Accounts & Finder - very odd things going on...

Hi
just recently my Mac Mini has been acting like a PC & crashing a lot and unexpectedly, finally resulting in a situation where the last time I booted up and logged into my account, soon after everything has loaded, Finder started to close down & open repeatedly, with all files/folders on the desktop disappearing & reappearing at the same time. I couldn't get into any files as Finder kept closing and reopening, but I did manage (only just) to get into System Preferences and try a few things.
Needless to say I haven't been able to fix this problem and wonder if anyone else out there has had a similar problem and been able to resolve it.
I'm using the same Mac Mini now to type this - you probably thinking 'how?', well the workaround I found, albeit temporary was to set up another fresh account on the same Mac, and hey presto, a fresh new Mac. Problem is all my files are now on the other account, so I can't access them, even though the new account is set as an administrator. If anyone can shed light on this problem too and find a way of accessing the files, that would be at least 75% there. Before anyone suggests putting my install disk in, I have to let you know I'm away from home (the UK) at the moment and in the USA so that's not an option until I get back home in a month's time, but I am open to any other suggestions!
Thanks in advance
Simon.
Mac Mini 1.25Ghz   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   1gig RAM

The fact that the new account doesn't suffer the problem means that the issue lies somewhere in the settings, preferences and support files for the old user account, rather than as a system-wide issue.
As such, it should be relatively easy to fix the problem so you can return to use of the system as your old user, rather than have to deal with moving data or setting permissions so you can access the data you already saved from the new account.
That said, to take the last issue first, you CAN reset permissions on your old account so that you can see inside it from the new one. Open the Users folder and select your old user folder, then 'get info'. This will show you how much space it takes and how many files there are etc, but near the bottom of the dialog box, you should see Ownership and Permissions. If not already displayed, click so you can see the details and where it says Owner, click to select your new user ID (you will likely have to click the padlock to 'unlock this option), making sure that subsequently, the Access detail changes to Read & Write. You should then be able to see into the area as if it were your own.
To try and resolve the problem, download a copy of Preferential Treatment from www.versiontracker.com and set it to run on both local and system tasks. This should locate and remove faulty properly list files which generally cause these sort of issues. When it's done, reboot and try and log in as your old user. Don't forget that if you have reset permissions and ownership on your old user folder to access it from the new account, you should set it back to normal before you log in as your 'old' self. Hopefully that made more sense to you than seems likely to me having just typed it!

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