Hung up on User Account Login Screen

I have a 2006 20" imac that was given to me in 2012. The hard drive crashed within a few weeks (clicking, grinding sounds) and it has been sitting on my desk for 4 years.

Feeling industrious the other day, I bought a 2T Seagate HD from OWC, opened the sucker up, and put it in, taking out the old one. I felt accomplished.

I re-installed Snow Leopard from an old Install Disk I had, and everything seemed to be going well, except it wouldnt accept my WiFi password. Odd, but no biggie---I figured I would deal with that later. The system re-install went smoothly otherwise with all the pretty pictures of nebulae and what not. When asked, I imported my Time Machine data from my Macbook Air (running OS 10.10.5). The import seemed to go smoothly too.

But when I restarted, and it took me to the user account log in screen, my password wasn't accepted. It gave me hints that it was the same passowrd as the MacBook Air, suggesting that the transfer of data had happened smoothly. I tried again, no luck. To confirm that I hadnt foolishly forgotten passwords, I tried on my Macbook and no problem. Tried again on the imac, no luck. Switched out keyboards, no luck. Simply not recognizing my password. Bizarre. OK...OK...I figured I`ll just do a fresh re-install and then wont import TimeMachine backups.

But now, NOTHING will work to get me away from the Mac OS X user account log in screen. I have restarted and tried to boot from the Install DVD, no luck. I get the user account log in screen. Tried to boot from Recovery, no luck. User account log in screen. Tried command-R, C, command-option-P-R....nothing except always taking me back to that damned user account login screen. Ye Gods.

Any help?

queeqay said:

Tried to boot from Recovery, no luck. User account log in screen. Tried command-R, C, command-option-P-R....nothing except always taking me back to that damned user account login screen.

Click to expand...

Just an FYI. Trying to boot into "Recovery" or using "command + r" does not work with Snow Leopard (10.6). These boot options didn't start until OS 10.7.

- Nick

Regarding the login screen issue. When you do a fresh install of the OS like you did…part of this process is setting up the new admin account. The admin account of course includes the setting up of a user name & password. In fact I think with OS 10.6 you don't even need to setup a password (if you choose not to).

This username & password (if setup) should certainly work…since it was just setup. I would say try installing the OS again…this time be sure to write down the username & password you select to set things up with.

And keep things simple…don't try to do all sorts of importing of data, Time Machine imports, etc. You want to solve this login issue first.

Good luck,

- Nick

What is the encryption WPA@ Personal? If so or similar older WEP will noit work.

"This username & password (if setup) should certainly work…since it was just setup. I would say try installing the OS again…this time be sure to write down the username & password you select to set things up with."

Nick--
Thanks for the messages. Much like Han in Cloud City, they never even asked me any questions. I.e., I was never asked to set up a new admin username/password prior to (or after) the Time Machine import...sigh.

Any other ideas that might allow me to just scrap what I have installed now and do a fresh re-format of the HD? Like I said, nothing is allowing be to get away from the User Account Login Screen.

Thanks! I appreciate your help.

Cheers
Gautam

Harry--

I had not set my Time Machine backups from the Macbook Air to be encrypted at all. Any ideas on how to get away from the User Account Login Screen and do a completely fresh OS install (and perhaps even re-format the disk?)

Thanks
GD