Damaged .plist file, user account gone!

[Ada2]

Hi. So, my Mac Pro hung, and I had to do a forced shutdown. Upon restarting, my main account was gone from the list of login items, leaving only my brother's limited-permissions account! So now there's lots of stuff on my User Disk I can't access (unless I go boot in Windows with boot camp and use MacDrive), because when trying to access stuff from the other account it no longer recognizes my administrator password/User password for the disappeared account.

 

(Disappeared as in disappeared from login list, and impossible to access.. the data is still there.)

 

Using a DiskWarrior boot CD I found that one file on my OSX bootup drive, \private\var\db\dslocal\nodes\Default\users\myusernamegoeshere.plist (it's a HIDDEN folder path), is irreparably damaged.

 

So I was wondering if anyone here could upload a healthy, undamaged one from their system (www.yousendit.com)? Maybe I can get my account to reappear that way. (I can paste it into my boot disk from my brother's account, which isn't restricted.) I need one from an administrator account, I think. Leopard or Snow Leopard... though I would prefer Leopard. The idea is to then take your file, change the user name to mine.. and go into the file and edit IT according to my best memory and reason (I think that mostly just means typing in my user name here and there [in the file]). At least I know the file won't be damaged (at this point I'm not even entirely sure what an undamaged "MAIN USER" yourusenamegoeshere.plist file in that particular folder even looks like on the inside).

 

To show that hidden folder string, either bring up Finder and choose Go > Go to folder and type "/private" and follow the path I wrote above to the file with your user name on it, or make OSX show all hidden files&folders by opening Terminal, and type:

 

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES (then restart Finder/Your computer for the command to take effect)

 

 

Or if you have any other tips for this situation, that'd be good too.

[Moose Tracks]

This smells like an Amish virus.