URGENT mac help needed!!!
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  1. #1
    DJTT Tankard fullenglishpint's Avatar
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    Default URGENT mac help needed!!!

    In short: my MBP has locked me out. Every time I try to log in it tells me 'you are unable to log in to the user account.... At this time'

    I'm freaking out.

    A friend of mine threw a beer across the room and it bumped my MBP on the corner (I should add that I'm not drunk haha) . It was on at the time, no visible damage, carried on working fine. Then a bit later my browser crashed, force quit programs was just giving me a pinwheel so I did a hard reboot. I've been locked out since.

    I have a nasty feeling it's something to do with the HDD in my optibay. It has my whole home folder on it (which I assume contains library files relating to login??) and the beer hit right above it. I tried to go in and have a look but all I've managed to do is fuck the head up on one of the screws holding the caddy in and I simply don't have the tools to take it out. My best guess is that maybe either the HDD is damaged or it's become detached from the optibay, does anyone have any other ideas?

    I'm worried about taking this to the genius bar since obviously the optibay isn't an apple thing, but at the same time I don't want to brick my laptop. PLEASE HELP ME!!!
    TSP 2 | Serato DJ | Live 8 | MBP (SSD + HDD) | AIAIA TMA-1 Fool's Gold Edition | 1200 Mk2s | MidiFighter | KRK RP5
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  2. #2
    DJTT Tankard fullenglishpint's Avatar
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    Update: opened disk utility from the repair partition and did a repair on the HDD. It appears and doesn't show any problems when running the repair, but I still can't log in...
    TSP 2 | Serato DJ | Live 8 | MBP (SSD + HDD) | AIAIA TMA-1 Fool's Gold Edition | 1200 Mk2s | MidiFighter | KRK RP5
    Xone: DB4 | Pioneer CDJ-2000 Nexus
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  3. #3
    Tech Mentor JazZmutant's Avatar
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    did the beer spill at all? that would of been a catastrophe! wasted beer.. haha

    Yeah sounds like you might need to re-seat the connections on your SATA drive. Sometimes random shizz that that happens when it gets a bash or is dropped etc. Failing that maybe check out this forum and see what you can do (not sure if it will help you though)

    http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=796766
    DJ'n since 02', Performing since 06', CD's - Timecode - Full Digital - Digital and External Hardware Experience

  4. #4
    DJTT Tankard fullenglishpint's Avatar
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    An yet another update: when I first start disk utility it says the partition on the HDD is 'not mounted', but the disk still appears. I'm properly confused and worried right now.
    TSP 2 | Serato DJ | Live 8 | MBP (SSD + HDD) | AIAIA TMA-1 Fool's Gold Edition | 1200 Mk2s | MidiFighter | KRK RP5
    Xone: DB4 | Pioneer CDJ-2000 Nexus
    DJTT FAQ | Read my guide to AUDIO CABLES

  5. #5
    Tech Mentor spiz's Avatar
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    Try booting to the repair partition and run the Password reset utility. Select your user account and repair ACL permissions. Then use the same utility to change your password. Maybe someones screwing with you and changed your user password while you weren't looking?

    I'm not sure how your hard drives are setup, relating to which has boot files and whatnot, but if you're able to boot into the login screen, usually the problem isn't hardware related from what i've seen.

    Good luck



    --edit

    If it's not mounting that it may have died

  6. #6
    DJTT Dominator JesC's Avatar
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    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1274 try this. its Change Password with the CD
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  7. #7
    DJTT Tankard fullenglishpint's Avatar
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    Ok so I verified the disk, it told me to repair it then said it couldn't repair it and I need to erase and restore. I have a time machine backup, but since my actual system and apps are on the SSD which is fine, what should I do? If I open time machine from the repair partition and select the HDD, it says 'the system will be restored onto this disk'. Does that mean it'll duplicate my whole system onto the HDD? I doubt there's even space for it.

    Is there a way to just erase and restore what was on the HDD?
    TSP 2 | Serato DJ | Live 8 | MBP (SSD + HDD) | AIAIA TMA-1 Fool's Gold Edition | 1200 Mk2s | MidiFighter | KRK RP5
    Xone: DB4 | Pioneer CDJ-2000 Nexus
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  8. #8
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    From time machine only select the files and or applications you want

  9. #9
    DJTT Dominator JesC's Avatar
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    i would just select the OS to be repaired
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  10. #10
    DJTT Tankard fullenglishpint's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tito View Post
    From time machine only select the files and or applications you want
    Problem is since I can't actually log in I can't select specific files, only a full restore.

    Quote Originally Posted by JesC View Post
    i would just select the OS to be repaired
    the OS is fine (it's on the SSD) it's just the home folder which is missing. I've set it going doing a full restore which I imagine will copy both drives onto the HDD. If I delete the erroneous SSD copy, do you think the directory will have any idea where anything is? I really hope there's space and it doesn't just run the whole lot then come up with a 'you need another 5MB' error at the end.

    If you can think of a better option please do let me know, this thing reckons it'll be running for another 20 hours yet so if there's a better solution I'd love to give it a crack!
    TSP 2 | Serato DJ | Live 8 | MBP (SSD + HDD) | AIAIA TMA-1 Fool's Gold Edition | 1200 Mk2s | MidiFighter | KRK RP5
    Xone: DB4 | Pioneer CDJ-2000 Nexus
    DJTT FAQ | Read my guide to AUDIO CABLES

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