OS reset, but files still here? 10.4.3 G4 PB

[inneedofhelpnow]

OS X 10.4.3

I ran permissions, but that only fixed a minor problem.

I check the hard disk, but evrything checked out.

No other devices attached at the moment.

That beign said. I have no idea of the extent of damage or cause of it. I booted up my powerbook, and evrything appears reset to default. As far as I can tell all of my files are still here, but none of the application configurations I had set are present. Programs are frequently crashing. None of my password strings have been stored, and none save. When I boot iChat for instance the setup script runs as though I have just installed the application.

Completely confused, please ask any questions that would help address the problem asap, the program crashing is preventing me from doing anything productive.

The only thing I could think of that might of contributed is a time when I ended the file cleaning process, when the OS goes to shut down, before it was done.

I am new to a macintosh, so please bear with me.

 

[sourcehound]

OS X 10.4.3

I ran permissions, but that only fixed a minor problem.

I check the hard disk, but evrything checked out.

No other devices attached at the moment.

That beign said. I have no idea of the extent of damage or cause of it. I booted up my powerbook, and evrything appears reset to default. As far as I can tell all of my files are still here, but none of the application configurations I had set are present. Programs are frequently crashing. None of my password strings have been stored, and none save. When I boot iChat for instance the setup script runs as though I have just installed the application.

Completely confused, please ask any questions that would help address the problem asap, the program crashing is preventing me from doing anything productive.

The only thing I could think of that might of contributed is a time when I ended the file cleaning process, when the OS goes to shut down, before it was done.

I am new to a macintosh, so please bear with me.

Your user account appears to have lost the connection to its home directory. Try creating a different admin user account and logging in as that user. Does the situation resolve itself? If so, then that's probably the issue. BTW, the repair permissions process won't fix your home directories permissions, you'd have to reset those manually from the command line, not fun.