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Used Mac mini, Please help

rever3nce

rever3nce

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 6, 2011
567
5
My grandmother's PC was starting to give out and bought her a used Mac mini from someone off of CraigsList, I am trying to do a full restore on it and its asking for a password, I asked the guy if he knew it , but said he forgot (of course). How can I change the settings or "by pass" the password to do a full restore?

PS
I don't have a snow leopard disk or anything, but if thats my last resort then I will get one.
Thanks for any help.
 
Where is it asking for the password?

You should be restoring like this:
  • Boot from the DVD holding down the C key right after the startup chime.
  • When the installation screen appears, select the appropriate language.
  • Next you will see installation steps. Ignore them; go to the menu at the top of the screen and select Disk Utility.
  • When Disk Utility appears, select the hard drive, choose partition, select 1 partition, select Options, choose GUID, OK, then OK to repartition and format the drive. This will erase EVERYTHING!
  • Quit Disk Utility and you're back at the installation steps. Follow them and you should be fine.
 
rever3nce said:
Figured, its actually on 10.4.11 if I am not mistaken, isn't that osX tiger? Would a disk from ebay work?
Click to expand...
If you're going to buy an installation disk, make sure it's a retail copy and not one of the gray disks that were included with the hardware sale. Those only work on the machine type they came with.

You can install any version of OSX you'd like, but getting the Snow Leopard (10.6) disk may be cheapest. It's only $29 from Apple.

Leopard (10.5) is going to be pretty pricey second hand as it's the last os PPC macs can use. Tiger (10.4) should be pretty cheap second hand.
 
aarond12 said:
Where is it asking for the password?

You should be restoring like this:
  • Boot from the DVD holding down the C key right after the startup chime.
  • When the installation screen appears, select the appropriate language.
  • Next you will see installation steps. Ignore them; go to the menu at the top of the screen and select Disk Utility.
  • When Disk Utility appears, select the hard drive, choose partition, select 1 partition, select Options, choose GUID, OK, then OK to repartition and format the drive. This will erase EVERYTHING!
  • Quit Disk Utility and you're back at the installation steps. Follow them and you should be fine.
Click to expand...

They did not have the install disk

its asking for a password when I try changing the user accounts. Otherwise everything works fine.
 
You do not need to reinstall.
Using the recovery disc go to 'password recovery' and reset the password.

Under Lion this is also possible (even though there is no menu option for 'password recovery' anymore).
Boot to recovery partition open terminal and write 'resetpassword'.
After that the assistant opens that will allow you to reset the password.

On a side note:
To be able to reset an admin password that easily is very bad for security IMO ;).

Only way to prevent somebody to circumvent your security is to set a firmware password.

BUT if you forget THAT... well :rolleyes: you are SOL.
Nobody can help you anymore. Perhaps Apple by swapping the MB. LOL.
 
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