Help overwrite pass

[bam]

Hello i got a free mac performa 550 from a yard sale but the people who gave it to me did not know the password and it has no cd rom support (lost disk tray) I was just wondering if it is even possible to overwrite the password, if it is please show me how

 

[Doctor Q]

Some thoughts:

1. What password are we talking about? It can't run Mac OS 8 or 9 or X, so if you are getting a password prompt, it might be the program named At Ease that was often used for security under Mac OS 7. What exactly does the login screen look like?

2. You can defeat the At Ease password if you have the At Ease installer on any compatible media (floppy or CD-ROM). I think At Ease even came with the Performa originally, but I'm guessing you don't have the disks that came with it, right?

3. If all you need to use the CD-ROM drive is a disk tray, might you be able to find one on eBay or at a local Mac store? I think you'll be much happier if you can use the CD-ROM drive. If you can get it working, you might want to start clean and re-format the disk and install your own Mac OS on it. As a side effect, this would wipe clean that password (and everything else on the disk). Mac OS 7 is free. You can download it from Apple. I, or another member, can find the right URL if you want it. Or you can probably find a Mac OS 7 installation CD-ROM on eBay.

4. Do you have any other similar Macs? If you, you could, in theory, swap the Performa's hard disk into another Mac, install the O.S., and swap it back.

 

[bam]

ok when it starts up there is a screen that says welcome on the top and below it says select your name and there is only one name 'art' when you select it it says user name: art password:
i did find a cd tray but he wanted 15$ , i though that was kind of a rip of considering i got the mac for free, and i cant use ebay. My only other computer is a pc so that wont help.

 

[Doctor Q]

If you boot while holding the Shift key down, does it let you get to the Finder without a login screen? If so, do a Find (Command-F) and look for all files named "At Ease something" and see if you can move them out of the System folder, which would let you boot in a regular fashion (not holding Shift).

For future reference, I looked up the URLs for System 7. You can download the free System 7.5.3 and the free update to System 7.5.5.

 

[bam]

Ok when i hold down shift on boot up it gives me like a password recovery at the top it says password and the bottom says clue: the clue is 'edhjk' and thats it.

Thanks for your help by the way

 

[bam]

oh and you were right about it using at ease because in the right hand cornor where the finder normaly is, theres a at ease folder inside the folder at the bottom there a check mark beside at ease but you cant change anything.

 

[Doctor Q]

Not may ideas left:

1. Guess the password. Try "art" and "tar" (that's "art" backwards) and "secret" and "poobah" and "fubar" and "xyzzy" and "test" and anything else you think of. Since the clue is 'edhjk', and those letters are sorta-consecutive on the keyboard, maybe that will help. For example, the password might be 'fg', the two letters between 'ed' and 'hjk'

2. Go back to the yard sale and ask whoever lives there about the password.

3. Take it to a store that sells/services Macs.

Other than these, I'm out of suggestions. Sorry.

 

[bam]

k thanks for your help