09-15-2012, 12:45 PM
Here's how I'd do this. It makes the assumption that the account's home folder doesn't use so much disk space that you can't duplicate it.
1) Boot the Mac into single user mode. (hold cmd-S at startup)
2) Follow the steps to mount the filesystem writeable
something like/sbin/fsck then mount -rw /
3) cd /Users
4) cp -a
5) When the cp command finishes, you can type exit which should end single-user mode and boot the GUI
6) In the GUI, assuming you have access to an account with admin privileges, open System Preferences and go to the Accounts prefpane. Create a new account with the same username you specified above as in step 4.
At this point you should be prompted that a home folder already exists and do you want to grant ownership - you must make sure that your in steps #4 and #6 exactly match.
If you have a separate admin account to use besides the account that you desire to copy, you can just do steps #4 & #6 (i.e. no need to boot into single user mode, just log in, open a terminal, and enter the command in #4 but precede it with a sudo, e.g. sudo cp -a
Mind you, I'm suggesting this off the top of my head not having done it in a while so I might have missed something... but this should preserve all the settings you need, and the old account in case something didn't come across (e.g. keychains, for example, might be problematic.)
Another assumption, besides having enough disk space, is that the computer we're talking about isn't part of some kind of directory services system and isn't pulling account authentication from a remote server... which shouldn't really make a difference.
g=
1) Boot the Mac into single user mode. (hold cmd-S at startup)
2) Follow the steps to mount the filesystem writeable
something like/sbin/fsck
3) cd /Users
4) cp -a
5) When the cp command finishes, you can type exit which should end single-user mode and boot the GUI
6) In the GUI, assuming you have access to an account with admin privileges, open System Preferences and go to the Accounts prefpane. Create a new account with the same username you specified above as
At this point you should be prompted that a home folder already exists and do you want to grant ownership - you must make sure that your
If you have a separate admin account to use besides the
Mind you, I'm suggesting this off the top of my head not having done it in a while so I might have missed something... but this should preserve all the settings you need, and the old account in case something didn't come across (e.g. keychains, for example, might be problematic.)
Another assumption, besides having enough disk space, is that the computer we're talking about isn't part of some kind of directory services system and isn't pulling account authentication from a remote server... which shouldn't really make a difference.
g=