[ReverendTim]

Hey, all...

In light of my USB problems, I'm considering just doing a clean install of OS 9 from the CD. What's that going to do to my wife's and my Multiple User profiles?

--
Rev. Tim

[Paul Crawford]

Hi Rev. Tim,

It shouldn't be too much of a problem... The clean install won't touch the 'Users' folder at the root level of your startup disk, which contains the user subfolder holding your wife's documents & personalised preferences such as the 'User Prefs' prefs-file storing her Appearance settings, etc. (Although, you could keep a backup copy of the 'Users' folder just in case.)

After the clean install (and before restarting, if possible), you'd just need to copy/move the relevant Multiple Users (MU) system preferences from the old (previous) System Folder's Preferences subfolder over into the new System Folder's Preferences subfolder (i.e., in addition to any of your other non-MU system settings you want to retain). From my own experience, such MU system preferences would include:-

• the entire 'Multi-User Items' folder (which contains MU system settings inside various subfolders, e.g.: a 'Users DB.data' list of known users; a 'User Pictures' file storing "global" custom login pictures; "personalised" groups of aliases to accessible items, for Limited/Panels users; etc., etc.)
• the 'Multi-User Prefs' file (which holds the MU control panel's settings, including its 'On'/'Off' state)
• the 'Multiple-Users' folder (which might be optional, as it only seems to be used by the Login app?)
• the 'Client Prefs' file (which, in most MU versions, is the Owner's equivalent of 'User Prefs', storing your personal Appearance settings, etc.)

As far as I can recall, the above are the significant MU system preferences. I wish you good luck with the clean install, and hope that it will resolve your USB issues.

Regards,

--Paul

[This message has been edited by Paul Crawford (edited 03-10-2001).]