Unable to delete user account

M

MartinDenmark

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I am having trouble deleting a user account from my iMac G5 PowerPC running OS 10.5. I have made a series of mistakes which now prevents me from being able to delete this account.
First, I tried to change the name (full name as well as short name and user folder path). Secondly, I deleted the user folder manually.
So, basically all files and folders associated with this account are gone, but the user name still shows up in the system pref window, but with the "-" button greyed out.

The account I want to delete is the one which was made when I installed the OS in the first place. I have a feeling this might be problematic.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
I should add that I have nothing I want to keep on the affected machine. I just want to transfer my user account from a time machine backup. It would be easiest to just reinstall the entire system from scratch - if only I could find my install dvd...
 
First off you can delete an account before making another Administrator accountO Once you make that account boot into it so OS X can make a 'Home' folder for that account. Then while in that new Administrator account you can delete the old Administrator account. Just make sure the Lock symbol is in the unlocked position in the System Preferences->Accounts pane.

Now to get fancy from that account you can follow the steps at this blog post.
 
I already made a new admin account. From this account, I am not able to delete the old one. It shows up in user accounts window in system prefs, but not in login window at startup.
 
Now I tried to make another user account with admin privileges. From this, I was able to delete both of my old accounts. Strange, but it worked.
 
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