2007 Imac Recovery Mode?

[Hoodstar]

Hi Guys,

New to the forum! Have a charcoal G3 and laptop project im working on. Had a quick question about my dad’s computer too.

I’m trying to get into my dad’s iMac (2007, unaware of current OS running) and for some reason he has forgotten his password. I tried to launch the Mac into recovery mode holding command + R but that doesn’t seem to be doing anything. Was that something that was maybe added into more recent versions of OS X? If so, is there another way to hard reset the system to reset the password? Tried holding shift during start up and that doesn’t seem to be doing anything either.

Any ideas?


Thanks,

 

[Lunder89]

If you dad's iMac is running anything older than OS X Lion (10.7), it won't have a recovery partition. You need either the DVD's that came in the box, or a retail Mac OS X DVD with the OS that is installed on the iMac, which would be Leopard or Snow Leopard. Tiger is possible if it is from early or mid 2007.

 

[Fishrrman]

Is your dad's iMac white plastic or is it "aluminum"?

 

[mikehalloran]

If you dad's iMac is running anything older than OS X Lion (10.7), it won't have a recovery partition. You need either the DVD's that came in the box, or a retail Mac OS X DVD with the OS that is installed on the iMac, which would be Leopard or Snow Leopard. Tiger is possible if it is from early or mid 2007.

A 2007 was Tiger, both early and late. You will need a usb boot drive if it does not have Lion installed unless you have the retail DVD of OS 10.5–10.7 and the internal Super Drive still works.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/index-imac.html

Is your dad's iMac white plastic or is it "aluminum"?

Yep. Big difference in what you can do depending on which it is. 10.7 Lion is the last version the white one will support while the aluminum will run El Capitán.

If white, it will not boot from a USB drive running later than OS 10.7. This can be a hard drive, retail Dual-layer DVD or flash drive.

 

[Hoodstar]

Thanks guys. Yeah it’s alluminum, looks like this:

https://www.macofalltrades.com/appl...VVAph8rBLB5KsrZkxByJr7TxcppGgNXhoCr2EQAvD_BwE

 

[DeltaMac]

If the OS X system is too old (pre-Lion, older than OS X 10.7) and if you don't have any OS X installer DVD, then you CAN reset the user password while in single-user mode: https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...i-reset-a-macs-password-from-single-user-mode

 

[Lunder89]

A 2007 was Tiger, both early and late.

Apple must have released Mac OS X Leopard on some late 2007 models???
I bought a white Macbook in November that year, with Leopard.

 

[DeltaMac]

Leopard was released in September of 2007. New Macs on sale at the time got Leopard pretty quickly.
The Late 2007 MacBook, new in November, shipped with Leopard, and appears to be the only 2007 Mac that never shipped with Tiger.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"Thanks guys. Yeah it’s alluminum"

I think your best bet will be to make (or buy) a bootable USB flashdrive with El Capitan (10.11) on it.

Then, boot to the flashdrive installer, and see if you can reset the password.

I believe it's possible to download El Cap directly from one of these URLs:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886
https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?mt=12

You could then use "DiskMaker X" (free, be sure to download the right version) to create the bootable flashdrive.

Did you say you had only a g3 Mac for yourself?
Or do you have something newer?
The g3 can't do this, it's too old.

If push comes to shove, you can go on ebay and BUY a USB flashdrive with the El Cap installer already on it.
These will run about $20, from various sellers there.
I would not hesitate to buy one, if I had no other way to do it.

Hope something here helps...