HELP - Log in/Administrator account disappeared

jasonfjjasonfj
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Having restarted my computer my log in has vanished. I have a Guest login, which is still available, but my main account doesn't appear at startup. It's grayed out in the Accounts preference pane under 'Groups'.



I cannot authenticate to try and repair permissions or verify the drive as the computer won't recognize my username or password.



What can I do?





MBP 15" 2.4ghz

OS 10.5.6

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 1
    frjolefrjole Posts: 5member
    Alright, this is going to be fun. Be careful, and follow these directions closely. We're going to make you a new Admin account.



    Turn on the computer, and as soon as you let go of the power button, hold down the Command and S keys until the Apple logo shows up.



    Instead of the spinny, you should get white text on a black screen, that will stop scrolling after a short bit.



    At the prompt, type in the following:

    Code:


    mount -uw /





    and press return.



    On the next line, type the following:

    Code:


    rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone





    and triple-check it before you press return.



    Then, type "exit" and hit return. You'll end up in the setup assistant where you can create a new account like you did when you first got the computer.



    Now, as far as fixing your existing, broken account, I've got no idea.
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