Macworld: How to get rid of "deleted ...

Up to Discussions in Mac OS X

5 Replies Last post: Jun 14, 2002 4:48 PM by pyrogen

Nobody

58,347 posts since
Oct 18, 2007

Jun 14, 2002 9:07 AM

How to get rid of "deleted users"?

I created some accounts for experimentation and have since deleted them. They are no more, but they still show up as "User X deleted" (something like that) on my computer and when I tried to delete all the Music, Document and other files associated with this already-deleted account, the OS told me that only the root can touch them. Could someone tell me how to get rid of these deleted accounts? (how to log in as root? is it advisable to log in as root? and start deleting stuff?)

Nobody

58,347 posts since
Oct 18, 2007

1. Jun 14, 2002 9:42 AM

in response to: Nobody

Re: How to get rid of "deleted users"?

You can only delete them from the terminal, unless you have some utility program. Apple shows you how to do this on their support site. Do a search for it. If I remember right though you just use the rm command.

Nobody

58,347 posts since
Oct 18, 2007

2. Jun 14, 2002 9:50 AM

in response to: Nobody

Re: How to get rid of "deleted users"?

Naw . . . Just boot into OS 9 and trash the darned thing.

The total Mac OS X edition had a thing on this, and it gave two options:

Use terminal (I believe you use the sudo command, which temporarily gives you 'root'-like power. It most certainly is not adviseable to log in as root since many things can get messed up.)
Or just do it the OS 9 way

Nobody

58,347 posts since
Oct 18, 2007

3. Jun 14, 2002 10:08 AM

in response to: Nobody

Re: How to get rid of "deleted users"?

I believe that if you have OS9 installed, you can remove them from there. While booted in OS 9, when you open the window for the disk that contains OSX, you'll find a folder named "Users". Don't mistake this with the ".usr" folder. In the "Users" folder you should find folders with the names or all the OSX users. Drag the deleted ones to the trash. Be VERY carefull while you are doing this, because you are effectively acting as root and can throw away important OSX files that can bring X to a dead halt.

If you don't have OS9 installed, your other options are to log in as root or to use sudo rm -r in Terminal. If you aren't VERY sure of what you are doing, then both of these method also allow you to accidentally trash your OSX system with a simple mispelling. You can also use sudo chown in the terminal to change the ownership of the deleted users from root to yourself and delete them then (safest method), but I'm not confident of the proper commands to give you.

I think I've seen some shareware apps on versiontracker.com/osx that allow you to use sudo from the GUI. You might try searching there.

06-14-2002: Message edited by: retcynm

Nobody

58,347 posts since
Oct 18, 2007

4. Jun 14, 2002 2:57 PM

in response to: Nobody

Re: How to get rid of "deleted users"?

If you type "sudo rm -R " then drag and drop the thing you want deleted into the Terminal window and press enter, it will delete what you dragged into the window.

pyrogen

8 posts since
Mar 23, 2002

5. Jun 14, 2002 4:48 PM

in response to: Nobody

Re: How to get rid of "deleted users"?

If your directory is empty, including invisible files, you can use

% rmdir directory_name

to remove the directory.
You can check for invisible file with in the directory by using -a flag for ls

% ls -a

You may have to use sudo with rmdir if you do not have the correct permissions.

Go to original post

Jun 14, 2002 9:07 AM

How to get rid of "deleted users"?

Actions

More Like This