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From: SM on 3 Jul 2010 13:10
On Jul 3, 5:48 pm, j...(a)magrathea.plus.com (Jim) wrote:
> Chris Ridd <chrisr...(a)mac.com> wrote:
> > On 2010-07-03 16:35:52 +0100, SM said:
>
>
> Might be worth loading Disk Utility and seeing if the S.M.A.R.T status
> is reporting anything worrying.

S.M.A.R.T status is Verified.

FWIW everything seems fine logged in as Admin but I'd like my user
account back. It's not too drastic as I've got a Time Machine backup
and did a Super Duper backup from yesterday.

Stuart
From: SM on 3 Jul 2010 13:16
On Jul 3, 6:05 pm, Chris Ridd <chrisr...(a)mac.com> wrote:
> On 2010-07-03 17:55:20 +0100, SM said:
>
> >> Why does his disk need repairing? Is the disk about to die?
>
> > His was a typo - should have read 'this'
>
> :-)
>
> > I was watching an interesting video on the importance of backing up
> > video files which ran the battery down to nothing and the MacBook shut
> > down. When I plugged it in and restarted the Apple logo and spinning
> > cog appeared as normal but then just a blue screen getting brighter
> > and darker. Several tries ended up in this state.
>
> > I started up from a Snow Leopard disc and ran Disk Utility which
> > reported a few problems which it claimed to have fixed. A reboot got
> > to the Accounts panel and it's working fine in the Administrator
> > account. Switching to my user account just bounces back to the
> > Accounts pref pane after entering the correct password.
>
> If it boots reliably from DVD, then it almost certain your hard disk is
> knackered. Do you have one of the Macbooks which has easily swapped
> hard disks?

Yes a whitebook with just three screws to remove to get at the HD -
disk is a WD about 2 years old. Do you reckon it could (seemingly) run
fine on the admin account but still be dodgy?

Stuart
From: Chris Ridd on 3 Jul 2010 13:32
On 2010-07-03 18:16:22 +0100, SM said:

> On Jul 3, 6:05�pm, Chris Ridd <chrisr...(a)mac.com> wrote:
>> If it boots reliably from DVD, then it almost certain your hard disk is
>> knackered. Do you have one of the Macbooks which has easily swapped
>> hard disks?
>
> Yes a whitebook with just three screws to remove to get at the HD -
> disk is a WD about 2 years old. Do you reckon it could (seemingly) run
> fine on the admin account but still be dodgy?

So young? Well, maybe the disk is OK after all. Perhaps just restore
your user account from Time Machine, and see how it goes?

If you're more suspicious you could try getting one of the more
detailed SMART reporting tools installed. IIRC there's quite a good one
that is fully functional for a trial period, which is probably enough.

--
Chris

From: D.M. Procida on 3 Jul 2010 14:38
SM <sundogmedia(a)gmail.com> wrote:

> > If it boots reliably from DVD, then it almost certain your hard disk is
> > knackered. Do you have one of the Macbooks which has easily swapped
> > hard disks?
>
> Yes a whitebook with just three screws to remove to get at the HD -
> disk is a WD about 2 years old. Do you reckon it could (seemingly) run
> fine on the admin account but still be dodgy?

That seems unlikely to me.

Does the account have FileVault on it? That gave me a nasty surprise
once.

Daniele
From: Rowland McDonnell on 3 Jul 2010 23:05
SM <sundogmedia(a)gmail.com> wrote:

> Chris Ridd <chrisr...(a)mac.com> wrote:
> > SM said:
> >
> > > The user account on his MacBook has crapped out.
> > > After a disk repair using Disk Utility it would at least boot into the
> > > admin account fine, but now trying to switch accounts to the user one
> > > just returns to the Accounts pref pane.
> > > Any clues?
> >
> > The clues are likely to be in the system.log, which you can see using
> > Console.app.
> >
> > Why does his disk need repairing? Is the disk about to die?
>
> His was a typo - should have read 'this'
>
> I was watching an interesting video on the importance of backing up
> video files which ran the battery down to nothing and the MacBook shut
> down. When I plugged it in and restarted the Apple logo and spinning
> cog appeared as normal but then just a blue screen getting brighter
> and darker. Several tries ended up in this state.

Hmm.

> I started up from a Snow Leopard disc and ran Disk Utility which
> reported a few problems which it claimed to have fixed. A reboot got
> to the Accounts panel and it's working fine in the Administrator
> account. Switching to my user account just bounces back to the
> Accounts pref pane after entering the correct password.

Any time I meet oddness like this, I start out by waving a dead chicken
over the Mac.

Which means: running all the maintenance jobs going.

I use Onyx these days - trash the caches, check permissions, check
preferences, rebuild any and all databases available to be re-built.

Then I perform the pure voodoo of: booting into single user mode,
running fsck - yf (for luck), rebooting to the log-in screen, rebooting
*without* logging on, logging on, logging out, and *then* I log on and
start seeing what I've now got. If anything...

In the case of badly mangled disc structures, which might be what's
behind your problems, the two obvious hopes are: try Disk Warrior; and
then use your backup.

You might try zapping the PRAM - cmd-opt-p-r on boot until it goes
`bong' again. Also you might try looking up how to reset the power
manager or whatever the equivalent is called on your model of Mac - that
sometimes clears oddness.

Rowland.

--
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