After re-booting, my user name has disappeared from login window? It only shows Other

[yyzzpp]

Ok first of all, I apoligize if this post is in the wrong section.

Ok so today my 27" iMac (10.6.2) was acting kind of weird. In safari and chrome webpages would spontaniously crash for no reason (on my macbook, the same webpages were fine). So, to try and fix this issue, I decided to restart my imac. After all the applications quit, I was left with a blank screen with my wallpaper. It stayed like this for several minutes, so I decided to just hold the power button to force the imac to turn off. When I turned it back on, my user name was not displayed in the login window. All there was for accounts was "other" and a network symbol. When I click other and entered my user name and password, it did not work. I am sure I was using the correct password and username. I also tried: username: root, but that also did not work. So i rebooted again and the same "other" still was there without my real account. So i booted into my Mac OS X install dvd and I repaired the disk and all the permissions (there were a lot of things to repair). I thought that this would solve the problem, but it did not. As well, I tried booting in safe mode, no luck.
I have also reset the PRAM, but still no luck.
I have done some google searching and I can't really find a solution. So I hope someone here can help me

Thanks in advance

 

[TERC]

Same problem here

We are having the same problem with a MacBook Air at our organization. The system it is running is 10.6.5. We wiped the system and started over, reinstalling the OS, migrating the user, and running OS updates. We opened the laptop from sleep, and watched as the 2 user accounts disappeared, replaced by "Other".

This is our only MacBook Air (we have 150+ other systems) - so I am inclined to not buy any more.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[TERC]

User accounts disappear..

OK it took a while but for us.. it only happens in a very very specific case.

1. os level is 10.6.5 Have not tested if it happens with earlier vers. of 10.6.Though i know it didn't happen with 10.5

2. Only happens with USB connected drives with a "Fat32" partition

3. Macos and ExFat formated usb drives and firewire drives seem fine. Also thumb drives up to 2gb so far are fine as well.

TO replicate the issue. Use a USB hard drive formatted as Fat32 log out then pull the drive. All accounts will disappear except for "other"

The way I fixed it. was to do the following:

1. Boot from OS 10.6 install dvd or os thumb drive on macbook air
2. Do reset password for the boot drive. NOT the Firmware one!
3. reboot and lot in and select "other" login as: Username: root Password: whatever you changed it to in step 2.

4. Then for each login account look in /Users to find the user folder shortname.

5. Go into System preferences and create accounts with shortnames that match each of the users folders in /Users
This will prompt you that the user already exists do you want to use the folder. Say ok.

Repeat for all other user folders except for "SHARED"

NOTE: This isn't just a bad dismount of the drive.. even if you do a normal "eject drive" and pull it. this will happen. Only thing we have seen is a full shutdown before disconnecting the USB.

 

[TERC]

NOTE! On drive ejection... Followup.

NOTE: This isn't just a bad dismount of the drive.. even if you do a normal "eject drive" and pull it. this will happen. Only thing we have seen is a full shutdown before disconnecting the USB.

 

[quickpath]

@TERC Thank you

OK it took a while but for us.. it only happens in a very very specific case.

1. os level is 10.6.5 Have not tested if it happens with earlier vers. of 10.6.Though i know it didn't happen with 10.5

2. Only happens with USB connected drives with a "Fat32" partition

3. Macos and ExFat formated usb drives and firewire drives seem fine. Also thumb drives up to 2gb so far are fine as well.

TO replicate the issue. Use a USB hard drive formatted as Fat32 log out then pull the drive. All accounts will disappear except for "other"

The way I fixed it. was to do the following:

1. Boot from OS 10.6 install dvd or os thumb drive on macbook air
2. Do reset password for the boot drive. NOT the Firmware one!
3. reboot and lot in and select "other" login as: Username: root Password: whatever you changed it to in step 2.

4. Then for each login account look in /Users to find the user folder shortname.

5. Go into System preferences and create accounts with shortnames that match each of the users folders in /Users
This will prompt you that the user already exists do you want to use the folder. Say ok.

Repeat for all other user folders except for "SHARED"

NOTE: This isn't just a bad dismount of the drive.. even if you do a normal "eject drive" and pull it. this will happen. Only thing we have seen is a full shutdown before disconnecting the USB.

@TERC thank you your instructions fixed my problem. I'm a 10.6.6 user and I took the liberty to repeat the bug as you described because I wasn't using the computer when the problem started and I wanted to make sure that this bug was the cause of the problem so unplug the drive while I was loggedout and lo and behold the accounts in the login window disappeared right before my eyes and I had to follow your instructions again. Man this is a serious bug.