Comments on: Security gone awry

Question: Security gone awry

edgeways — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 20:47:36 -0800

Any hope of bypassing Imac password?

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this but, if anyone has suggestions it'd be appreciated.

A friend works at a (disorganized) church that I've done some PC work for. He called me up and said the new pastor wants to use the (sole!) Imac the place has, it's one of those older CRT shaped neonish units, prolly about 2002. Only thing is it is password protected and no one has a clue what that might be, nor will they know where any software would be. I have not worked with Macs, but I assume the only hope is to find an OS copy that won't be too much for it, and boot/load from that. Is that even possible for Macs, or do they have a big doorstop now?

If this would work where would one track down an older Mac OS?

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:02:25 -0800

Just about any OSX version will work on one of these but 10.3.x would probably be ideal. 10.2.8 was the first OK OSX release but it still had issues.

By: cmiller

cmiller — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:11:44 -0800

I'm pretty sure the only way is to boot with the system CD. Insert it and hold "c" when you power it on.

By: sbutler

sbutler — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:12:05 -0800

What operating system does it already have? OS 9 or less? OS X?

What type of password are you trying to bypass? Is it a login/screen saver password? Or is it an OpenFirmware password (one you get immediately after the computer is turned on, before the OS boots)?

By: bach

bach — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:13:50 -0800

If you can locate a CD of OS X and boot from that, there is a utility to reset the password. YMMV.

By: cillit bang

cillit bang — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:23:40 -0800

Does it appear before or after the computer boots? If it's before, then the computer has the Open Firmware password set. The official way to reset it is to boot the computer with a different amount of memory.

If you're lucky, it's a slot-loading iMac, and the memory is under a little door round the back underneath the computer. If it has a tray-loading CD drive, it's an older model, and you have to open it right up to get at the memory.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:58:54 -0800

This sounds like a job for the "Genius Bar".

By: birdsquared

birdsquared — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 22:11:33 -0800

I don't have much to add in terms of dealing with the password, but, as the very recent owner of a Ruby iMac G3 DV, I highly recommend 10.4 over any other version of Mac OS X. It installs and runs much faster, and because it is current, allows for the greatest possibility of current other software to run.

By: cribcage

cribcage — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 03:44:32 -0800

Is that even possible for Macs...?

Yes. If you have an install CD and you're willing to lose whatever is currently on the computer, then you're fine.

where would one track down an older Mac OS?

EBay.

By: Gungho

Gungho — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 04:27:30 -0800

Even if you had to installa new OS you wouldn't lose anything on the computer. It is MAC OS not WINDOWS. It is extremely easy to upgrade or reinstall the OS without losing any data. If you do choose to reinstall Mac OSX choose the Archive and Install option during the installation process.

By: dmo

dmo — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 05:47:51 -0800

as bach said, there is a utility in one of the menus of the Mac OS X installer that allows you to reset the password for user accounts. See this article for detailed instructions. Start at the section titled "Resetting the original administrator account password."

By: edgeways

edgeways — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 13:23:33 -0800

thanks all, I'll forward this on, and if I get updates on success, I'll follow up and mark answers. Your help is much appreciated.