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[Editor]

If you just upgraded your MacOS X Leopard to the latest (10.5.x) OS release, you may find yourself with a weird problem, after rebooting.

I've been told the problem is more common than is usually admitted.

It appears the Mac can "forget" where your user preferences are located, even if you're an "admin" user (i.e.: the owner of the computer, usually).

So what do you do when this happens?

• Do you switch to the root account to toy around with the settings? Nope.
  
  
• Do you try to monkey around in the terminal to relink your user account to the right user preferences folder? Nope.
  
  
• Do you call Apple to get help, at 1 800 263-3394? No, that most likely won't be ncessary.

So what's the secret to make your Mac understand where you user preferences (and start folder) is located?

Very simple, 99,9% of the time, you've got 1 or more corrupt files, on your hard drive. This 1 corrupt file might be the main file tree so if it's messed up, in any way, you're never going to be able to use your preferences again...

Unless you do the following...

• Find (!) and insert your MacOS X Leopard startup disk (the one you got when you purchased your computer);
  
  
• When your disk is inserted, restart your computer; and
  
  
• When the computer reboots, hold the "C" key down, on your keyboard — let it go when you see the grey "Apple" logo;
  
  
• The first prompt if to select your language so do that (it doesn't matter which language you choose, it's just for your convenience);
  
  
• Don't touch the "central" part of the screen where you'd normally want to click if you were reinstalling a new OS — look at the pull-down menu, at the top of the screen and select the disk utilities application (launch it);
  
  
• Once you're in that application, click on your "problem" hard drive, which is most likely your main internal hard drive;
  
  
• Once your hard drive is selected in the left vertical pane, look at the bottom-right of the application window and click on "repair disk";
  
  
• Let the repair command do its thing and at the end of the 1 minute-or-so process, you should see a green-colored line telling you that your hard drive is "ok" and that the problem file that you might've spotted (with red-colored line in a previous scan) is now repaired;
  
  
• 99,9% of the time, you'll have just repaired the exact file that was causing your OS not to know where your admin user preferences were located, so this is awesome — as such, you can now go click on the little black Apple logo at the top-left of your screen and select "restart";
  
  
• Obviously, don't hold the "C" key, this time around;
  
  
• You should be booting normally in your "main" (or selected) user account and since you repaired the corrupt file, your preferences should kick in beautifully;
  
  
• At this point, use your MacOS X Leopard-equiped computer as usual and have fun with your "fully repaired" hard disk tree and files.

What's the logic behind this fix?

Well, you can't repair your hard drive when it's been used to boot so you absolutely need to pop in your installation DVD to take care of it.

Once the Apple-made disk utility has fully repaired your hard drive and any corrupt file, you'll likely have no problem using your Mac.

If you still have problems after this, maybe your problem is a tad more complicated so you might want to pick up the phone and call-up Apple, at 1 800 263-3394, in Canada.

If you still have questions, you're free to ask them!

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