Pro. For example I missing Library folder etc. I have an application folder that won't even open up.

How do I repair that?

First of all, don't go around deleting things unless you really have to. If the folder you deleted is the home folder of the only admin account, you might have already gone too far and you might be facing a "wipe and install" situation. As a precaution, I would pick the trash and restore anything you have deleted so far if you haven't already emptied the trash.

Here is the procedure I have successfully used for making a new "owner" account...

1 - create a new user
2 - make that user an admin
3 - log in as the new admin user
4 - only if absolutely necessary, delete the old admin user and only if absolutely necessary delete their old home folder
5 - optionally, create a non-admin user as the "every day user" of the machine and avoid logging in as the admin user

I must admit I have done step 5 only for my wife's machine. I find it works best to avoid having an admin with no password and for ease of use I don't have a password set for her account.

 

[Bossone]

Thanks for the reply.

The original was home account, but the current one I'm using is an admin as well. I just set up another admin account to see what it would so an it set things up right.

I might consider the #5 option.

Otherwise if i have 2 admin accounts set up, how do i transfer everything I have from the account I have now to the new admin account? I seen there were some permission issues as well.

 

[r0k]

Thanks for the reply.

The original was home account, but the current one I'm using is an admin as well. I just set up another admin account to see what it would so an it set things up right.

I might consider the #5 option.

Otherwise if i have 2 admin accounts set up, how do i transfer everything I have from the account I have now to the new admin account? I seen there were some permission issues as well.

I've stubbed my toe more than once trying to make sweeping changes to OS X accounts. If the only reason you're doing this is you don't like your login name, you can change your login name and there is a procedure to make your home folder name the same as your new login name. This is probably cleaner than trying to "move things over" to the new account.

Assuming you insist on moving things, one way to move things over is to dump your documents, music, etc in a shared folder then log in as the other account and copy it there. For a brief time, 3 copies of all that stuff exist but you can go back and move the old copies to trash after you have made sure everything made it over to the new account.

Still, I think you are better off simply changing the name of the first admin account. More here.

 

[Consultant]

Restore the drive from backup

 

[Bossone]

actually i found out that under lion the library folder is hidden. You use the option key and the go menu and it shows up.

I found what I wanted, but yes that is why I did all the changes. I didn't like the name they set up originally.