no desktop icons and finder doesnt seem to work...please help

[cradom]

Ok.
Log into a good account that works.
You're going to need to copy a lot of stuff to the external drive to make room.
If you can, start copying things to the external...apps you don't need/use, other files you have access to in that account.
Do that and we'll go from there.

 

[cradom]

Note: Somebody is showing our house at 6pm (it's for sale) so I will be away for about an hour or so.
It's 5:16 here now.
If anyone else can jump in please do...

 

[MacInWin]

Yeah, and I have to leave in about 15 minutes myself for a 7:00 pm meeting (It's now 6:20 here) and I won't be back until after 9 pm. So for sammsousa, can you wait until we can get back to you? Terminal commands are not for the rookies, and we need to move carefully so we don't lose anything. For now, as cradom says, go ahead and use the new account to move as much stuff to the external as you can to see if we can make some room. You can TRY to move whatever you can see in the damaged account from Finder in the new account, but I doubt much will be movable. Don't move anything OUTSIDE those two accounts, and don't try to "clean" up the system in any way from the new account, yet. I'll be back later tonight to see how it's going. This might take a while. With only 150GB on the external, we're still going to be tight for room. You need to seriously think about what you can dump, once we have control!

 

[MacInWin]

Also, a backup drive for a 1TB internal needs to be about 2TB, so you can start thinking about that, too.

 

[cradom]

And if you have anything installed that sounds like CleanMyMac or MacKeeper or any other so-called cleaning app PLEASE UNINSTALL IT NOW!
Also any anti-virus apps.

 

[MacInWin]

OH, and thanks, Craig, for jumping in so quick. I thought we might either mv or cp from his old account to the new, as you suggested. We could "swing" them through an external drive formatted for FAT32 to get rid of permissions, or just get them over and sudo chmod them to the new. Either way should work, one being slightly longer than the other but slightly safer as you don't erase the external until you KNOW the files are safely moved. You are the wizard at terminal, so I'll sit and watch the master work...

 

[cradom]

Don't know about master but we'll try.

 

[sammsousa]

no worries guys, well do it when youll get back, i definetly dont mind waiting. ill be trying to clean up my external HD a bit and see what i can move there from my main hd. well just do it later when you lot have time.

 

[sammsousa]

crandom, no apps like clean my mac are installed.

 

[cradom]

Ok, great. (BTW, it's cradom, no N, or just Craig)
Let us know when you're done and how much free space you have left.

 

[sammsousa]

and again, i really apreciate your help. i definetly learned my lesson, once this is done, first thing ill do is get a 2 tb HD just for my backups... definetly dont want to go thru this again

 

[sammsousa]

haha sorry for that cradom!

 

[lclev]

I am learning soooooo much from these posts! I am happily cutting and pasting all these wonderful tips into my mac tips file.

You guys are the best! If anyone can fix sammsousa's problem it's you guys!

Lisa

 

[cradom]

Ok, back. Where are we?

 

[sammsousa]

thats good to know lisa!
ive only managed to delete 100 and so gigs from my external hd and atm was deleting the shared files from my main hd. i cant access anything from the other/main account

 

[cradom]

That's why we're going into Terminal. If you're careful and know how you can do pretty much anything in there.

 

[sammsousa]

i was thinking, after i get access to my files through terminal, wouldnt it be better to then do a fresh install of the os? i was mainly avoiding it because i thought i could never access my files, but it might be better because:
A- easier for me to do and for you since you dont have to explain that much
B- i wont take too much of your time, i already really apreciate your help way too much as it is
C- since ill be able to back up my files (to a friends HD or so) i'll actually wont mind it at all since ive been wanting to do a reinstall for a while
or is there any big disadvantage of doing this?

 

[cradom]

Actually, that would be the better option, assuming you have the space to back up your files.
IF none of your files are larger than 4 gigs, you can use a FAT32 formatted drive and not worry about permissions.
But either way it can be done.
Right now I need to go to bed. I get up at 3am for work and need my sleep.
Find all the space you can to back up your files and unless someone jumps in (gonna use ditto or cp unless you know a better option) we can take this up tomorrow.
Really want to get this sorted and you back on the road so to speak.

Lisa, stick around and learn something (I thought you were an IT geek?).
Night all, til tomorrow...

 

[sammsousa]

i would have to borrow an HD but then, yes i could do it.
shure thing, till tomrrow

 

[lclev]

Lisa, stick around and learn something (I thought you were an IT geek?).

I am... in Windows. I do a mean CMD prompt but I got a "B" in my Linux class.....and then forgot most of it. The old "I will never need to use that ever again" syndrome. And then I became an apple convert and my past has come back to haunt me. But I will learn....

Lisa