[dale]

Hi everyone,

Bit of an emergency - I finally convinced my dad to ditch the Win XP machhine and buy an iMac - only took 12 months

He has installed OSX, but cannot remember what password he entered, so no system updates can be applied. Is there a simple way to reinstall from the DVD's - without having to enter his password!!!

Many, many, many thanks in advance.

[slpdLoad]

Here's an article with one possible answer:
"How do I reset my Mac OS X admin root password?" from the Ask Dave Taylor! Tech Support Blog

If that for some reason won't work, there's a command-line way to do it in Single User Mode. Just do a simple google search for 'mac os x reset password' and you can find a bunch of solutions.

[dale]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I managed to find what I needed by googling as you suggested.

I first performed a reinstall, which of course didn't solve the problem. After rebooting with the installation DVD for the second time (holding down the "c" button during the boot), I followed the instructions for resetting his password. Just as I should have done in the first place.

He now has problems with the keychain, but I can sort that out on the next visit.

I converted to OSX a year ago, and have never had to do this, hence asking the question. It makes you realise as a PC owner just how acustomed you become to the reinstall procedure, as my dad had to do this so often with his previous beast.

Thank goodness he is now on a Mac.

[earthlings]

the manual that came with the computer has the directions (the help you need) also.