G4 Powerbook Aluminium administrator/user problem

[marknichol]

G4 1.5 ghz Powerbook Aluminium 15” running OSX 10.4

Problem arose when backing up hard drive in process of upgrading current 80 gb drive for 250gb drive. Put new 250gb in usb caddy to copy/clone old drive but wouldn’t mount on my powerbook. It did however mount on my G4 tower! Booted powerbook in firewire mode and picked it up on G4 tower. Used disk utility disc restore to put the old powerbook hard drive onto the new one in the usb caddy. This copied over but then when I restarted the powerbook it asked me to log on as user which it never used to do. As it didn’t accept the password I reset the password using the install disc. Followed the password reset routine
Restart mac holding down “c” with install disc in.
Onto menu "utilities"
Reset password
Dvd logo and hard drive logo present
Click on hard drive logo
Put in new password
Restarted but still wouldnt accept password

Tried to reset again
Restart mac holding down “c” with install disc in.
Onto menu "utilities"
Reset password
Dvd logo and hard drive logo present
Click on hard drive logo
Select a user of this volume to reset their password
No available user
Will not highlight

Restarted onto the Log on screen and it shows

Mac OS X
Mark Nichol’s Computer
Name
Password

Wont accept password

Tried all variations of name (shortened etc) but nothing, also getting no password hint.

Then tried disc utility to check permissions etc

Disc utility
First aid
“keys out of order volume needs to be repaired”

Have repaired with Tech tools pro and all clear but still back to log on screen that wont accept password and wont let me reset it. It’s like there is no user to log onto?

Is it time to just swap hard drives and start again. Maybe the copied new hard drive may start up but I cant check this as I cant boot up from a USB caddy so it means changing drives in powerbook before finding out..

Any help more than welcome and very gratefull…

 

[simbalala]

I don't know exactly what’s going on there but if you have the time and money (not much) I suggest you get a drive enclosure which supports Firewire. Then you can boot from your external drive.

I have the same Powerbook and I'm really glad I can boot from externals, I use two of them as backups, alternating between them as I need. They’re 2.5 inch drives so I can swap them in or out of the PB if I need to.

 

[marknichol]

Looked at buying firewire caddy but as close to Christmas thought it would take ages for delivery.

Instead I put the new drive in laptop as at the end of it all thats where it would end up anyway and when I restarted it, it booted up fine and was an exact clone of old drive but with lots more space and no identity crisis!

Old drive fails to spin up properly in caddy so may be binned

Thanks for suggestion.

Cheers

Mark