In need of help

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I was cleaning away applications and such on my Imac today when suddenly the screen toned down and I was asked to restart the computer (by holding the power switch).. Now I cant log onto my account because it says that a error have happened every time I write my password and try to log in. I guess I must have happened to delete some file based on the profile data... the problem is that that is the only account on the computer, there is no Guest profile and there is no option to create a new account on the dashboard..

So what to do? How do I "reboot" the computer so a new account can be created?
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
How about providing us with some specs? Model and year of your Mac and which version of OS X is it using?

As a quick note... if you deleted something preventing you from logging on, you'll likely need to reinstall.
 
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How about providing us with some specs? Model and year of your Mac and which version of OS X is it using?

As a quick note... if you deleted something preventing you from logging on, you'll likely need to reinstall.
Unfortunately i have to be the guy who doesnt really know.. The iMac is from around 2008-2009..

So what I have done so far is to try a Safe Boot. The support page on the Apple site said
that this will include a automatic disc check and repair.. However Im not sure if that
worked at all because i still had to (try) to log onto the Daniel profile which didnt work.

And no difference was made after restarting again.

So instead i am now moving on to the Single User Mode and Fsck. I write the whole /sbin/fsck -fy and i do get a FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED message (one time), even goes for some more rounds just in case.

I reboot but the problem is still there.

So instead i tried to create another user through the Fsck with
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone, which take me to the initial set-up screen however i can now not pass the
screen where you choose language (i click a language and the screen goes black
for a sec and then it turns back to the language screen again)

So i do "rm /var/db/.applesetupdone" and is now back to where i started..
Im thinking that maybe deleting the user ("rm - R /users/username") would be something that might work.. but then again i dont know..

Also im starting to think that some of the problem is in that i changed the account username
it says "Namn" at the login screen but as i wrote "Namn" cant be find in the system, but the old one "(Daniel") does.

... Any ideas? Is there anything I can do? Will the CD work? If i dont find the CD can i get another one?
 

pigoo3

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Unfortunately i have to be the guy who doesnt really know.. The iMac is from around 2008-2009..

Easy answer. Go to the Apple drop down menu...and choose "About This Mac". That will give us more detail about your specific Mac model.

- Nick
 
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Easy answer. Go to the Apple drop down menu...and choose "About This Mac". That will give us more detail about your specific Mac model.

- Nick

Doesnt you have to be logged in to see that though?
 

chscag

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Also im starting to think that some of the problem is in that i changed the account username

That will definitely lock you out if that's what you did. And, if the account name was changed that will also lock you out of Safe boot mode.

Is there data on the hard drive that you need to recover? In your situation it may be better to do a reinstall of OS X. Do you have an original install recovery disk for the machine? If it's a 2008 - 2009 model, it may have come pre-installed with Leopard OS X 10.5.X or Snow Leopard 10.6.X. Let us know.
 

pigoo3

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Doesnt you have to be logged in to see that though?

Yes. I forgot that you were having problems getting the computer to work/boot properly.

- Nick
 
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If you are using Snow Leopard OS X.6 or Leopard OS X.5 pop in the DVD, see if you can boot from that by holding down 'C' immediately after the chime and if any joy run Repair Disk from utilities. If not you may have to format the drive Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and do a clean install. Sure sounds like Home or something equally serious has been deleted.
 

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