Leopard Login Issue

[99dodgeram]

Came home and the electricity was out. Imac was on when electricity went out (no power surge protector - I know, I know). Turned computer on and the login screen came up (me, my wife and my son). Selected my login, typed my password and it took me to my desktop and remained there. No Menu bar at the top. Mouse cursor remained a rotating colored disk. Did this several times with same result.

Logged into my wife's profile and everything works as normal. Problem is that everyone works off of my account and we never gave file access to any other user. So I can't get to any files under my profile.

Called Apple Support. Spent 1+ hour determining that there was nothing wrong with the hardware. Somehow the profile had corrupted and she determined that there was no way to retrieve these files.

This can't be right. Even though I gave none of the other users permission and my login profile is corrupted, certainly we can gain access to these files?

Anyone?

99DodgeRam

[g/re/p]

I am guessing that apple support already had you reset the power management unit and repair permissions/repair disk?

Open Directory Utility (Utilities/Directory Utility), click on the padlock, enter your admin password when prompted, and then set your Root password.

Log out and log back in as Root, and you should be able to access your files.

**Also - At minimum, you need to specify your iMac model and the OS version and number when posting for troubleshooting help**

[Satcomer]

Reset the SMU by shutting down the iMac, unplug it and leave it unplugged for 5 minutes. Power it back up and hopefully it will boot right. Good luck.