Prev: Options for watching iTunes TV shows/movies on my TV
Next: best WP app for producing .doc documents ?
From: SM on 4 Jul 2010 07:53
On Jul 3, 7:38 pm, real-not-anti-spam-addr...(a)apple-juice.co.uk (D.M.
Procida) wrote:
> SM <sundogme...(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.

No FileVault. A day later and it's running fine in the Admin account
but won't log in to the user account.

Navigating to the user account folders as admin shows things as they
should be as far as I can tell.

Stuart
From: SM on 4 Jul 2010 08:03
On Jul 4, 4:05 am, real-address-in-...(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid
(Rowland McDonnell) wrote:
> SM <sundogme...(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...

I've tried most of these but the the user account doesn't want to
play.

> 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.

I've got an old version of DW which I did use on an almost dead
Toshiba drive which this WD disk replaced. It's several OSs out of
date though.

> 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.

Resetting the System Management Controller was the first thing I tried
yesterday since the problem started after the battery ran flat. I'll
try the PRAM.

Cheers, Stuart
From: zoara on 4 Jul 2010 08:27
SM <sundogmedia(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jul 3, 7:38 pm, real-not-anti-spam-addr...(a)apple-juice.co.uk (D.M.
> Procida) wrote:
>> SM <sundogme...(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.
>
> No FileVault. A day later and it's running fine in the Admin account
> but won't log in to the user account.
>
> Navigating to the user account folders as admin shows things as they
> should be as far as I can tell.

You could try deleting the account but keeping the data; I have a
feeling it offers you this option when you delete an account, but a more
failsafe way would be to rename the user account folder in Finder then
delete the account in System Preferences.

Once the account is deleted, you can rename the account folder back to
what it was, then use System Preferences to create a new account with
the same name. OSX will notice there's a folder with that name and offer
to use that for the new account.

That may fix whatever's going on.

Of course, I'd advise having decent backups; I've done this myself a few
times but better safe than sorry.

-z-


--
email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm
From: Jaimie Vandenbergh on 4 Jul 2010 08:40
On Sun, 4 Jul 2010 05:03:00 -0700 (PDT), SM <sundogmedia(a)gmail.com>
wrote:

>I've got an old version of DW which I did use on an almost dead
>Toshiba drive which this WD disk replaced. It's several OSs out of
>date though.

Check with DW to see if you can take it to 4.2 without paying. There
have been additions to the filesystem in 10.5 and 10.6 that would
likely get mangled or at least lost.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
"I do not like the feel of the middle way; and I do not like the smell of
the left hand way" -- J R R Tolkien
From: Rowland McDonnell on 4 Jul 2010 14:10
Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie(a)sometimes.sessile.org> wrote:

> SM <sundogmedia(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >I've got an old version of DW which I did use on an almost dead
> >Toshiba drive which this WD disk replaced. It's several OSs out of
> >date though.
>
> Check with DW to see if you can take it to 4.2 without paying. There
> have been additions to the filesystem in 10.5 and 10.6 that would
> likely get mangled or at least lost.

A thought:

Netinfo Manager's gone.

ISTR that it looked at the sort of stuff that might be involved in
buggering up a user account. But I've just read:

<http://www.macworld.com/article/61097/2007/11/netinfo.html>

Analysis: The end of Netinfo

"When I say `end,' I mean it in the most `end-ish' sense. In Mac OS X
10.5, Netinfo is gone. Not `deprecated,' not `hidden away for only the
most advanced users.' It's gone. Deleted. It does not exist. No more
Netinfo database, no more Netinfo Utilities such as nicl, no more
Netinfo Manager. The entire structure for managing local users, groups,
and other such things has been completely replaced by local Directory
Services, and the Netinfo Database is now a series of XML files living
in /var/db/dslocal/."

and various other things which I don't fully understand - but is there
anything in that line which might be relevant?

Rowland.

--
Remove the animal for email address: rowland.mcdonnell(a)dog.physics.org
Sorry - the spam got to me
http://www.mag-uk.org http://www.bmf.co.uk
UK biker? Join MAG and the BMF and stop the Eurocrats banning biking
First  |  Prev  |  Next  |  Last
Pages: 1 2 3 4
Prev: Options for watching iTunes TV shows/movies on my TV
Next: best WP app for producing .doc documents ?