Messed up user names and folders

Question

I got my five-month-old G5 back from the repair shop (after four weeks and a wiped hard drive , everything working fine, I reinstalled all my software (Adobe CS2, printer drivers, NeoOffice), installed mail accounts again etc.
But, the "home" folder/my account name had been set by the repair shop to "test" which I tried to change to James; all this did was create another folder on the HD/users folder called James, with its own set of library, documents etc. I have been using that for the last few weeks. Still logged in a Test, I guess, since "James" isn't actually a seperate account, just a folder. But today I decided I didn't want to be known as Test anymore, and had another go at changing it. Mostly because it's easier to access to "home/test" folder from Finder and in application menus, and I didn't like having these two "users".
Oh dear.
I really don't know what I did wrong, but suddenly I am back to square one. I've been bitten by data loss twice now, so at least all my files are backed up onto an external 250Gb Lacie Disk. But all my bookmarks, mail settings, and software preferences are reset and I can't get them back, or find them in spotlight. I now have Test (with a little house icon) and two folders, James and James O, the name I tried to change Test to just now. The other User Folders are not users as such, I can't log in as them, they are just folders. The bookmarks from the James folder and the Test folder bear no relation to the bookmark structure I laboriously set up in Safari. I can't find any of my settings anywhere, and my restart has just bought up a factory fresh finish...
And the home user is still called Test.
I would phrase this query more succinctly but I am afraid I am at breaking point, losing my machine for four weeks nearly put me out of business and the thought that my settings might so easily be wiped again makes me reluctant to want to spend more time fixing it. And I am very confused as to the difference between "Test" the home folder (whose name I have changed in account settings but springs back to Test when I restart); and the other folders. All of which have various Adobe settings/fonts etc stored away in the libraries, but all of them different.
Which one does the computer use?
And if it's always the home account - in my case Test, why would any setting changes I have made be made in a different folder? And if in renaming Test, I actually casued the old settings to be stored in a folder called James or James O, where are the bookmarks, the application preferences?
I'm hoping there is a mac whizz out there who has some extra-terrerestial powers of understanding of my clumsy explanation here, and who could point me in the right direction; sorry to be less clear. but my brain is just fried. I have spent soooooo many days just fixing/installing/rebooting/fixing this **** machine, it is a far cry from the sweet Mac ads ("when funky designer X wanted to revolutionise the entire music and video business all he used was his shiny new G5....."). If it wasn't so pretty it would be 25 floors down on the Hong Kong sidewalk by now. Actually scrap that, if it wasn't my livelihood and if I had any money to buy a PC, its days would be numbered.
Help please? If not technical then tea and sympathy appreciated.
Thanks
James

Answer 1

Ditto!!! I just did the same thing this past weekend. Bought a "new" PB with OS 10.4.4. Ran the PB for a few days setting up internet access info, mail accounts, download prefs, configuring Firefox with bookmarks, plug-ins & exts. Looked at the Sys Prefs Control panel for Accounts and saw the account name was "newuser" but also saw that I could change the name to my own name "macnicol". Change the account name but could not change the "short name". Didn't think much of that at the time. Ran for a while longer without logging out, updating bookmarks and other goodies. Finally a Firefox upgrade required a restart. After restarting it was apparent that my desktop was different than before the restart. When I ran Firefox it was a square 1 with no ext, plug-ins, history or bookmarks. When I clicked the "home" icon it took me to "newuser". When I checked the accounts, only "macnicol" showed as an active account. It appears now that when ever I configure an applic such as Firefox it updates files in the invisible "newuser" account Library files and whenever I restart everything in "macnicol" is back to a new account square one point. How do I combine "newuser" and "macnicol" to get one account with all of the things I have configured so far? Or how do I set up a new "home" account and start over?
Thanks, macnicol
PB TI GB Mac OS X (10.4.5)