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steve477668 · May 1, 2008, 11:20 AM

the last thing i did was try to open quicktime...it wouldnt load and said something about the /oss3D app's plugin not functioning. now the oss3d app has an uninstaller but only for intel and im PPC (leopard5.2) so i uninstalled as much oss3d stuff as i could find and rebooted...
it only got as fat as finishing loading both ethernet and just hung there for ages...
so i unplugged the everything from the ethernet ports and tryed again and it got as far as the blue screen with the spinning circle thing, and thats it.
i tryed resetting the Pram, but thats not helped, and it wont boot into safe mode (although im using a non apple keyboard if that makes any difference)
i have got another boot disk (the one im using now/) and ive removed all the last of the OSS3d stuff there is, but im still getting the same problem...
all my day work is on that disk so if someone can take pt n a or mac noob then i would be ultra greatful,
cheers,
steve

Cold Warrior · May 1, 2008, 11:28 AM

Insert the Leopard DVD and boot your Mac while holding the c key. This will make it start up from the Leopard disc.

Walk through the installation process, but make sure you hit the Options (or is it Customize) button a couple screens into the process. Choose Archive and Install, and do not preserve users or network settings.

This will give you a clean, usable Leopard installation on your Mac, but will keep your old, dysfunctional system plus all your personal files and applications in a Previous Systems folder on your hard drive.

About Archive and Install

Sherman Homan · May 1, 2008, 11:29 AM

Get your Leopard installation disk out, boot from it by holding down the "option" key after the startup chime. You should be rewarded with a screen that has a icon for the Leopard disk and (hopefully!) an icon for your hard drive.
Click the Leopard icon, don't start the installation process, instead, choose Utilities from the menu bar, select Disk Utility, run the Repair Disk process. Report back in!

steve477668 · 12:26 PM

ok will do, *fingers crossed*
thanks for the fast response guys

edit:
i did the repair disk but that didnt work as it sill hung on boot...

Sherman Homan · May 1, 2008, 02:40 PM

But Disk Utility did see the hard drive, right? If so, do the deal that Cold Warrior suggested.

steve477668 · May 1, 2008, 05:42 PM

Ok, ive done that and im using the new leo install ( i an see a folder called previous systems as well)
but how do i put everything back the way it was pls?

cheers
steve..

adamfishercox · May 1, 2008, 05:45 PM

drag your files from the previous systems folder to the place you want them. Any apps and settings you have might be best to reinstall from disk so you have a clean system.

steve477668 · May 1, 2008, 07:18 PM

this is my old user's folder but i cant get into it:

what do i do now?
cheers,
steve

adamfishercox · May 1, 2008, 07:22 PM

What happens when you try to get to it?

Sherman Homan · 08:13 PM

Wait a minute, did you do an Archive & Install? If so, you should have been able to log with your original user account. It looks like you have created a new user account. If you go to your System Preferences, Accounts do you see your original account?

steve477668 · May 1, 2008, 07:52 PM

i can get into the admin account (called 'rrrrrrrr' in the pic, but not my 'standard' account 'stevemay' all the folders there are locked)

i thought i was so close to having everything back together too lol...

steve

Sherman Homan · May 1, 2008, 08:14 PM

Unless there is something hideously wrong with "stevemay", go up to the Apple icon, log out of rrrrrrrrr and log into stevemay. All your problems in life will be solved.

Maybe.

Sherman Homan · May 1, 2008, 08:25 PM

Ooops, spoke too soon, is stevemay in the Users folder that is not in the Previous System folder?

steve477668 · May 1, 2008, 08:51 PM

these are the only users i get on the login window..

so are you saying that i can have those users back again to log into as before?

the 'stevemay and 'rrrrrrr' users...

i have to make my apologies here as im a amc noob still...

ibook_steve · May 1, 2008, 09:13 PM

No. It does not look like you did an archive & install. If you had, the users in the Previous Systems folder would be in the current Users folder.

Steve

steve477668 · May 1, 2008, 09:42 PM

i did do exactly as i was told to here..the archive and install but not preserve users or network settings.
i did that and this is what i have now

reader50 · May 1, 2008, 10:13 PM

He followed the instructions exactly. The problem is the instructions contained one error. Which made his old user account hard to reach.

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

Insert the Leopard DVD and boot your Mac while holding the c key. This will make it start up from the Leopard disc.

Walk through the installation process, but make sure you hit the Options (or is it Customize) button a couple screens into the process. Choose Archive and Install, and do not preserve users or network settings.

This will give you a clean, usable Leopard installation on your Mac, but will keep your old, dysfunctional system plus all your personal files and applications in a Previous Systems folder on your hard drive.

About Archive and Install

Select your old user folder in the Previous Systems hierarchy - what used to be your home folder. Get Info on it. Click open the Ownership & Permissions part of the pane. You will need to Authenticate before you can do the next step, so click the lock icon and give your admin password.

Pop up the Owner, change it to your new account. Make sure the Access part below it is Read & Write. Then click the button at the bottom of the pane "Apply to enclosed items...". This will change the ownership for all items within your old home folder. You'll be able to open it and drag stuff back.

If Leopard won't let you do this from your normal or Admin accounts, then you'll need to enable the root user and do the trick from there.

reader50 · May 1, 2008, 10:33 PM

Another solution might be to manually launch Migration Assistant and try to import the old user folder.

/Applications/Utilities/Migration Assistant.app

However, the last time I tried under Tiger, Migration Assistant wasn't smart enough to search for users outside of a root Users folder. Maybe the Leopard version is smarter though.

Cold Warrior · May 2, 2008, 01:53 AM

It was intentional. His system sounded more borked than usual, so I said not to preserve users because it might have preserved user-level corruption within ~/Library.

It's only a minor inconvenience, but one I should have mentioned.

You should be able to access these old folders as an admin or root user in the place I mentioned - Previous Systems (as displayed in your image). If they're locked, just Get Info and change permissions to read/write for your current admin user you log in with.

steve477668 · May 2, 2008, 08:49 AM

Originally Posted by reader50

Another solution might be to manually launch Migration Assistant and try to import the old user folder.

/Applications/Utilities/Migration Assistant.app

However, the last time I tried under Tiger, Migration Assistant wasn't smart enough to search for users outside of a root Users folder. Maybe the Leopard version is smarter though.

ok im going to give this one a try first and will get back to you on weather it worked...
cheers
steve

steve477668 · May 2, 2008, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by reader50

Another solution might be to manually launch Migration Assistant and try to import the old user folder.

/Applications/Utilities/Migration Assistant.app

However, the last time I tried under Tiger, Migration Assistant wasn't smart enough to search for users outside of a root Users folder. Maybe the Leopard version is smarter though.

thanks reader50 i finally did it thanks to you...(i needed to slim my new install down a bit, but i made it eventually)
heres the finished product:

i now have all my old users back and everything is well...
a huge thanks to everyone that helped with this, im now a little bit wiser and a whole lot happier

steve.

reader50 · May 2, 2008, 02:52 PM

That's good to hear, we always like success stories.

Did Migration Assistant under Leopard find your old account, or did you have to do the permissions change on your old home folder?

steve477668 · May 3, 2008, 12:26 PM

Originally Posted by reader50

That's good to hear, we always like success stories.

Did Migration Assistant under Leopard find your old account, or did you have to do the permissions change on your old home folder?

nope the migraton assistant found the old folder straight away and installed it just fine, absolutely everything is the way i left it..
i suppose i have one last question whch is, how do i get rid of the user that i had to start with (plus all the files and stuff thats in that account)?

cheers again for all the help,
steveo

Cold Warrior · May 3, 2008, 01:13 PM

Originally Posted by steve477668

how do i get rid of the user that i had to start with (plus all the files and stuff thats in that account)?

cheers again for all the help,
steveo

If you don't want any of it, you can open System Preferences, click Accounts, select the account to be deleted, and choose the - button at the bottom of the pane.