Can't log into main account and vanished files...?

Question

Hello forums.
Last night I was trying to get rid of some junk on my computer, emptying a lot of files in my Trash. Cleaned up my desktop... everything going smoothly. Turned off the computer.
I realized there was something fishy this morning when I turned my imac (tiger) on, logged onto my main account(admin), and my desktop was the default aqua wallpaper. My dock was still personalized and my documents were still there. Still I went ahead and created another user account under "Budiana" with admin power... so now I have total three users, the Admin (under my real name), Budiana, and my dad's.
I did fiddle around with changing the names, but not the short names... I think that might've caused the problem. I'm a bit of a noob with computers in general...
Anyway, now I can't log back into my main account. The message says "You cannot log in as ___ at this time." and the box "shakes" at me. So now I've resorted to using my second account. Looking in Finder, under Users, I see the three accounts, but none of all my files that exist under the admin. But looking at the bottom of the finder window : 168Gb available disk space, with a total of about 236Gb memory, I don't think my files are actually lost, just vanished somewhere!
I've taken a look at the "lost" home directory support document on the apple website, and tried it, but nothing seems to work. I'm also a little lost..
I've tried resetting the passwords for all accounts using the Tiger disk, but to no avail.
Please help! Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

Well, that account has 40gig of information somewhere.
I see only two folders desktop & library. Maybe something is hidden. See point 3.
1) I suggest you do a total backup of your machine or at least /Users.
Here are two utilities for making a complete backup of your internal hard drive. I've recommend using one of these so that you can create a bootable system on your external hard drive. ( PPC require a firewire connected drive. ) Once created, you can run your system from the external drive. Hold down the option key on your keyboard then power on your machine. This will bring you in startup manager click on the drive image you wish to boot then click on the arrow key to the right.
"Clone, synchronize, backup. Schedule and forget it."
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
"SuperDuper is the wildly acclaimed program that makes recovery painless, because it makes creating a fully bootable backup painless."
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
You need an external Firewire drive to boot a PowerPC Mac computer.
I recommend you do a google search on any external harddrive you are looking at.
I bought a low cost external drive enclosure. When I started having trouble with it, I did a google search and found a lot of complaints about the drive enclosure. I ended up buying a new drive enclosure. On my second go around, I decided to buy a drive enclosure with a good history of working with Macs. The chip set seems to be the key ingredient. The Oxford line of chips seems to be good. I got the Oxford 911.
The latest the hard drive enclosures support the newer serial ata drives. The drive and closure that I list supports only older parallel ata.
Has everything interface:
FireWire 800/400 + USB2, + eSATA 'Quad Interface'
save a little money interface:
FireWire 400 + USB 2.0
This web page lists both external harddrive types. You may need to scroll to the right to see both.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATAFW800_FW400USB
Here is an external hd enclosure.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEFW91UAL1K/
Here is what one contributor recommended:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10452917#10452917
Folks in these Mac forums recommend LaCie, OWC or G-Tech.
Here is a list of recommended drives:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5564509#5564509
FireWire compared to USB. You will find that FireWire 400 is faster than USB 2.0 when used for a external harddrive connection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UniversalSerial_Bus#USB_compared_toFireWire
http://www23.tomshardware.com/storageexternal.html
How to format an external harddrive:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11095144#11095144
2)
Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
Here is an overview of the terminal commands. Lets assume that your account has a short user name of mac.
Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
#How to list all of your disks.
# The ls command is for list
mac $ ls /Volumes/
Audio CD       Macintosh-HD   Spotless       Tiger-ext
mac $ 
# Let's say your flash drive is named Spotless
# cd is change directory
mac $ cd /Volumes/Spotless
# pwd is print working directory
mac $ pwd
/Volumes/Spotless
mac $ 
# The ls command is for list
# l is long
# F is type of file where / is directory
mac $ ls -lF
total 134704
-rw-r--r--     1 mac  staff     64560 Mar  3  2009 A-picture-of-Youpi-key.png
drwxr-xr-x    83 mac  staff      2822 Nov  7 14:52 Applescript files/
drwxrwxrwx    12 mac  staff       408 Dec 13  2008 Christmas Cards/
drwxr-xr-x     9 mac  staff       306 Dec 21 17:39 Christmas Cards 2009/
... trimmed ...
What does all this mean?
drwxrwxrwx
d = directory
r = read
w = write
x = executeable program
drwxrwxrwx
 |  |  |
 |  |   all other users not in first two types
 |  |  
 |  group
 |  
 owner
# l is long
# a is all to show hidden files & folders
mac $ ls -lFa
total 134736
drwxr-xr-x    41 mac   staff      1496 Dec 22 17:11 .
drwxrwxrwt     8 root  admin       272 Dec 24 13:55 ..
-rwxrwxrwx     1 mac   staff     15364 Dec 23 12:52 .DS_Store*
drwx------     4 mac   staff       136 Jan 22  2009 .Spotlight-V100
drwxrwxrwt     5 mac   staff       170 Sep 14 16:36 .TemporaryItems
d-wx-wx-wx     4 mac   staff       136 Dec 31  1969 .Trashes
-rw-r--r--     1 mac  staff     64560 Mar  3  2009 A-picture-of-Youpi-key.png
drwxr-xr-x    83 mac   staff      2822 Nov  7 14:52 Applescript files
drwxrwxrwx    12 mac   staff       408 Dec 13  2008 Christmas Cards
drwxr-xr-x     9 mac   staff       306 Dec 21 17:39 Christmas Cards 2009
... trimmed ...
# mv is move or rename
mv -i the-name the-new-name
# You can just rename the file back to what it was with mv command.
mv -i old-name new-name
Here is what these commands mean:
cd is change directory
pwd is a print working directory
ls is list
sudo is Super user do
mv is move or rename
For cryptic comments, you can always uses the manual command which is man. For example:
man mv
# Type the letter q to quit.
I noticed that you had spaces in your filenames or directories. You need to escape them. See examples:
mac $ ls -l ~/"see it"
-rw-r--r-- 1 mac staff 3171 Oct 26 23:38 /Users/mac/see it
mac $
mac $ cd /Users/mac/Desktop/ttt\ html\ copy/
Do you know about tabing? Type in a few letters of a name then press the tab key. The computer will type out the rest of the name if it is unique.
How you ignore permissions.
Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
sudo ls
change what is in quotes to the name of your program. You need to run this from an administrator account and you will be asked for your administrator password. Type it in. the password will not show. Press return when done.
You can put yourself in root & forget about permission problems via:
sudo bash
type:
exit
when done.
Be careful. I you limit yourself to the ls & cd commands you cannot cause trouble.
3) Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
# Show hidden files & folders in finder
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE   ;killall Finder
# Normal display.  Hide hidden files & folders in finder
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE  ;killall Finder
4) finding large files...
Run
OmniDiskSweeper
"The simple, fast way to save disk space"
OmniDiskSweeper is now free!
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/download/
This will give you a list of files and folders sorted by size. Go after things you know that are big.
Robert
Message was edited by: rccharles