SOS! User account disappeared after password reset!

Hi all, and I apologize for waltzing in and hollering for help like this. I have a user with a Mini running OS X 10.4.11, and this morning the user called me over because she didn't know her password. She normally would boot right into single-user, so it was odd that it asked for a pass at all. In any event we tried to figure her pass out for a while with no success, so I grabbed the OS X 10.4.6 install DVD and went to the reset password utility. I reset the pass and started up, and it gave me a login window with non usernames, just a blank username/pass option. I typed in the user's name and pass (I'd just set it not two minutes prior) and got the window shake.
I repaired permissions and verified the disk, and went back to the reset pass util, which now says there's no user to reset the pass for on that disk!
This would be a major disaster for me if somehow the user was deleted. Any help at all much much appreciated, if you have anything you can give me. I get notified via email immediately so I'll respond fast.

Just an update: I went through the restore netinfo db processes, logged into single user, ran the terminal commands, and there was no network.nidb file where it was supposed to be. I ended up going old school and connecting via Target Disk Mode to another computer, copying out the user files (which were still there, thankfully) and reinstalling the whole dang thing. so, solved, I guess.

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