The following procedure will reset OS X back to its default settings leaving you able to setup users once again.
To Reset OSX --------- 1)Boot MacOS X in single user mode, by holding down Command-S on startup.
2)Type the following commands from the command line: mount -uw / cd /private/var/db/netinfo mv local.nidb local.old rm ../.AppleSetupDone exit
3)Mac OS X will then restart, and display its initial 'Welcome' and user configuration screens."
In a second email, Bill went on to explain:
I would consider the commands I listed as a last act. Very simply they will save an OS X install, but will not result by themselves in bringing back the prior configuration. The commands ran from single user mode need to be typed exactly to work. What the above commands do is first they rename the file containing user configuration information (local.nidb) so the system will not find it on boot. Next the rm removes the Apple setup preferences causing the system on startup to act as if OS X has never been ran on this system giving you the opportunity to create new users.
The above commands are most useful in the case where you have installed OS X, work with it for a short time and decide you are not happy with the way it is setup. The commands allow you to start over from scratch. The more configuration you have done to your system the more work necessary to recreate that configuration.
As it happened, the reboot after entering the commands listed above gave me back Jaguar's welcome screen and all the setup questions. With fingers crossed, I entered everything exactly as I had when I first installed Jaguar (not so very long ago, so I remembered), down to my user information, and voila!!! Got back almost all my previous configurations I think, except now of course I'm running OS10.2 instead of 10.2.6. I'm feeling very, very lucky right now, and very, very thankful!
Carolyn in Missouri
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