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breakingme10

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 13, 2013
18
0
OK
So I got a new 1TB HDD and I put it in my MacBook (mid 2009) and it goes thru the osx install successfully and says that the account I create will be an admin account, but it isn't. It's standard. I can't reformat the hdd to even try and reinstall mountain lion because I need a admin password to do so. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO ADMIN ACCOUNT, just the standard and the guest. I've tried every method of gaining root access I can find on the web with NO success. Any suggestions?
 

Quadra700

macrumors newbie
Jul 9, 2013
22
0
In Lion to enable the root user you would:

  • From the Apple menu choose System Preferences....
  • From the View menu choose Users & Groups.
  • Click the lock and authenticate as an administrator account.
  • Click Login Options....
  • Click the "Edit..." or "Join..." button at the bottom right.
  • Click the "Open Directory Utility..." button.
  • Click the lock in the Directory Utility window.
  • Enter an administrator account name and password, then click OK.
  • Choose Enable Root User from the Edit menu.
  • Enter the root password you wish to use in both the Password and Verify fields, then click OK.
  • Mac OS X v10.6.x

Not sure if this works for mountain lion as i havent tried it yet but that may get you there.

Cheers,
 

breakingme10

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 13, 2013
18
0
OK
In Lion to enable the root user you would:

  • From the Apple menu choose System Preferences....
  • From the View menu choose Users & Groups.
  • Click the lock and authenticate as an administrator account.
  • Click Login Options....
  • Click the "Edit..." or "Join..." button at the bottom right.
  • Click the "Open Directory Utility..." button.
  • Click the lock in the Directory Utility window.
  • Enter an administrator account name and password, then click OK.
  • Choose Enable Root User from the Edit menu.
  • Enter the root password you wish to use in both the Password and Verify fields, then click OK.
  • Mac OS X v10.6.x

Not sure if this works for mountain lion as i havent tried it yet but that may get you there.

Cheers,

The only thing that worked for me was to put my old hdd back in, use it to create a bootable usb, use the usb to boot into recovery mode on the new hdd. re-format the new hdd and reinstall osx mountain lion.

----------

Not sure how to mark this as a solved issue.
Used old hdd to create a bootable usb of max os x mountain lion
used the bootable usb to boot into recovery mode on new hdd
re formatted and reinstalled mountain lion

since I never had admin rights I could never install anything so I didn't have any info or files on the drive that I could lose.
 
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