Bought a used mac, but it has an admin password

[ViRGE]

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

They do, but it's irregular. I think they're now printing 10.6.3, but that's approaching 6 months old. Plus there's no way of knowing what version of SL is in the box as far as I can tell.

If you take a look at Wikipedia's Leopard page, they note when there were new printings.

 

[compman25]

They do, but it's irregular. I think they're now printing 10.6.3, but that's approaching 6 months old. Plus there's no way of knowing what version of SL is in the box as far as I can tell.

If you take a look at Wikipedia's Leopard page, they note when there were new printings.

I don't know if they are all this way, but the bottom of my box with the 2 bar codes has "MAC OS X V10.6.3 RETAIL"

 

[secretanchitman]

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.

kind of interesting that you mention osx and drivers required for that hardware - my retail copy of snow leopard (bought it the day it came out for $29) refused to work with my mid 2010 mbp when i wanted to wipe the hard drive and reinstall. turns out that the retail disc i have is too old for it (has 10.6.0 on the disc). i had to use my restore discs because it had 10.6.3 already (like the current retail snow leopard discs have and specifically state on the box), and im assuming 10.6.3 is the minimum version of osx required to install it on core i5/i7 macbook pros.

 

[ViRGE]

kind of interesting that you mention osx and drivers required for that hardware - my retail copy of snow leopard (bought it the day it came out for $29) refused to work with my mid 2010 mbp when i wanted to wipe the hard drive and reinstall. turns out that the retail disc i have is too old for it (has 10.6.0 on the disc). i had to use my restore discs because it had 10.6.3 already (like the current retail snow leopard discs have and specifically state on the box), and im assuming 10.6.3 is the minimum version of osx required to install it on core i5/i7 macbook pros.

Those MacBooks did ship with 10.6.3, but it's a build 3 newer than what's on the 10.6.3 retail box discs, and 5 builds newer than the original 10.6.3 update. The 10.6.3 SL discs may not work on the new MacBooks as a result.

 

[MotionMan]

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.

You traded a <3/4 month old $500+ iPad for a 2-year old $350+/- Mini?

Wow.

MotionMan

 

[compman25]

You traded a <3/4 month old $500+ iPad for a 2-year old $350+/- Mini?

Wow.

MotionMan

Maybe it was his sons?

 

[MotionMan]

Maybe it was his sons?

Is this a reference to another thread?

MotionMan

 

[compman25]

Is this a reference to another thread?

MotionMan

Yes

 

[Juddog]

Just buy a DVD install disc online, that should do the trick for your stolen computer.