Login to admin account fails suddenly

Hi!
I have quite a strange problem here; I could not find infos about this (I am quite a new Mac user - and didn't have such big problems so far...):
when I started my Mac today, all my user settings etc. were gone - it seemed like my Mac was brand new (all settings as factory setting - no program remembered me - e.g. Mail or Adium or iCal). I have put my user directory on an external hard drive, and suspected that this might have been the problem (the Finder didn't show my documts or photo folders, and other things). Although the external hard drive was working fine and shown in Finder, I checked the respective settings in the control panel (user settings); it was still correctly set. Even if, I reset the path again using the "Browse" dialogue to the same folder; I was a bit astonished that the name of the hard drive shown was a bit different (OS X added a "1" behind the real names shown in Finder - so it was "sarah 1" instead of "sarah"; however, I trusted OS X in this, and thought that this was the reason why I couldn't reach my user account data via the Finder.
So I trusted the settings and left them, and then restarted: At this time, OS X gave the message that (I translate from German): "You cannot login with this user name. The login process with this user name failed due to an error."; that's where I'm stuck. The astonishing point is that the password I give is correct - and in fact, OS X also still remembers my additional question; so, a password problem seems to be ruled out. Thus, I believe that the path to my user data is still incorrect, and that some information is kept there for the start-up. Even if the Mac earlier this evening started correctly, despite the user path seemed to be corrupted (the data were not shown, as said above) - now the unavailability of the user path seems to have "worsened", and keeps OS X from logging into my account.
The account is my only administrator account; I am a bit worried that my other user accounts are not shown in the login screen - but I never used it before.
Anyway - I believe, what COULD help me would be to find a way to reset the user account path (the old path should still be on the external Macintosh HD, although most utility data are missing) - thus, I believe, what could help me would be if I could reset the user account settings so that the Mac doesn't search for the data on the external hard drive (which path seems to be wrong); however, I don't seem to be able to change the settings if I can't reach beyond the login screen.
Thus, my question: can anybody tell me how I can reach my account settings now? Is there any utility on the reset disc of my Mac that could help me to start into a safe mode that would at least allow me (after supplying the admin password) to change the admin user settings? Or does anybody have any other suggestions? I am lost here a bit, although I principally believe I can do at least a bit about Computers...
Thanks for any help! Sorry for this long text! Greetings to all readers who have survived till this point!
Björn

Hi, V.K.!
Thanks a lot for Your detailled answer! Admittedly, I had problems to follow Your suggestions exactly, because I couldn't get my Mac (mini) to start from the install DVD (I only tried disc I - it came with the mini in february, but I think it is the original install DVD - thus I believe, it should also contain the utilities You were talking about). In fact, the Mac didn't want to boot from the DVD - I guess the problem was my USB Bluetooth keyboard (Logitech), which I never tried to connect to the Mac directly.
Anyway - when I was trying different key combinations (in addition to just typing "C" to boot from the DVD) at startup to see whether the install DVD was the problem or the keyboard, I used the command-S key combination to start in single user mode... in the command line, I tried if I could find a way to make the Mac start from the DVD (which was still in the drive) - but couldn't. When I typed "exit", the Mac booted normally, and I was back in the Finder, where I could reset the problem with the user data path. Thus, this problem was solved - though in an erroneous (and thus not really satisfying) way...
Anyway, I still have the problem with my user account - although the path is now correctly set again and the Mac boots as before, all my user data and settings (including the iCal data etc.) are still not connected, although they are still on the external hard drive... The Mac does not show me the "documents" or "downloads" or "desktop" options under "places" in Finder, and also my iTunes and iPhoto libraries are not available there - although the data are still present in the user folder on the external hard drive (the one that is now set again to be my user home folder in the "user" control panel). I don't know how this happened - and why my Mac doesn't seem to recognize the data and show them. The last thing I did was to do the Leopard system update on wednesday morning (which was a Java update) - and in the evening all my settings appeared to have been erased (as described before).
Does anybody have any explanations for this - or, even better: any solutions? I feel a bit lost - as if my Mac was making jokes with me
Thanks for any hints!
With kind regards,
Björn
Message was edited by: bBcuda

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com.apple.launchd[1]
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com.apple.ReportCrash.Root[1396]
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Reinstalled the OS from disk and local logins worked TEMPORARILY--UNTIL I set the LDAP directory access to authenticate to our server (which I also need for the network logins to work),then, the issue started again.
*Same results with both ethernet and wireless connectivity enabled.
*Note: I also manage these local accounts via WGM (installed on the local machine) and even tried disabling that and still no luck.
Please help...I have spent hours and hours trying to find a solution and nothing seems to work! What am I missing??

Mostly just a bump...
How about that .local extension, or trailing / ?

Mac OS X Server 10.6.8 on Xserve 2009 - Admin Account Won't Login

Hello,
I installed the Lightspeed Server demo on my server - other accounts login, and I can use the admin credentials to access the server (Server Admin, AFP, etc), but auto login does not work, and the login window shakes when I try to login to that account on the server. Any suggestions?
Thanks!

First off I would check the console and see what it says when you try to log in with the admin account. It will give a message saying what the issue is.
Also is this a local admin or a network admin account?

Login to admin account fails suddenly

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