# EMERGENCY!! Mac stuck can not login.



## MikoMew (Aug 24, 2009)

Hello everyone! This is an urgent emergency! I need my mac to finish my essay that is due tomorrow!! Here is the jist of what happened... my mac was on sleep mode turned it on was really slow so i restarted it then my user name is gone! only guest user which only safari which im using now to communicate with you guys. I called Apple support but no soulution fould i can't waste any more time! D: Please EhMac Help me :-(

Im running OS X Lion Mid 2009 MBP.


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## jwootton (Dec 4, 2009)

When you log into the hues user can you see your other user? Under Macintoch HD/Users? If so, at least for now you would be able to access these files to finish your project. Likely you would have to change the permissions via terminal though.


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

I would take it to a local repair shop. There is this one in Markham http://www.macandpc.ca/

I don't know them, never had business with them but they use to have a shop next door to me and I think they moved to current location.


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## MikoMew (Aug 24, 2009)

jwootton said:


> When you log into the hues user can you see your other user? Under Macintoch HD/Users? If so, at least for now you would be able to access these files to finish your project. Likely you would have to change the permissions via terminal though.


Hues?
at the login screen i only see the Guest Users

This is what trouble shooting apple have gave me:
Go into single user mode change the password of the root admin
Go into Recovery mode change password on my own/root admin account
Delete cashe/ram things or something like that 
Delete startupsetup thingy in single user mode

i think it has to do with the ONYX thing i did that 2 nights before...


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## CanadaRAM (Jul 24, 2005)

MikoMew said:


> Hues?


"Guest" as spell corrected by an iPhone or iPad 



MikoMew said:


> at the login screen i only see the Guest Users
> 
> This is what trouble shooting apple have gave me:
> Go into single user mode change the password of the root admin
> ...


OK, please don't keep us guessing 

1) Did you follow the steps given to you by Apple? What was the result?

2) What thing did you do two nights ago?

3) If you didn't understand the Apple instructions, please take the machine to a technician rather than start doing unknown things in Single User mode.


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## broad (Jun 2, 2009)

i hope that essay is backed up to a USB drive or dropbox or something..

assuming it is it might be wise to focus on that for now and then worry about your computer after...just sayin'


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## G-Mo (Sep 26, 2007)

Reinstall and restore from backup.


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## MikoMew (Aug 24, 2009)

CanadaRAM said:


> "Guest" as spell corrected by an iPhone or iPad
> 
> 
> 
> ...



The result was nothing same as before.

I just ran onyx and run the matinance and stuff.

I did follow the instructions properly

And I did reinstall Lion still same result :/


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## hayesk (Mar 5, 2000)

*sigh* unless you know exactly what these maintenance utilities (ONYX, etc.) do, don't run them. As you have learned, they tend to get you into trouble. And when you do learn what these utilities do, you learn that MacOS doesn't need them.


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## MikoMew (Aug 24, 2009)

hayesk said:


> *sigh* unless you know exactly what these maintenance utilities (ONYX, etc.) do, don't run them. As you have learned, they tend to get you into trouble. And when you do learn what these utilities do, you learn that MacOS doesn't need them.


it was like lagging uncontrolably lol so thats why but please have a soulution for me :[


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

CanadaRAM said:


> "Guest" as spell corrected by an iPhone or iPad


Hmmm.. so why can't my Imac do the same thing??



MikoMew said:


> it was like lagging uncontrolably lol so thats why but please have a soulution for me :[


So why not just use your clone or backup and access the essay file? 

You do have a backup as suggested strongly by most utilities before running them yes??? — otherwise no tears shed here. But why do any such a procedure when working on any near due project?? That just blows my mind.

And my apologies for being blunt, but running such a "repair" utility without any form of backup is just a rectal-cranial thinking logic.


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## MikoMew (Aug 24, 2009)

pm-r said:


> Hmmm.. so why can't my Imac do the same thing??
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Your absolutly right but i guess its cause nothing have ever actually happened till now... so thats why.


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

MikoMew said:


> Your absolutly right but i guess its cause nothing have ever actually happened till now... so thats why.


Sort of reminds me of our house being built some 14 years ago and when it was finished I asked our builder why the garage was so narrow and was two feet narrower than the plans showed.

His reply - "s***t happens", which is a bit hard to swallow when we were paying the bills, but one h**l of a *lot* more expensive and a time waster, if even economically feasible to do so or to rectify compared to your essay fix that could just be done by being re-typed.

And you may even end up with a better essay as a result. 

PS: can you tell your teacher/prof that your Mac ate your essay that you had created???


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## Paddy (Jul 13, 2004)

MikoMew, do you have a backup? TimeMachine? SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner clone? Manual backup of your documents??? ANYTHING?

If not, this may turn out to be a rather painful lesson. Always, always, have a current backup - and especially when you're running utilities! Drives go bad, drives die -they're THE most likely part of your computer to go belly up, and usually do so when it's least convenient.

If you do not have a backup drive, PLEASE get one, as soon as humanly possible, and then download and use either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to make a clone of your HD. I would recommend opting for the paid version of SuperDuper, as the support is superb and you will be able to use the automatic scheduling feature so that the backups are made for you every night or at whatever interval you choose.

All you need is a decent USB 2 backup drive - and as drives themselves are a bit expensive right now due to the flooding in Thailand, I'd suggest you get a preassembled one - with at least the capacity of your your internal drive, preferably larger if possible.

Check out the possibilities at Canada Computers:

Canada Computers | 3.5" External

I'd recommend a 3.5" external unless you really need to haul it around with you - they've cheaper, bigger capacity, and have power bricks - they aren't powered by the USB port(s) - some 2.5" drives require being attached to BOTH USB ports, which is a nuisance.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Sometimes things like essays, other bits of current work are begun and finished before the next (nightly!) backup is done - still lots of time for disaster. Personally, when I'm working on a project, I put the project file (a Word document, or whatever) into my Dropbox folder. Updates are immediate. If the computer should suffer a disaster, my work is saved up-to-the-second...


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

+1.

But for any Lion (or any pre lion users for that matter) user they might want to use the donation-ware CCC (my suggested favourite) and it's various backup options for any bootable clone and/or for any data backup, and the latest CCC version includes a Lion recovery partition inclusion option which I don't think that even the latest SuperDuper version has or does.


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

CubaMark said:


> Sometimes things like essays, other bits of current work are begun and finished before the next (nightly!) backup is done - still lots of time for disaster. Personally, when I'm working on a project, I put the project file (a Word document, or whatever) into my Dropbox folder. Updates are immediate. If the computer should suffer a disaster, my work is saved up-to-the-second...



The various Mac data "backup" and saved data options are almost too much and too many for many users, and just using a $10.00-$20.00 USB properly formatted thumb flash drive as a minimum to save one's current user data that's updated almost instantly has some often overlooked options.

But I suspect that many don't and won't bother to do so or make any effort as they've never actually encountered any data loss until it actually happens.

After that and any data loss, hopefully they learn and their "backup" methods hopefully change to something that suits and works for them.


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## MikoMew (Aug 24, 2009)

Thanks for all y'all help but yea i just got it to the apple store took like 4 days to fix... so they basically formatted my mac i have an old super duper back up i have some notes on the dashboard that i need from it how can i access it?


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## broad (Jun 2, 2009)

your username/library/StickiesDatabase

ps google is your friend


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

broad said:


> your username/library/StickiesDatabase
> 
> ps google is your friend



But is that the same Stickies.app database and data as the Dashboard Stickies version data that it uses??


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## broad (Jun 2, 2009)

you're right..i missed the word "dashboard"

the dashboard stickies data should be in username/library/preferences/widget-com.apple.widget.stickies.plist


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

Personally I hate Apple's default installed Dashboard for 99.9% of the stuff it normally installs that often includes some 'stickies' type variation and the resulting resources needed when invoked, and especially confusing for some users when a separate "Stickies" application is installed and used with it's own seemingly separate notes when it's used.


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## MikoMew (Aug 24, 2009)

broad said:


> you're right..i missed the word "dashboard"
> 
> the dashboard stickies data should be in username/library/preferences/widget-com.apple.widget.stickies.plist


i can't seem to find it on lion and i've tried replacing the one at ~/library/preferences with my old one still nothing there :[


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

I don't know if it's the same in Lion but have a look at the recovery directions at Mac OS X lost stickies - dashboard backup & restore

And maybe install "EasyFind" and/or "Find Any File" and do a search for 'widget'.


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