File Sharing Problem

Elrond · #1 November 20th, 2008, 10:58 AM

I have a network of Macs running 10.4.11. One was having a problem starting up as one user, but not as the other user account on the machine. The user trashed a majority of the .plist files on the mac. It did not help. A new user can log on with no problem. Now when other macs try to connect they initially connect and the icon shows on the desktop. If you try to open it it tells you that the server is disconnected and if you go to the Mac having trouble, file sharing has been turned off. If you turn it on and connect, the file sharing is turned off again.

Has anyone seen this? Any ideas besides reinstall the OS and start over?

Elrond · #2 November 21st, 2008, 08:42 AM

Well, I guess I need to start over and reinstall everything. Oh well.

MisterMe · #3 November 21st, 2008, 08:58 AM

Or you could delete the problematic user account and then substitute a new one.

Elrond · #4 November 21st, 2008, 10:57 AM

I had tried that, it lasted about a day and got corrupted and would not log on again. I have reformatted the HD and am reinstalling everything. Should only take a couple days with all the online updates.

MisterMe · #5 November 21st, 2008, 01:36 PM

Reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling software is not the standard remedy for Mac problems. It is an extraordinary remedy for extraordinary problems. Logging in using a different account is a standard test for certain classes of problems. From your description, it is somewhat difficult to understand the exact nature of your problem. However, problems that persist across user accounts are more likely to be hardware-related than software related.