admin password reset old imac

[aldodesigns]

i have an old imac g3 graphite running 10.2.8 - i havent turned it on in a couple of years and have no clue to what my password used to be - question #1 do i have unlimited chance to try a password or is it going to lock up on me?? and #2 are there any alternatives to resetting the admin password without the startup disk - i cant find the startup disk at the moment and have to use this computer before im gonna get a chance to look for them

 

[spinnerlys]

i have an old imac g3 graphite running 10.2.8 - i havent turned it on in a couple of years and have no clue to what my password used to be - question #1 do i have unlimited chance to try a password or is it going to lock up on me?? and #2 are there any alternatives to resetting the admin password without the startup disk - i cant find the startup disk at the moment and have to use this computer before im gonna get a chance to look for them

You can try as many times as you want (10x, 1000x, 100000000000x), that's what password cracking software does anyway.

But I don't know of a way to reset the password without the CD.

 

[bizzle]

Boot into single user mode, command-s after you press the power button.
Mount the file system read/write, /sbin/mount -uw /
Type ls /Users/ to get the short name of the user you wish to reset
Type passwd whatevertheusernameis
Type new password twice. You will lose access to the keychain but you can at least get to your files.
Type reboot.