Migration Assistant - Files Transferred, but no User Account

Question

I used Migration Assistant to migrate a User account from an early 2009 Macbook Pro to a brand new Macbook Pro. The files transferred (they appear in Macintosh HD / Users), but there is no User account showing in System Preferences or at Login. The permissions are blocking me from accessing the files. I can change them one by one, but, naturally, I'd rather not. I'd love it if there were just some way for me to force the OS to recognize the User so that I can delete the Temp user and work from my original User (I tried to Migrate from the initial setup screen, but it wouldn't find my backup volume).
Some background--beginning a few months ago, I was having some technical problems, and on the advice of an apple-certified tech had attempted to create a new user account. It appeared to fix the problem, so I began manually migrating files, but slowly, so that if it was a software issue, I would be able to isolate the problem software. A month in and after only half of the files were transferred, the tech problem reappeared, so I wound up with half of my files in one user account, half in another. I went ahead and migrated the other half of the files, but wound up with serious permissions issues all over the drive (mainly in photos, music). That is the backup that I am migrating from onto my new replacement Macbook Pro. I don't know if it's the permissions problems that are mucking up the migrate, or what. I have several older backups (from a prior, prior Mac) with no permissions problems, but that's a last resort, as I'd rather avoid the headache of figuring out what files I've updated since those year-old or more backups.
Also, I've been running MA from a Time Capsule using an Ethernet connection. I bought a USB to USB cable, but the comp won't find the TC unless it's connected via network. Any better, faster connections? I use the machine for work, and I'd rather spend as little time migrating as possible.
Thanks in advance, folks.

Answer 1

Sorry for the confusion. My first Mac was a PowerBook--we'll call it "PowerBook." Then I had a 2007 MBP--we'll call it First MBP. PowerBook was migrated to First MBP with no problems except some unreliable Airport at times. I did an Erase & Install and transferred data folder-by-folder from PowerBook to First MBP, as I had read somewhere that Airport settings migrated from PowerBook might cause troubles when put on an Intel machine. (Some minor problems persisted, but those are most likely irrelevant here). Then, I bought a new MBP at the beginning of 2009 when Apple came out with the new design. We'll call that Defective MBP. I just received a replacement MBP, call it "Replacement MBP."
I bought Defective MBP and migrated First MBP to it using Migration Assistant. Defective MBP began having technical problems--it froze up, it said I had no Airport card installed, yet it passed all hardware tests. So I took it to Apple, who replaced the Airport card.
I then began seeing a third-party certified repair person to avoid making appointments. She was the one who advised me to create a new user account, because her tests were suggesting a software issue. I wasn't given detailed instructions on how to treat the temp user account. So, yes, I moved all files from "clwaltrip" (the original user account) to the corresponding folder in "catherine," what should have been the diagnostic temp account. By "corresponding folder," I mean that I moved the contents of Users/clwaltrip/Music to Users/catherine/Music, and so on--like a manual rebuild. I manually reset permissions on each of these folders to allow "catherine" Read & Write access, instructed Finder to Apply to Enclosed Items, and was still getting blocked by permissions all over the place. I eventually made sure that clwaltrip was empty of any important files and deleted the clwaltrip user account. I (very unwisely) attempted to set the permissions on Macintosh HD for "catherine" to "Read & Write". That, of course, required me to go back and repair permissions for days. (Yes, I am duly sheepish). (BTW, Defective MBP was sent in for service twice more during this period, the Airport card was replaced again, a cable was remounted, or whatever they did--nothing worked.) It was only a couple of days after the Macintosh HD permissions repair fiasco that I requested and was approved for a replacement (further issues were indicating a logic board fail, perhaps--drag and drop stopped working, etc). I backed up the single user account, catherine, from the Defective MBP onto the TC via Ethernet (likely with some remaining permissions issues not allowing "catherine" to access "clwaltrip"'s files even though clwaltrip no longer existed).
I received the Replacement MBP and attempted to connect to the TC during initial setup using Ethernet. No connection could be made--it would not even time out after a few hours of reading the time machine backup. I forced restart and tried again. It still would not connect to the TC backup on initial setup. So I forced restart (held down power) skipped that step in setup, allowed it to create a user account (named "clwaltrip" again), and ran Migration Assistant from the Utilities folder (That was when I plugged in the USB, but after no response, I unhooked it and moved exclusively to Ethernet connection to run Migration Assistant--Airport was off). From the TC backups, I selected the backup volume "catherine" mentioned above. No new user account was created, but the user FOLDER for "catherine" is there, complete with all files (see below for details). I have made the "iTunes Library" in Users/catherine/Music the iTunes Library for "clwaltrip" and had to change some permissions to do so. (It's interesting that under "Sharing and Permissions" for these folders, the users listed are "staff," "everyone" and "(unknown)"--presumably "catherine" should be in there somewhere, but it is not and does not come up on the list when I select "+" to add permission for a new user.) I have added "clwaltrip" and given it Read & Write access to Users/catherine/Music, Users/catherine/Documents and Users/catherine/Pictures and applied all to enclosed items. I have not yet checked to see how well those permissions changes worked, nor have I physically moved any files from Users/catherine to Users/clwaltrip.
I hope that all makes sense so far. I have backups of Defective MBP and First MBP, both before and after the Erase & Install mentioned in the first paragraph. (I actually have oodles of old backups and computers with most of my original files on them, if I need to start from scratch somehow).
So. Replacement MBP now shows ONE user account in System Preferences--clwaltrip, the one set up by the initial setup screens when I took the computer out of the box and could not get setup to access the Time Capsule, as explained above. But Finder shows TWO User folders--Users/clwaltrip (from initial setup) and Users/catherine (migrated from the TC backup of Defective MBP). I used the option to transfer accounts, settings--I checked all boxes, in other words, and I only selected the "catherine" account to transfer from the TC backup (because there was only one account on Defective MBP when I last backed it up, as explained above).
Yes, the Macintosh HD/Users/Catherine folder appears to be "orphaned" in that it does not show up in SysPref, but otherwise appears to have normal enclosed folders--Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Library, Movies, Music, Pictures, Public & Sites. And from what I can tell, it contains exactly what the "catherine" Home folder looked like on Defective MBP--same Desktop shortcuts, same enclosed items in catherine/Music, everything.
About the red "no access" badge--back when I had two user accounts on the Defective MBP, I used to see the no access badge when trying to access "clwaltrip" folders from the diagnostic account, "catherine". But I altered privileges while logged in as clwaltrip to allow catherine Read & Write access, in order to transfer the clwaltrip files to catherine. The red badge went away and it does NOT show up on the items in the Users/catherine folder when viewed from clwaltrip on the Replacement MBP.
You know, I think I knew that about the TC USB port at one point and just forgot. I'll put a Post-It on the TC to make sure I remember from now on.
Thanks for your patience!