User accounts REALLY messed up, my fault!

a couple weeks ago swapped out old, dead hard drive , upgraded ram 4 gb on 7.1 aluminum imac 20". yay, right?

well, not completely, no.

• see, lazy mac owner am, before hd fail, messed time machine backups on external hd. last backup march 2011. after that, tm having backup failures had trouble diagnosing. after doing digging, found piece of advice said 1) exclude user accounts backup 2) let tm backup 3) restore user accounts tm , should fine (or effect, can't remember details, i've been through trauma losing mac baby week now). well, forgot restore user accounts tm before hd died. know, know- stupid!

• anyway, did have complete backup including user accounts march in time machine, migration assistant wouldn't let me choose date restore info. user accounts file size calculated 0 kb, , when let go next step, just...restored latest backup point, did not include user files- pictures, music, movies, documents. software update wouldn't work. when tried copy files over, permissions messed up. wiped hd again , started over, got messy.

• after reinstalling snow leopard, decided to manual restore, restore user account files march backup. manually went tm , grabbed files wanted- itunes media, iphoto pics, ilife apps, , imovies, mainly. don't think did hd/account naming right, because permissions realllllly messed up. have admin account , when click on son's account, standard acct, don't have perms see library or various other files ("you don't have permission..."). , i've been getting various kernel panics- crash reports have titles like: security agent, window server, managed client, safari, app store, mail, dmproxy, - whopping 28 crash reports since saturday evening. there haven't been many kernel panic shutdowns, handful in last couple weeks.

•yesterday memtested new ram, failed on place, , reseated , retested 3 times since, passed. last crash reports last night, last crash happened while downloading latest iphoto app store.app , after trashed safari & app store, , got rid of plists in library file. no crashes since, again, haven't taxed system asking much. of crash reports have in common:

exception type: exc_bad_access (sigsegv)

exception codes: kern_invalid_address

or @ least vast majority of them do. can attach or paste need me if need more info on these.

• question:

if wipe hd , start on again restoring time machine, end same file hierarchy/user account permission problems have now. is there better program use iphotos , itunes media (without associating them user permissions) can start on scratch , have mackie back? or there way fix without starting over?



head hurts.

please help!

laura

 

ram test failures, eh? perhaps old hdd still , can run new tm backup new destination try , capture migration assistant move new drive.

here's did upgrade hdd , ram...

1 - create new tm backup on firewire drive , let finish. it's done, shut down , install new drive.
2 - install ram @ same time.
3 - install sl dvd , pick migration tm backup , pick new 1 made in step 1.
4 - enjoy.

in case, old hdd might dead (not simulated dead ram errors having). if old hdd dead, stuck managed backed up. try " entet time machine" , see if old data there other users. also, can browse backup in finder. volume "time machine backups" mounted, browse , if keep poking around can find everything. it's nice getting accounts restored might able recover individual files. whatever do, not allow tm write new backup until want back.

 

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