Worked like a charm....thanks Sean.
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Browse All TopicsMy boss had a Mac G5 running OS X which he replaced for a variety of reasons. Now, 11 months later, he wants me to get into it and retrieve some data......but he has forgotten the password that he used then. How do I take this thing back to factory defaults and reset the admin password?
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by: macassistPosted on 2006-03-13 at 14:09:27ID: 16178530
The easiest way is to boot off an Install Disk (insert the disk, restart and when you here the chime hold down the C key until you see the Apple logo and stylised clock) and run the Reset Password utility which can be found in either the Installer menu next to the Apple menu or the Utilities menu further across (depending on the version of the install disk). You can then choose the disk to change a user's password on, then the individual user and then change their password (with confirmation).
Note that this won't change the Keychain password, so that may become toast. Keychain repair, available in the Keychain Utility is supposed to fix that, but I haven't tried it out. Also, if that user was the auto-login user, it'll probably lose that setting as well and revert to the login screen from which you can login using the username and new password, and then reset the auto-login info.
Hope that's of use,
Sean