External backup drive unable to log in

[dukebound85]

I have an external carbon copy of a drive I had backed up years ago. I can mount the drive and see contents however I would like to be able to log into it as a boot drive. However, I can not remember for the life of me the password I had used.

Is there a command in terminal that would allow me to reset the password? Navigating through drive hierarchies is not as clean a method as a direct log in.

Thanks

 

[Pndrgnsvc]

Not an answer to your question, but as a workaround...

Since you can access the drive, might you be able to re-clone, via CCC or SD!, your files to different drive, then erase the "bad" drive, create a PW for it, and then again clone your files back to that drive?

 

[Weaselboy]

Is there a command in terminal that would allow me to reset the password? Navigating through drive hierarchies is not as clean a method as a direct log in.

Yes... open System Preferences and in the Startup Disk pane select the external as the boot drive. Now restart and hold down command-r to boot to recovery on the external drive. Now in the utilities menu start Terminal. Enter resetpassword (all one word) and follow the prompts to pick a new password.

Then reboot and you can login to the account on the external using the new password. The only thing you will lose here is the Keychain data will be locked under the old password. Just create a new Keychain.

 

[dukebound85]

Yes... open System Preferences and in the Startup Disk pane select the external as the boot drive. Now restart and hold down command-r to boot to recovery on the external drive. Now in the utilities menu start Terminal. Enter resetpassword (all one word) and follow the prompts to pick a new password.

Then reboot and you can login to the account on the external using the new password. The only thing you will lose here is the Keychain data will be locked under the old password. Just create a new Keychain.

I am trying this yet it won't let me without sending an email to a past apple id account that must have used the same password.

I am managing to see what I wanted but not nearly as clean

 

[Weaselboy]

I am trying this yet it won't let me without sending an email to a past apple id account that must have used the same password.

I am managing to see what I wanted but not nearly as clean

Is the external encrypted? Are you able to get to Terminal in recovery and what happens when you enter that command? It should not ask for anything about an AppleID at all.

 

[dukebound85]

Is the external encrypted? Are you able to get to Terminal in recovery and what happens when you enter that command? It should not ask for anything about an AppleID at all.

Its not encrypted as I can mount and see the drive contents. I run the command and it asks for my previous apple id password

 

[Weaselboy]

Its not encrypted as I can mount and see the drive contents. I run the command and it asks for my previous apple id password

After booting to recovery and running that command, you should get a window like this just asking you to select the drive and account in the dropdown, then enter a new password. Are you not seeing this?

 

[dukebound85]

After booting to recovery and running that command, you should get a window like this just asking you to select the drive and account in the dropdown, then enter a new password. Are you not seeing this?

View attachment 681399

No I am not. I am getting a window with a past email wanting an apple id password. Does the version of OS X impact this?

 

[Weaselboy]

No I am not. I am getting a window with a past email wanting an apple id password. Does the version of OS X impact this?

Hmm... I'm lost then. I don't believe OS X version matters here.

There is another way to reset a password in single user mode. You might try that. See here.