Where does OSX store user account info?

December 31, 2009 4:53 PM

Got a new macbook pro... turned it on, went through all the user account setup questions, and then I decided to re-partition the hard drive and re-install OS X. After doing so, the macbook *still remembered my user account info* from the 1st setup. How is this possible?

I just think this is kinda spooky. I thought making a new partition and re-installing OS X would have wiped away that user account I created when I first setup the computer. So I'm wondering: where/how did it store the info? I "connected to the internet" when I first set it up... is it paranoid to think that Apple is saving my user acct info in the cloud or something? (I didn't set up mobileme or anything, tho...)

posted by mhh5 to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Best answer: Depends on how you changed the partitions. If you just added one, it won't always destroy the data in the existing partitions. Similarly, if you do a simple install of 10.6 over an existing one, it will try to maintain at least some of the user data.

If you really wanted to start from a clean slate, use Disk Utility on the install CD to explicitly erase the partitions before installing.

There's definitely nothing going on "in the cloud".
posted by xil at 5:05 PM on December 31, 2009

The above is by far the most likely answer.

If you're worried, then go through all the steps you did the first time apart from connecting to the internet and see what happens.
posted by muteh at 5:26 PM on December 31, 2009

xll nailed it, unless you erased the drive and started from scratch, reinstalling the os doesn't mean old data is destroyed.
posted by HuronBob at 5:37 PM on December 31, 2009

Best answer: disk utility won't destroy a partition unless the new one being added is larger than half the disk capacity. probably just saved what you had. apple, being helpful monkeys, decided for you that you wanted to keep your uid.
posted by patricking at 5:39 PM on December 31, 2009 [1 favorite]

You essentially now have two boot drives. Restart and hold the option key and the Mac will eventually present a list of all the bootable drives.
posted by Gungho at 7:40 AM on January 1, 2010