Bought a used mac, but it has an admin password

[SAWYER]

How can I get around the password? I have already deleted the guy's number off my phone and I do not have a restore disc for the Mac

 

[ViRGE]

Pop in the OS Install/Restore disc. There's an option in there to reset the admin password.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1274

 

[SAWYER]

How can I get around the password? I have already deleted the guy's number off my phone and I do not have a restore disc for the Mac

..........

 

[Tyranicus]

You can call Apple support and get replacement restore discs sent to you.

 

[SAWYER]

For free?

 

[metalmania]

If not free from Apple support, you can ask someone to burn a DVD for you. It's just that the DVD is a Dual Layer DVD, cost more than a regular DVD.

 

[SAWYER]

I called Apple and they said I couldn't just walk into an Apple store and buy Snow Leopard, I have to order though them since I can't just use any disc, it has to be specifically for my mac..wtf

 

[alkemyst]

OP fail x2? what 'mac' do you have?

Also cell phone or not, how did you come in contact with this macintosh? There has got to be a paper trail to get you back to who you bought it from.

 

[TheStu]

If you tell us what kind of Mac you have, then yes, you might be able to just walk into an APple Store and get a Snow Leopard disk ($30). The Upgrade disk can be used as a clean install.

 

[gorcorps]

Congrats! You just bought a stolen computer.

 

[SAWYER]

Mac Mini, 1.8 ghz
I called my local Apple store and they were clueless, I thought the were geniuses?!

 

[SAWYER]

OP fail x2? what 'mac' do you have?

Also cell phone or not, how did you come in contact with this macintosh? There has got to be a paper trail to get you back to who you bought it from.

I posted an ad looking to trade an ipad for a Mac Mini. This guy was using it as a media player. We meet up and I deleted all his texts and the call log. Now a week or two later I run into this issue.

 

[SAWYER]

And I have been using the Mini, but when I tried installing flash it prompted me for a password. It doesn't ask for a password to log in

 

[metalmania]

The snow leopard will work on your mini, nothing special about that.

 

[Kmax82]

The snow leopard will work on your mini, nothing special about that.

QFT.

Apple is selling Snow Leopard as an upgrade to Leopard, so of course they're going to tell you that you can't use it.. they want you to buy Leopard too, or the Box Set. Plus if you called on the phone you didn't talk to a genius (not saying that they really are genius' just if you called, you only get a sales person which usually aren't all that knowledgeable).

 

[SAWYER]

I asked the girl to ask someone there who would know, she came back a minute later and told me to call apple

 

[Kmax82]

I asked the girl to ask someone there who would know, she came back a minute later and told me to call apple

Hah.. wow.. that's ridiculous.

 

[Spineshank]

What apple store was this? But yea, you can go buy SL and be done with it.

 

[SAWYER]

Saddle Creek store in Germantown, TN

 

[metalmania]

Googled this:

http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-73393-change-mac-admin-password-without-the-disk

You can try this:

Creating a new Admin on Mac Os X:
Here's how to reset your OS X password without an OS X CD.
the Working solution for me was to create a new admin
you can create new admin like this by deleting a specific file.

You need to enter terminal and create a new admin account:

1. Reboot
2. Hold apple key + s key down after you hear the chime. (command + s on newer Macs)
3. When you get text prompt enter in these terminal commands to create a brand new admin account (hitting return after each line):

mount -uw /
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
shutdown -h now

4. After rebooting you should have a brand new admin account. When you login as the new admin you can simply delete the old one and your good to go again!

Apple stores wont reset it for you. Computer shops may charge you $50 to $200 trying to reinstall the Mac and failing at end.

 

[SAWYER]

That trick worked but I still have that old account on there, how do I delete it?

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Can't you delete it using your admin account?

 

[ViRGE]

QFT.

Apple is selling Snow Leopard as an upgrade to Leopard, so of course they're going to tell you that you can't use it.. they want you to buy Leopard too, or the Box Set.

That's not it at all. Unlike Windows, Mac OS X can only be installed on hardware it knows something about - Snow Leopard was pressed nearly a year ago. If the Mac is newer than that, then the boxed copy of SL would be useless. For newer Macs you would need the restore discs for your Mac, because it contains a newer version of Mac OS X and the drivers required for that hardware.

Anyhow, a 1.8GHz Mini is certainly old enough that the retail boxed SL will work on it. However I'm shocked that no one could point him in the right direction to get replacement restore discs. Since it's a used machine I would seriously consider reinstalling the OS anyhow just to clean anything nasty that may be left behind.

 

[VinylxScratches]

I installed SL on my 1.83GHz Macbook w/o issues. This thread is longer than it should be.

 

[Kmax82]

That's not it at all. Unlike Windows, Mac OS X can only be installed on hardware it knows something about - Snow Leopard was pressed nearly a year ago. If the Mac is newer than that, then the boxed copy of SL would be useless. For newer Macs you would need the restore discs for your Mac, because it contains a newer version of Mac OS X and the drivers required for that hardware.

Oh.. forgot about that. However, Apple doesn't upgrade the discs after they release new hardware? That's a bit stupid.