[PreciousBbird]

I messed up BIG time. I had difficulty installing Leopard and ended up with at least three "Previous System" folders. The most recent issue is that I have two users that I would like to combine into one.

One of my current users has my current mail, but my other user has all my old files. I would like to keep the current user with the current mail and transfer all the old stuff over to this user. I know this can be done, which is why I have not panicked, I just don't know how.

I searched the forums, but failed to find what I needed. Will someone please help me?

Thanks much!

[TETENAL]

Log into one user and move the files into /Users/Shared. Then log into the other and drag them wherever you want them to be.

[besson3c]

Or, if the files are scattered through a user's home directory you could invoke an rsync command to merge these files:

sudo rsync -av /path/to/previous/system/folder ~/

[Dafried]

I did something similar with Leopard, but mine was the result of buying a new Hard Drive and wanting to lay down a clean Leopard install.

After installing, I connected my old HD to my Mac and created a user from the old HD.

When I copy the relevant files into the /Users/Shared folder, then log back into the destination user, the folders within the /Users/Shared folder are red "x" out and I cannot get access to them.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks i advance,

David

[Gavin]

try this, open the terminal app (I hope this doesn't sound too patronizing, but you never know where someone's skill level is, and someone else may learn something )

type
sudo chown -R username /Users/Shared/*

where username is your "short name", the same as the name of your user folder

chown changes the owner to you (username), -R means do it for all the files in that folder, and files in folders in that folder...

sudo runs the command as root, which allows you to manipulate files you don't own.

it will ask you for your password


you could also do this directly on the old user folder instead of dragging the files into the Shared folder

[PreciousBbird]

Thanks, Gavin. I waited a few days to get the courage up and it worked perfectly! I have three fake users (so I could see the login cube) and I did it on the entire folder. Of course, now comes the slight mess of cleaning up all the duplicates, but that's not as bad as not being allowed access to the folders.

Thanks again.

[Gavin]

Hey, glad I could help.

This is why those UNIX guys love the command line - it puts you in complete control of the machine.

There's probably a way to write a script that will clean up the duplicates for you but that's beyond me.