Can't delete user account

S

slick123

Registered
Hi,
When I turned on my emac yesterday, it reinstalled OS 10.4.8 during which I needed to create a new user account. (I want to eliminate that user account because I think it is causing me printer problems. Why do I think this causing the printer problems...it is the only new thing that has happened) When I go system prefs and go to accounts, I can't choose the account I want to highlight. I am new at this and very frustrated.
thanks, slick
 
You turned the Mac on and "it" reinstalled 10.4.8? ... Do you mean the update was done again or did you just have the installation DVD in the drive and actually overwrote your installation somehow? It's just not entirely clear to me what you mean, because Macs shouldn't just "reinstall" an OS or OS update.
 
When It booted up, I got the OS 10.4 and I had to go through the screens to set up an account. After that was done, I found my original user account on the hard drive. There was no cd in the computer when I booted up. I am a longtime Mac user but only surface literate.
 
There could be various reasons. I'm still thinking about a reason for why you were asked to create a new account in the first place. :/ ... So: You now have _two_ user accounts in System Preferences' "Accounts" preference pane, right? The new one you're logged into, I guess, and the old one you want to delete? (Just making sure you're not trying to delete the same user account you're logged into at the moment.) Is Fast User Switching activated?
 
I want to delete the new account I created. I do have Fast User Switching activated. I must admit my first post seemed rather odd and I can't explain it. Now I just want to get back to where I was before I created the new account. Everything was working well up until that point.
 
You have to make sure that:

a) You're logged into the account you *don't* want to delete.
b) You have backed up everything you'll still need from the account you _want_ to delete.
c) You're _not_ logged into the account you want to delete. (You can be logged into both if Fast User Switching is activated.)
d) Your "for keeps" account is an administrator account. If it's not, log into the other account (which therefore would be an admin account) and make both accounts administrative accounts.

Then it should be no problem deleting the account you want to delete. If you're absolutely sure that everything's just as I described, repair permissions using Disk Utility, restart the computer, login to your account which you want to keep and try again to delete the other.

If *nothing* works, backup everything you need (your complete user folder plus applications plus stuff in /Library/ you might still need), start up using your 10.4.x installation DVD, clean install Tiger (erasing the drive), apply all updates from Software Update and then bring back your stuff from the backup. These steps, of course, are only a last resort. We still don't really know what you did in order to make the computer ask you to create a new account, which leaves the process of troubleshooting a little "blindfolded" here...
 
Thanks for all the information. I was able to delete the account now am on to solving the next problem: I can't print. It is a mystery to me what I did, and I know that I did do something! I will never again stay up until 4:00am "dinking" around on my computer.... again thanks for all your time. Tamra
 
Does your eMac have OS 9? Maybe you booted to OS 9 and deleted, moved or renamed a file. It seems the .AppleSetupDone file had become corrupt, renamed, moved or deleted. That activated the "Welcome" for a new install setup. By creating a new user with exactly the same account shortname as the original user, the NetInfo.db got very annoyed. It is so hard to delete the original slick123 if there is another slick123 that you have logged in as.
 
I'm glad that removing the account worked fine now. Do you already have a a thread about the printing issue?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top