Deleted all my .plist files (system) and now I'm stuck.

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Hello all. I'm new here and can find my way around a Mac a little not a proficient user by any means. I tried troubleshooting a problem I recently started having and made things much worse.

Background: I accidentally dropped my charger on the screen breaking it so I purchased a monitor from online and reinstalled it myself. I thought all was good until I realized that my hard disk could not stop spinning unless I close the laptop or power it down. I did some research online and learned that a particular process (kernel_task) was using the CPU at a rate of over 400% on average slowing everything down.

I decided to follow some instructions I saw on youtube that suggested I delete the .plist files which will force the PC to rebuild the files and fix the problem. The files are located at /System/Library/Extensions/IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext/Contents/Resources/.

Instead of deleting the files I moved them to my desktop in a folder called Backup of Resources.

Problem: Now that I've done that the laptop brings be to the login screen, I try to login to my account and it acts like it's going to and then kicks me back to the login prompt again showing two of the user accounts that can login to the PC. I've tried both accounts, tried running numerous reboot/troubleshooting options and none work. My intent is to simply put the files back where they were and try to fix my kernel problem another way. No. I did not have my system backup in any manner (lesson learned).

Please, if anyone can help I'll appreciate it.
 

Cory Cooper

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Hello and welcome.

Sorry we didn't respond sooner.

The files you moved are part of the System, and cannot simply be put back in place. You will need to do a reinstall of OS X. Your files should be OK, if you can successfully reinstall OS X, without performing an erase and install or clean install.

-Which model Mac?
-Which version of OS X?
-Do you have access to another Mac?
-Do you have an Apple Store near you?

We never advise performing troubleshooting/diagnostic steps that you are unfamiliar with, or find on the Internet, without first discussing it with someone who has experience with Mac support.

Again, sorry we left you hanging, and we'll see if we can help you with a solution.

C
 
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Hey Corey. Thank you for your reply.

I have a MacBook Pro 2013 I think, Retina display.
The newest version of El Capitan. I like to stay up-to-date on software updates.
I do have an older Mac but that's version 10.7.5 probably won't help any.
I have an Apple store in a mall but not near me I'll probably have to to drive 50 to 60 minutes.

Thanks for the advice. Won't do that again. If you cannot help me I guess I'll be visiting the store. Wish I didn't have to cost myself this amount of money.

Leslie.
 

Cory Cooper

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No worries.

The Apple Store really may be the best bet, since they can see the Mac first-hand. If your 2013 MBP had ForeWire, we could try starting up in Target Disk Mode and connecting it to your older Mac to see if the hard would mount as an external disk.

You could try starting up into the Recovery Partition and reinstalling El Capitan over the top of your existing install. However, it is possible that could fail and you could lose all of your data on the drive currently. Since you don't have a backup, that would be your decision to proceed/attempt.

I will let you know if I have any additional suggestions.

C
 
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Took it to the Apple Store on Sunday, stood there for over 6 hours with them helping me. Reinstalled the OS and was able to reboot into my system with the old data and settings. Problem still exists where the hard drive continues running so they recommended me send it in for service (to replace the motherboard).

Thanks for your help hopefully I'll be good soon.
 

Cory Cooper

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Thanks for the update. At least you made progress.

I would suggest that you make a Time Machine or other backup before sending it out for repair.

Good luck,

C
 

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