Cannot log in after archive and install

Hello, everyone. ive been searching the support pages of the apple site for an hour and i cannot seem to find a resolution to this...
I just peformed an archive and install ad now i cannot log in. i think this happened once before and i called apple support and i was told to log in as root. the problem i am having is that the login window does not give me the option to change the user field, it only allows me to type a password. every time i type my password, the login screen shakes. so even if i wanted to type root into the user field, i cant. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thank you.
p.s. i was running tiger but lost my tiger disc so i am using the disc that originally came with my g5 which has panther on it...
dayna

Hi, Dayna.
1. Be sure the Caps Lock key isn't active: passwords are case sensitive. You may see an exclamation point on the right side of the password field if the Caps Lock key is engaged.
2. There was a similar problem if one performed an Archive and Install (A&I) of Jaguar (10.2) over Panther (10.3): see "Can't log in after installing Mac OS X 10.2 over 10.3." I've not heard of a similar problem with performing and A&I of Panther over Tiger, but it may be related. However, before trying the advice therein to perform the A&I without selecting "Preserve Users and Network Settings" you'd need to have a backup of your data, otherwise you risk losing everything in your account. IMO, the most expedient solution would be to buy a replacement Mac OS X Tiger disc. If there is an Apple Retail Store in your area, that would be the quickest place to purchase one.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

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Logging in after archive and install

I had a problem with the screen going dark gray at start up so I performed an archive and install but now at the log in screen it will not accept my password. I've tried restarting it but nothing. Any help would be great. Thanks

When you are booted from your install disc, go to the menu bar, it will say Tools or Utilities, I forget which, then go to "reset password" and follow instructions.

Finder not responding after Archive and install

I recently encountered my first problem ever with my mac(new in '05) This is the first mac I have owned; I have worked on G3's and G4's in the past. After reading through many message boards and support pages I don't believe my problem to be similar but different to previous posts.
My problem started off with an OS problem that I was able to diagnose in the "help" book I purchased when Leopard came out. It said I should Archive and Install to remedy the problem and keep my files. I ran the archive the install (it gave me no options to preserve user or network settings). After Archive and install my computer started up alright, but I got the permanent beachball and the finder does not work. it is constantly non responsive. I can relaunch finder, but after it restarts it goes non responsive immediately once again. So I can't actually access my "previous system" folder to move anything over. I checked my dock items and finder, they opened, but my itunes asked for an update. I list of update items came up; I did the non-restart items first. they updated fine, (my itunes old itunes playlists are viewable but not playable now) then I did the items that required a restart. That is when I found out that I could not shut down or restart my computer with std. procedures.
Currently I can only access my spotlight or apple pull down menu if I am in a functioning dock program (safari or itunes, quicktime. etc.) after reading some more support pages it looked like the common thing to do was check permissions and verify disk. I did, I repaired two permissions and the disk was OK. I did look at the HD files, they were as I remembered, but unaccessible (greyed out) and the "previous system" folder was present. +It didn't look like I would expect. The HD looked same as it used to just with a previous system folder.+ After checking the permissions and verified the disk I tried a hard restart. It came back the same as before, unresponsive finder and only the few dock items worked along with spotlight. I checked permissions and disk verify again and everything was OK.
Sorry to be long winded I am trying to be thorough...In short, My finder does not work after doing an Archive and Install to fix my original problem (which has been fixed)...the remedy for an unresponsive finder is to do an archive and install. Is another archive and install really going to fix my problem? Can I archive and install OSX 10.4 and work my way back up to 10.5.6?
Secondly is there a way to restart my computer without doing another hard restart?

It won't let me add a new account. I am locked out and when I try to unlock it gives me the beachball and becomes non responsive after it tries to authenticate.
I looked at the log file, I am not sure what exactly to look for. I am no programer. I see an awful lot of negative wording. I see some errors like "error (-4956) locating menu extra but they are mostly under system preferences...I see some stuff in the loginwindow that says is not a full path... Otherwise, the only reference I see to the finder is when I have force quit the finder.
2/8/09 8:59:55 PM com.apple.launchd[114] ([0x0-0x4d04d].com.apple.finder[304]) Exited: Terminated
2/8/09 11:10:17 PM com.apple.launchd[114] ([0x0-0x57057].com.apple.finder[321]) Exited: Terminated

Where is mail stored after archive and install?

Hello All,
I need to know where my old mails are stored after archive and install. To give a bit of background... This is a work computer. Its a MacMini which came with 10.4 installed. Before I joined the company boss upgraded to Leopard and thats what I have been using all this time. Recently it blue screened and I had to do an archive and install after trying various other options.
I only had the original install discs with 10.4 in them and not the Leopard discs. Since I needed to my computer up and running, I used those discs and did an archive and install.
I have all my old documents, etc but I couldn't open mail from the previous systems folder because its a different OS.
Is it possible to retrieve my old emails without having to install Leopard again?
Any help is appreciated.

When I started the computer up, instead of the login page with the account names coming up, there was just a blue screen. There are lots of articles that gave suggestions to try but nothing worked so I had to archive and install.

Cd inserted but unrecognized after "archive and install"

After "archive and install" OS X.2 and clicking on "save settings", everything works fine, except sound cds are not recognized when inserted. iTunes works fine with the original files on hard disk, but doesnt see the cd (it did before).
I repaired permissions. I deleted the "previous systems" folder. still nothing.
I did notice that the "previous systems" folder has an "audio" file in it but the current "system" folder doesnt. I tried copying this audio file into the current "system" folder but I get the notice that it cant be changed.
I need to hear cds on this computer. Any ideas?
(It isnt a speaker problem as the itunes files play fine).
John in Vancouver

Hi John in Vancouver! And Welcome To
Discussions!
Open System Preferences > CDs & DVDs.
Adjust the appropriate setting there, and see if it
helps.
Good Luck!
ali b
Thanks, ali, but I did that early on. Didnt put it in the post. On insertion of a CD I have it set to open iTUnes.
I found a further problem which is that the midi set-up no longer locates my external keyboard. I will check the discussions under audio for this one, however. (I did check about the CD problem in the audio discussion but nothing there.)
John

Recover mail after archive and install

Hey there good mac people,
I recently archived and installed on my ibook g4. It was successful, my problem is that I forgot to backup all the mail I had in my osx mail app.
The previous system folder (library<mail<mail accounts<com.mac.mailaccounts<English.lproj< file, but I don't know if this will help restore or not?
Some of the mail is still on the server, but it is set to delete from the server once a week, and thus only a weeks worth at best is still on the server.
Does anybody have any suggestions?
In the future, what's the best way to back up mail?

Hello art-is-work.
I don't understand your problem. Archive and Install should have preserved all your data, unless you told it to do otherwise. Did you?
Mail stores most preferences and all account settings in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist. Everything else, including all your messages and mailboxes, is stored within the ~/Library/Mail/ folder.
If the problem is that you told the installer to not Preserve Users and Network Settings, then Archive and Install should still have saved a copy of your entire home folder in /Previous Systems/Previous System N/Users/, where N is a number. The old Mail folder and preferences file should be there. You can just copy them to the appropriate location of your current home folder, or follow the somewhat convoluted procedure described in the following article to safely restore them:
How to get files from a previous home directory after Archive and Install (Mac OS X)
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user's home folder.

Cannot run java program after archive and install

Hi,
I am new to this forum and appreciate the help and advice given here.
Yesterday, I did an archive and install on my system which install 10.4.3. Afterwards, I installed X11 and did the software updates which brought my system back to 10.4.8. It also installed Java 1.3.1, 1.4.2, and 1.5 (J2SE5).
Prior to the archive and install, I had no problems executing a java program either in the command line in an X11 window or using Eclipse. However, when I try now I get the exception message "Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError:". I checked my CLASSPATH and it's not the problem. I am able to compile, and execute the javadoc command. If I type java -version I get
java version "1.5.0_06"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_06-112)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_06-64, mixed mode, sharing)
Under Eclipse, I am able to see the Java versions under Preferences - Java - Installed JREs but if I go to the Run -> Run As menu, I see (none applicable).
Thanks for any suggestions to fix this.
James
Dual 867MHz G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I resolved the issue. I reinstalled XCode and had an issue with one of the files I was testing.

Help, I lost my system adminstrator account after archive and install

I did an archive and install and checked 'preserve users and network settings'. Prior to install I had two accounts: mine (adminstrator) and my son's. My iTunes and iPhoto are all on my account. After install, my normal desk top appeared. Software update informed me I had updates to download. I started the process and the password window appeared, but would not accept my password. I checked the users in the right hand corner of the menu bar and only my son's account appeared. When I clicked on that, a log-in window appeared (and my desktop disappeared). The only log-in option is my son's account. I can log into his account ok, but mine no longer shows up. I tried to access my account info in the previous system folder, but my son's account does not have sufficient access rights. How can I get my account back?
As a side note, I went to my old mac (a power pc G4 iMac) and could no longer log-in to iTunes Store or to .Mac. I changed my Apple ID password so I can now log into .Mac and the iTunes store. I don't know how to get my adminstrator account back on my Intel mac. My old Mac cannot be upgraded to Leopard and has no airport card.

Same thing happened to me! Now when I want to delete apps I get a window demanding my administrator password. I give it, but that is no longer correct. Actually, I suspect it is but the Administrator name has changed, but I have no idea what it now is. I tried to use the change password utility on the install disk, but it's just exactly that: a password changer, it won't change the administrator name, or even tell you what it is.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

I need help to recover/relink mail after archive and install

I am helping my friend fix her 15" G4 PowerBook after memory failures caused many crashes. There was no recovering short of a reinstall via "archive and install". All that worked great, but now Mail doesn't recognize the accounts, mailboxes, signatures, etc. that are still located in the user/library/mail folder.
What's up with that? I can't figure out how to relink Mail to this stuff.
Here's more detail:
1) After lots of prior debugging (Disk Utility, Disk Warrior, Apple Hardware Test, single-user commands per Apple tech notes), I did the A&I to 10.3.4 from the original disks.
2) Per Dr. Smoke and The X Lab, I ran the 10.3.9 combo installer right away so that the "older" system would not get confused by the "newer" stuff in the Previous Systems folder.
3) I Launched Mail and it started anew, i.e. didn't recognize accounts and wanted to start over.
Thanks for any help.

The account settings are stored in HOME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist. It looks like that file became corrupt -- maybe its permissions went awry (Disk Utility cannot fix that) and Mail just deleted the file to create a new one.
If your friend doesn't have a backup copy of that file, just set up the accounts from scratch all over again. If given the option to import existing mailboxes or something like that, don't. Just enter the account information and Mail will automagically rediscover the data in HOME/Library/Mail/ when done.
You'll also have to re-configure most settings in Mail > Preferences. For spam-related security reasons, the first thing you should do is go to Preferences > Viewing and disable Display remote images in HTML messages if it's enabled.

Video podcasts won't play after archive and install

I'm one of the folks having capture issues with FCP 4.5 and OS X 10.4.9. So I decided to archive and install to 10.4.8. Now it seems I'm having all kinds of video problems, including downloading and playing video podcasts in iTunes (7.2). When I download a podcast, say "Tiki Bar TV", the file downloads, but in the podcast screen, I get an error message which reads,
"There is a problem adding the video to iTunes. The file might be corrupted, or a file type that iTunes cannot play." For the record, I have never run into anything like this before. And it's the same way with every video podcast.
I had some similar wonkiness going on with QuickTime, too. But after I installed a divx plug-in, and flip for mac, everything seems to be okay with the QT. iTunes is still a mystery. Any ideas on what my next step should be would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Ben
PowerMac G5 Dual 2.5Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.8) 3GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, ATI9800XT

There are files that are not brought along with Archive and Install.
Some are invisible and not accessible without enabling "root" access and even then you have to know exactly which files have to be moved from the 'previous System' folder.
Archive and Install never works with Apple's Pro apps.
If Niel's suggestion doesn't work you'll have to erase your hard drive and reinstall everything making sure you first backup important data to another hard drive.
(don't forget to save your mail and addresses)

I Lost Parallels After Archive and Install

I posted this on the Parallels Forum, and although it was viewed 59 times, there were no replies. So I'm posting it here hoping that someone can/will answer my question. Here's what I posted:
My OS X (10.4.11) became a little quirky after three years so I did an Archive and Install. Now I can't get Parallels to start up my Windows XP virtual machine. I get the error message "Parallels Desktop is unable to operate properly since it cannot communicate with one of its drivers ... re-install Parallels Desktop." I have my original Parallels 3.0 installation CD so I suppose I can figure out how to do this. (My iMac was purchased with Parallels pre-installed.) Do I need to uninstall before I re-install? I have on my desktop the Parallels alias labeled "Microsoft Windows XP.pvs" plus I have in Applications an alias labeled "Parallels Desktop". If I need to uninstall, can I just drag these two to the trash? I am not adept at this sort of thing, so I need some guidance. Thanks.

Hmmm...good question, I'm not sure. I believe all you would have to do is be able to at least bring up the Parallels Window and have at least "Paralells" recognize still that there is a virtual machine there, not necessarily be able to get into it. Can you at least pull up the parallels window and/or box that you would normally pull up to list your virtual machines? If you cannot do at least this, then you're probably stuck re-installing Parallels. But please remember to back up your virtual machine file in another area like an external hard drive before you do the re-install. Installing and un-installing parallels is NOT SUPPOSE to mess with your virtual machines, but I wouldn't bank on it. If you can at least bring up that Window/Box, then you could use the are listed on the box to re-install the Tools. Hope it works out for ya.

No User accounts after Archive and Install ?

Today I tried to salvage a 20" iMac G5 for a friend. He had done something that screwed up his hard drive. Disk Utility Disk Repair run of the startup partition always failed. Using an external FW disk, I was able to use Disk Utility Repair successfully, but drive would still not boot. Decided Archive and Install was the right way to go, did that and everything seemed OK but I found I could not log in to his account. Thought it was just a lost password, so tried using the OSX Tiger Install DVD to Reset Password. His *Macintosh HD* Startup drive shows only the "root" user available, neither of the two previous user account names appear.
I can think of nothing to do to recover except an Erase & Install (I have his User files saved). Is there an alternative?
I would assume performing another Archive & Install would yield the same result.

I continued work on this issue today. First, I checked and the three User account folders were present in the Users folder along with the one new account created as part of the Mac OSX Tiger A&I. For some reason, not one of these 4 was accessible from the Login screen; it acted exactly if there were no user accounts.
Purchased and installed DiskWarrior 4 on the FW drive and rebuilt the directory of the iMac's internal drive. Ran all other tests available w/ DW. Still no joy on logging in. I should NOT have had to see the Login screen at all if the new user had been created properly.
Punted. Copied everything I thought I would need to the external drive, then did an Erase & Install of OS X Tiger. Applied all updates, no problems logging in. Copied all the original User/username files and folders and restored a few apps.
Finally, after much wasted time, I have all but one App running and all data files, folders, pics, music restored.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 fails because I apparently failed to save a .plist file somewhere and now I learn too late that PE 3.0 will not install on a 10.4.x system. Sigh.

After Archive and Install, music and photos lost

Hello, I installed Leopard yesterday on my Imac desktop and it went fine, but then somehow it locked me out of the hard drive, and then...the blue screen. I put the orginal Tiger disk back in and re-installed the previous software, opting for 'archive and install'. It worked but my question is this;
Within the previous system folder, my music and photos are still missing. All I see is the iphoto icon which opens to a completely empty program. (Yet the info on this Icon says it is a 1 gb in there). Are my photos lost, really? And if not, how may I retrieve them? Thanks in advance.

You may find it in the Previous System Folder created during an Archive and Install that contains your old system. Assuming you have no need for its contents you can delete the PSF and recover the disk space.
Of course if the hard drive is corrupted then you may have performed an Archive and Install on a corrupted drive which will result in a corrupted installation. Consider doing the following:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now shutdown the computer for a couple of minutes and then restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

Files missing from library after archive and install

Hi forum folk
any help you could give would be much appreciated.
I can't seem to verify my permissions on HD. I have run disk utility both from finder and from my OSX startup disk and consistently get the error message "Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and cannot continue." I then reinstalled the operating system all together making sure to archive and install as well as archive previous network and preference settings. This means I am running 10.3.4 at the moment (and I can't verify any of the software updates at the moment). After reinstalling I still cannot verify my permissions, so now I am trying to back up all my files so that I can reinstall the OSX again, erase everything, and start from scratch. But I'm running into some very strange problems while doing this. select files are missing from ~/library. there is no Safari file, for example. I tried looking in HD/previous systems/library where my library files were saved before I reinstalled the operating system but there is no such folder in there either. this means all of my bookmarks are gone. additionally, under library/preferences (in both the old and new library folders) there is no file named com.apple.itunes.plst. so all of my itunes playlists are gone as well. these are the only missing files I have found thus far and i can't explain why they selectively would not have been saved after the archive and install. Everything else seems to be intact. Any ideas?
thanks
jb
powerbookG4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) running 10.3.4 at the moment - can't verify permissions on 10.3.9

jbeep:
my HD has a capacity of 8.85 GB available. When I reinstalled panther I had little more than 3 GB available (I deleted a bunch of unneeded things since then)
Thanks for this update. What is the total formatted capacity of your HDD? I ask because I suspected that you might be cutting it pretty close. The rule of thumb is that you should have 10-15% of your total capacity available as free space. My personal rule is 15%-20%. This allows for more efficient perfomrance of OS X.
I am in the process of backing up everything on my seagate combo USB 2.0/firewire 200 GB external (I am using the firewire cord)
Having an up-to-date backup is one of the primary rules, often observed more in the breach than not. Since you have an HDD that supports Firewire, I suggest that you make a bootable clone of your entire HDD using SuperDuper. You can then use this backup as an emergency boot drive. However, it must be Firewire, as PPC Macs don't boot from USB devices.
I also have heard that it is advisable to reinstall the OS "every now and again" and I hadn't done this for at least two years. was I ill-advised?
Most experienced Mac users never re-install, except under dire circumstances. Since installing my new HDD in this computer I have never re-installed. Re-installation is the utlimate intrusive measure, and it exposes one to all kinds of issues, from lost data, to flawed installaton, to installations that fail midstream. Re-installation is not an effective maintenace procedure. Here are some helpful links in terms of maintenance:
Mac OS X 10.3/10.4: System maintenance
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
Maintaining OS X.
I'm going to restart now and try and verify my permissions again using the procedure on the above link. I'll let you know what happens.
Instead of verifying permissions, just go ahead and Repair Disk Permissions. Verifying permissions does nothing, and wastes your time, as it is difficult to tell whether you need to repair, and you have to repair anyway.
Do post back with an update of your progress and any further questions or comments.
Good luck.
cornelius
Message was edited by: cornelius

After "Archive and Install", my printer no longer works

Powerbook 1.67 GHz PowerPC G4
Mac OS X Version 10.4.11
I recently had some issue with my password, so the Apple Genius people ran an archive and install, reset the user password, and got me back to my original state. However, I've had to run all these updates now, and can't figure out how to get the printer to work again. It worked perfectly fine before the archive and install, it was recognized right away.
I have tried the following:
I uninstalled and then reinstalled the printer software (Epson Stylus CX6000) from the installer CD. Didn't work. Unplugged and turned off power, then re-plugged and restarted everything. Didn't work. I have no idea what to do here. I downloaded any new updates to the software from the Epson website. Didn't work. Help?

If the correct printer driver is missing, and the Print selection
box says Any Printer, it may be unable to use that one.
See if the printer can be used in a different user account.
Sometimes if the system is messed up (even pros do it)
there may be a way to see if the issue is system wide or
if it is based in a problem in the admin user account.
Some optional printer drivers may be available at the printer
manufacturer's web site for downloads. Sometimes there is
a newer one for the entire class of printer models, and so
it may be for yours. Or there is GimpPrint/GutenPrint for
other drivers; their web page shows supported printers.
{Since you state that you've tried other driver options, then
you may have to consider doing a new 'archive & install'
and be sure everything is done right, and then update it.
Or an all new installation on a wiped empty hard drive.}
There should be a printer error log accessible through Console
and perhaps it may shed some light on the basic problem...
PS: Is this printer an Ethernet and USB printer? If so, have
you tried whatever other connection/cable to see if it works
when running on the other available protocol? The Ethernet
printer would use an IP address or hardware MAC address
and the appropriate cable, if the printer supports both.
Good luck & happy computing!
{ edited 2x }

Cannot log in after archive and install

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