cannot start up MacPro

Now on start up I get login panel asking for name and password. It will not accept what I know to be correct.
Graley wrote on :
Hve an Intel MacPro. Sys 10.4.8. I had power failure for a few seconds. Now on start up I get login panel asking for name and password. It will not accept what I know to be correct. I have run disk utility from original system CD: no probs found. Have Zapped PRAM. Have repaired permissions. Have repaired disk: no repairs necessary. Have run fsck in single user mode. No probs found. Have tried safe boot. Still i get login panel but no further. Any ideas very welcome.
sbt replied on :

In article 45ecbf13$0$31107$5a62ac22@redacted.invalid, Graley OMIT.highrise@redacted.invalid wrote:

Hve an Intel MacPro. Sys 10.4.8. I had power failure for a few seconds. Now on start up I get login panel asking for name and password. It will not accept what I know to be correct. I have run disk utility from original system CD: no probs found. Have Zapped PRAM. Have repaired permissions. Have repaired disk: no repairs necessary. Have run fsck in single user mode. No probs found. Have tried safe boot. Still i get login panel but no further. Any ideas very welcome.

First guess: Is your caps-lock key down (passwords are case-sensitive)?

If that's not the case, boot from your Tiger DVD that came with the computer. When the Installer screen appears, go to the menus and find the Reset Password command to set it to something new. Reboot and enter that new password when prompted.

Graley replied on :

On 2007-03-06 11:30:08 +1000, sbt dogbreath@redacted.invalid said:

In article 45ecbf13$0$31107$5a62ac22@redacted.invalid, Graley OMIT.highrise@redacted.invalid wrote:

Hve an Intel MacPro. Sys 10.4.8. I had power failure for a few seconds. Now on start up I get login panel asking for name and password. It will not accept what I know to be correct. I have run disk utility from original system CD: no probs found. Have Zapped PRAM. Have repaired permissions. Have repaired disk: no repairs necessary. Have run fsck in single user mode. No probs found. Have tried safe boot. Still i get login panel but no further. Any ideas very welcome.

First guess: Is your caps-lock key down (passwords are case-sensitive)?

If that's not the case, boot from your Tiger DVD that came with the computer. When the Installer screen appears, go to the menus and find the Reset Password command to set it to something new. Reboot and enter that new password when prompted.

I get message 'No avaiable users" and so cannot input new password. Grrr

sbt replied on :

In article 45ecdb18$0$31092$5a62ac22@redacted.invalid, Graley OMIT.highrise@redacted.invalid wrote:

On 2007-03-06 11:30:08 +1000, sbt dogbreath@redacted.invalid said:

In article 45ecbf13$0$31107$5a62ac22@redacted.invalid, Graley OMIT.highrise@redacted.invalid wrote:

Hve an Intel MacPro. Sys 10.4.8. I had power failure for a few seconds. Now on start up I get login panel asking for name and password. It will not accept what I know to be correct. I have run disk utility from original system CD: no probs found. Have Zapped PRAM. Have repaired permissions. Have repaired disk: no repairs necessary. Have run fsck in single user mode. No probs found. Have tried safe boot. Still i get login panel but no further. Any ideas very welcome.

First guess: Is your caps-lock key down (passwords are case-sensitive)?

If that's not the case, boot from your Tiger DVD that came with the computer. When the Installer screen appears, go to the menus and find the Reset Password command to set it to something new. Reboot and enter that new password when prompted.

I get message 'No avaiable users" and so cannot input new password. Grrr

Okay...that's useful information, but not a message you want to encounter. Either the user directories got hosed in the power failure or the NetInfo database got hosed.

If I didn't have a backup, the first thing I would try is to install OS X onto an external (or secondary) drive, boot from that and see what, if anything, I could recover from the old drive. After that, I would reformat and reinstall to my internal drive.

Having had this sort of catastrophe occur many years ago, I keep my stuff backed up -- SuperDuper! is a really useful utility for OS X (much nicer than anything I've encountered for older MacOS releases or Windows, although Ghost isn't bad). I would also suggest a Uninterruptible Power Supply -- when you have an investment in hardware as nice as a MacPro, keeping its environment, including the power flow, clean and steady is worthwhile.

Investing in a backup drive is a good idea -- you'll want it for Time Machine when Leopard ships, anyway.

Graley replied on :

On 2007-03-06 13:29:04 +1000, sbt dogbreath@redacted.invalid said:

In article 45ecdb18$0$31092$5a62ac22@redacted.invalid, Graley OMIT.highrise@redacted.invalid wrote:

On 2007-03-06 11:30:08 +1000, sbt dogbreath@redacted.invalid said:

In article 45ecbf13$0$31107$5a62ac22@redacted.invalid, Graley OMIT.highrise@redacted.invalid wrote:

Hve an Intel MacPro. Sys 10.4.8. I had power failure for a few seconds. Now on start up I get login panel asking for name and password. It will not accept what I know to be correct. I have run disk

Ah ! Success so far. I called myself "System administrator" and it accepted my password. I am now downloading 10.4.8 and I hope I have user files preserved.

Andreas Rutishauser replied on :

Salut Graley

In article 45ecdb18$0$31092$5a62ac22@redacted.invalid, Graley OMIT.highrise@redacted.invalid wrote:

On 2007-03-06 11:30:08 +1000, sbt dogbreath@redacted.invalid said:

In article 45ecbf13$0$31107$5a62ac22@redacted.invalid, Graley OMIT.highrise@redacted.invalid wrote:

Hve an Intel MacPro. Sys 10.4.8. I had power failure for a few seconds. Now on start up I get login panel asking for name and password. It will not accept what I know to be correct. I have run disk utility from original system CD: no probs found. Have Zapped PRAM. Have repaired permissions. Have repaired disk: no repairs necessary. Have run fsck in single user mode. No probs found. Have tried safe boot. Still i get login panel but no further. Any ideas very welcome.

First guess: Is your caps-lock key down (passwords are case-sensitive)?

If that's not the case, boot from your Tiger DVD that came with the computer. When the Installer screen appears, go to the menus and find the Reset Password command to set it to something new. Reboot and enter that new password when prompted.

I get message 'No avaiable users" and so cannot input new password. Grrr

you did not by accident choose the install DVD as volume to reset passwords instead of the Macintosh HD?

Cheers Andreas

Graley replied on :

On 2007-03-06 15:38:56 +1000, Andreas Rutishauser andreas@redacted.invalid said:

Salut Graley

In article 45ecdb18$0$31092$5a62ac22@redacted.invalid, Graley OMIT.highrise@redacted.invalid wrote:

On 2007-03-06 11:30:08 +1000, sbt dogbreath@redacted.invalid said:

In article 45ecbf13$0$31107$5a62ac22@redacted.invalid, Graley OMIT.highrise@redacted.invalid wrote:

Hve an Intel MacPro. Sys 10.4.8. I had power failure for a few seconds. Now on start up I get login panel asking for name and password. It will not accept what I know to be correct. I have run disk utility from original system CD: no probs found. Have Zapped PRAM. Have repaired permissions. Have repaired disk: no repairs necessary. Have run fsck in single user mode. No probs found. Have tried safe boot. Still i get login panel but no further. Any ideas very welcome.

First guess: Is your caps-lock key down (passwords are case-sensitive)?

If that's not the case, boot from your Tiger DVD that came with the computer. When the Installer screen appears, go to the menus and find the Reset Password command to set it to something new. Reboot and enter that new password when prompted.

I get message 'No avaiable users" and so cannot input new password. Grrr

you did not by accident choose the install DVD as volume to reset passwords instead of the Macintosh HD?

Cheers Andreas

No..Chose right volume