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Bought a used mac, but it has an admin password

S

SAWYER

Lifer
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
 
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.
 
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
alkemyst said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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 said:
The snow leopard will work on your mini, nothing special about that.
Click to expand...

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).
 
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.
Click to expand...
 
Kmax82 said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
ViRGE said:
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.
Click to expand...

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