[Partisan01]

I bought three iMacs from a surplus warehouse recently, all three came from a school previously. One has no password, but the other two have the OS 9 login prompt. Is there a way to bypass this, or turn it off if I don't have the password? Any suggestions are welcome, Thanks!!

[ManOfSteal]

You will want to completely erase and reinstall using an OS 9 boot disk I am assuming, correct?

[NeilCharter]

You may be able to restart and hold down shift to switch of the extensions. Then find the preference file that contains the login password. Delete it and restart. The computer may then forget the original setting and not require a password.

If you have a install CD then as MoS said you can reinstall the OS after wiping the drive. Probably a good idea anyway.

[Mr. Blur]

this is from an old Apple internal doc:

DISCUSSION
•
• Follow these steps to bypass the Multiple User login panel:
•
• 1. Start up the computer from a volume other than the hard disk, such as the Mac OS 9 Installation CD.
• 2. Open the Preferences folder inside the System folder.
• 3. Find the item named "Multi-User Prefs" and drag to the Trash.
• 4. Empty the Trash.
• 5. Restart the computer using the normal startup volume.
• 6. Open the Multiple Users control panel. Choose the account to be change. In this example, change the owner account.
• 7. Choose the "owner" account and click "Open."
• 8. Type in a new password (and name if desired). Close the window.
• 9. Turn on multiple users accounts and close the Multiple Users control panel.
• 10. Choose Logout from the Special menu.
• 11. Log in with your new password.

[NeilCharter]

Originally Posted by Mr. Blur

this is from an old Apple internal doc:

DISCUSSION
•
• Follow these steps to bypass the Multiple User login panel:
•
• 1. Start up the computer from a volume other than the hard disk, such as the Mac OS 9 Installation CD.
• 2. Open the Preferences folder inside the System folder.
• 3. Find the item named "Multi-User Prefs" and drag to the Trash.
• 4. Empty the Trash.
• 5. Restart the computer using the normal startup volume.
• 6. Open the Multiple Users control panel. Choose the account to be change. In this example, change the owner account.
• 7. Choose the "owner" account and click "Open."
• 8. Type in a new password (and name if desired). Close the window.
• 9. Turn on multiple users accounts and close the Multiple Users control panel.
• 10. Choose Logout from the Special menu.
• 11. Log in with your new password.

If you don't have an installation CD, you maybe boot the mac with extensions off (hold shift down during start up) and remove the pref file that way. I can't remember if this will work - it's been 4 years since I used OS 9

[Mr. Blur]

Originally Posted by NeilCharter

I can't remember if this will work - it's been 4 years since I used OS 9

yeah....it's been that long for me too....i deleted most of my os 9 and earlier stuff from my brain a while back!