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Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 1:26 am
by Smythe
My mother, not a very "tech-savvy" woman.
Earlier this week she changed the password on one of our imacs, now she can't remember it :/
Anybody know how to at least transfer all the data on it to a hard-drive or something? D: this has all my modding stuff on it :(
thanks.

Re: Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 1:32 am
by kiddten
some website out there idk wrote: 1. Reboot
2. Hold apple key + s key down after you hear the chime. (command + s on newer Macs)
3. When you get text prompt enter in these terminal commands to create a brand new admin account (hitting return after each line):

mount -uw /
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
shutdown -h now
that should make you a brand new admin account.

Re: Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 1:53 am
by Modzy
Just use the OS DVD and change the password back. You'll need to create a new keychain, but meh.

Re: Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 2:20 am
by Smythe
o.O thank you guys.
Now to see if it worked!

Re: Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 11:30 am
by Excend
Bunneh wrote: rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
Eww.

Re: Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:33 pm
by Mgalekgolo
White Knightmare wrote:
Bunneh wrote: rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
Eww.
This no longer works on snow leopard last time I checked. I did it on my panther though. Use the install disk.

Re: Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 7:35 am
by draconic74
Actually, better question here. How did your mom go to the preferences, select the account, unlock the settings, hit change password, then type in the old password and some random new one, confirm it and hit apply, and not think anything was wrong.

Generally, you have to be somewhat tech-savvy to even find the change password tab. Guess OSX is easier to use after all. I can hardly figure out why Windows keeps playing things so damn loud on headphones but not speaker and why it refuses half the time to use my headphones in the first place. It seems to also put random programs' sound to one of the two, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. I think Windows is a bit retarded.

Re: Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:41 am
by Excend
The problem was that she forgot the password she changed it to, not that she accidentally changed it...

Re: Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:46 am
by draconic74
If it wasn't something she was going to remember then why change it in the first place?

Re: Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:48 am
by Excend
Well I'm going to go ahead and guess that she probably assumed she would remember it.

Re: Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:49 am
by draconic74
Well. Anyways... Did you get it working again?

Re: Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:29 pm
by Amy
Obviously Drac isn't used to not tech savvy people forgetting their passwords...all...the...time.

Re: Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:52 pm
by draconic74
Well... Tech savvy enough to know how to change a password but not to remember it.

There is a reason I have an Excel file with all my passwords in it. Which of course is itself passworded. So aside from that, my university account and my admin on this computer, there isn't much more I need to remember. If I won't remember it, it's in that file. Which is why in another 5 years I will still remember the pass to this site.

Re: Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:39 pm
by kiddten
Correcthorsebatterystaple.

Re: Well fuck shit balls.

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:25 pm
by draconic74
Bunneh wrote:Correcthorsebatterystaple.
Exactly