/etc/ files munged after reinstall

The hard drive on my iMac died (2nd time in 3 years - annoying, but separate issue). Fortunately, I had a good time machine backup, or so I thought.
I got the machine back from the Apple store, booted up from the DVD and restored. After that, the machine would immediately panic on reboot.
Grumble.
Ok, reinstall 10.6 and apply all of the updates. Now the machine, so far as I can tell, is happy again, for the most part.
I open up a terminal and go to sudo -s and it tells me I'm not in the sudoers file.
Wha?
Ok, so I go into directory utility, enable the root user, and su to root.
/etc/sudoers has been replaced by the reinstall with a 0 length file. Fortunately, the original file was renamed to sudoers~orig, so I copy it back, re-disable the root user and sudo works fine as before.
A number of files in /etc were in this condition - 0 length, but with the old file renamed as [file]~orig. Most of them were csh or bash rc files, but the list also included the ssh and sshd config files.
In short, if you have to reinstall snow leopard, and if sudo doesn't work, look for 0 length files in /etc/ that have copies with ~orig on the end of the filename.

Thank you! Since I had to create a new user after my computer crashed, it didn't let me change the persmissions to "Read & Write" for my current user, or even "unlock" on the file. But now knowing that my local files were the issue, I created a new local site folder and downloaded all my files from the remote server. Everything is working as usual now.
Thanks for your help, Murray!

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Hi, I'm a new user of mac products and my macbook crashed refusing to start up (it would just turn on and keep loading till froze).
I followed exactly the steps "Problem meet solution" in the little manual and had to use the Mac OS X Install Disk 1.
The disk utility repaired the HD volume (error found: incorrect block count for file flatfile.db - should have been 708 instead of 354), then still couldn't start up on HD. Did it all over again, repaired HD again (this time error: incorrect block count for file .store.db - should have been 5202 instead of 2601), but this time went further selecting "continue" and reinstalling Mac OS X from the discs that came with my macbook. Reinstalled - successfully finally - by chosing the option "previous settings archived in new file".
The only problem i had was at login ... it would not recognize my user password... which was the same one since i first turn on my new bought macbook. Anyways, i used again the disc 1, selected change my password and this time i managed to sign in with the new one (same old user).
1)NOW, question: do i have to re-update my software? Because before I had Mac OS X 10.5.2 (i always kept my computer up to date) and now, after reinstalling the software I have Mac OS X 10.5
or i should be able to reactivate them from the Previous Systems file (in this case how do i do that?
2) Can't figure still out my master password that unlocks the file vault plus i can't activate again the root admin user from Directory Utility ... i click it but doesn't do anything. Why is this and how can be sorted out?
my macbook details:
Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MB31.008E.B02
SMC Version: 1.24f2
Could someone help me with this? Please note it's my first time troubleshooting a computer ever and that my knowledge is not that vast in the field ... so please use simple steps/terms that i can follow.
Thank you,
Laurie

Thank you very much for answering so prompt to my questions.
1) yes, i will take all the updates. and ok, i won't touch the previous systems file
2) in regards to master password ... i tried all the passwords i ever used. not sure it's just "forgetting". Reason: as I mentioned before: The only problem i had after reinstalling the software was at login ... it would not recognize my user password... (and I add, nor the master password) which was the same one since i first turn on my new bought macbook.
As i couldn't sign in, used again the disc 1 to reset my administrator password and it did save but with the notice that i should "use the keychain access to reset the password for users login" .This time i managed to sign in with the new one (same old user). Then I went to the keychain clicked login and changed the password for keychain login. Did i do good? do I have to change something else. please let me know as don't really know.... i just follow help advice.
3)in regards to root password ... i had it also before ... using help on "security" issue ... as i connect to different networks ... i read that one could help ... please understand that i'm learning as i go, as this time i don't have someone else to do those things for me. so why doesn't it activate anymore? and why would it be better not to activate it?
4)speaking of learning, from my initial post where i posted the errors that my disk utility found ... what do u think caused my computer to freeze? i was browsing on safari facebook as well as I had both yahoo messenger and skype opened... first the messenger froze, then crushed, then i restarted it , then froze, then all the rest froze, without responding to force quit.
5) after reinstalling the software, i still have yahoo messenger and other applications.... is that safe to use now? they are still in my applications
and last 6) did I do everything correct when my computer would not start up?
thank you
laurie

/etc/ files munged after reinstall

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