Changing the Main User on OSX and Removing the Old Main User

[Biggles-90]

To set the scene for this problem... The household bought a 2011 Mac Mini in early June. It was intended to be used by my father so I set it up ready for him, and registered it with his Apple ID. A little while later my father gets a free brand new laptop so the Mac Mini is suddenly mine and I ditch my old laptop before it's residual value drops off a cliff. I have a iPad 2 so I hardly miss having a portable computer.

Now I set up the Mini for my Apple ID and things start to become slightly more complicated. I delete my father's account, by renaming it with my name. But things aren't so simple. His Apple ID still has any App Store purchases made up till then and you can't dissociate all the purchases made on this computer. I can start to use my Apple ID for App Store of course, but the old purchases are still there in another name. I decide to leave the App Store in my fathers name to avoid more confusion, but it isn't right. Say I want to upgrade to Mountain Lion. Things get really tricky then..

My question - to which I cannot find a clear answer - is as follows: How exactly do I make this Mac Mini to be completely in my name so to speak? I was thinking about doing a system restore and starting from fresh, but to be honest the system restore process seems strangely uneasy to fathom. Can I do a complete, no nonsense system restore to factory settings within the confines of the built-in system restore and then start again with my account? Can I get away without all that hassle though (which would be preferable)?

I really would appreciate your help on this. I'm slightly disappointed Apple have made this thing so complicated.

PS. Finder still says this is my father's Mac Mini. grrrrrr..

 

[Weaselboy]

At this point I think you would be better off with a fresh install. Only downside is, this will not give you any of the apps purchased under your father's AppleID.

Just hold command-r keys both as you boot and this will take you to the recovery drive. Start Disk Utility from there and erase Macintosh HD, then reinstall the OS. After it restarts make your own account.

You could still login to the App store under his ID and download apps if you like, but as you have seen managing apps purchased under multiple IDs can be confusing.

 

[Biggles-90]

Quite a shame that. Does this mean that in a sense, I have lost iPhoto, iMovie and Garage Band to my father's account?

EDIT: Do I need a version of OSX on a memory stick ready after I delete the Macintosh HD, or is everything contained within a recovery partition?

 

[Weaselboy]

Quite a shame that. Does this mean that in a sense, I have lost iPhoto, iMovie and Garage Band to my father's account

Yes... unless you want to mess with the multiple AppleID logins like I described. A hassle to be sure.

EDIT: Do I need a version of OSX on a memory stick ready after I delete the Macintosh HD, or is everything contained within a recovery partition?

Everything is not on the recovery partition, but the recovery partition will allow you to re-download the entire OS (4.7GB) over the Internet if you need to.

The Recovery HD is just a 650MB partition with some troubleshooting tools and a stub to allow a download of the OS. Even if your drive dies, your machine can boot from firmware and reinstall the Recovery HD partition and then the OS.

 

[faroZ06]

There is no "main user", just admin users. It doesn't say that it's your computer because of the computer name. You can set the computer name in System Preferences under Sharing (not the best place to put the setting).