> On Jun 15, 2016, at 8:47 AM, lagunacool <tgandc...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hell Group- > A friend gave me, what I think is a 20 in. iMac 6. It belonged to her > ex-boyfriend whom she does not talk to anymore. The administrative password > is in his name, so I can not authorize any updates to the system. As result, > I feel the computer is deteriorating and is able to do less and less. (can't > do Netflix,Youtube is barely functioning) > I did try to do the "secret code" that you see online that is supposed to > allow you to change the password. I've made several attempts at this with no > success. > My question is can I buy newer OSX system install disks. wipe the whole > thing clean and start over with my own new password? I guess the biggest > question is do you need the old password to be able to install a newer > version of the OS or am I completely screwed? > Thanks to anyone who can help with this problem.
You don’t even need to do that. Start the computer in single user mode by holding down the command and S keys while starting up. You will come up to a purely character screen. enter (exactly! This is also shown at the prompt when booted in single-user mode) /sbin/fsck -fy And hit return. The computer will do things for a while then come back to the prompt. If it says that changes were made to the disk. run the command again. (you should be able to hit the up arrow to get to the previous command) Once it says no changes have been made enter the following line (again, exactly!) followed by a return: /sbin/mount -uw / Then enter: rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone (Note: the period in front of Apple is important) followed by a return Then enter: reboot and return to restart the Mac. It will now come up like it’s a brand new Mac and prompt you to create your user account (which is an admin account). Nothing else will be changed, but all the files and such under the old admin account will be under that account. Fixing it so that you have access to those files is easy, once you have your own admin account. -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs -- You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group, a group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to imaclist@googlegroups.com To leave this group, send email to imaclist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "iMac Group" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to imaclist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
