Cracking password on a 2009 iMac?

[DieBeachballDie]

I was given a free (heh... no, not stolen) 2009 27" iMac. I was given ONLY the computer itself and power cord. I was told 'it didn't work'... but it seems the last user simply cant get into it. I plugged it in, and tried the 'guest' user, but thats not going to work either. The original owner just upped and left it behind, and did not attach a password. I dont care whats on it, so i'd like to completely wipe it, use it, possibly as a target monitor for my new MBP, possibly as a back-up, or even just to play some old games i have on disc (that i cant get/use on my new one). It was free (no KB or mouse), but i'd rather not spend much on it. Hell, i might just sell it. Its a little banged up, but its gotta be worth $300 (edit: more like $4-500 on local CL).

All i know about it is:
- i was TOLD its a 2009
- It turns on (to where you select users)
- The 'guest' user worked, but never quite loaded
- The KB and mouse inputs work
- It found my internet no problem (no cable).
- Strangely enough, the screen looked a little yellowish

So how do i use this? and whats it gonna cost?

 

[Punkeaux]

Your best bet would be to make a bootable Mac OS installer USB from another computer and just wipe the whole thing and reinstall the OS. A more skeezy trick would be to boot into recovery mode, open terminal, and try typing “resetpassword”

 

[DieBeachballDie]

Heh... that might work, if i knew what the hell you were talking about. I should have added, i'm more or less computer-illiterate.

 

[Punkeaux]

Let’s stick with recovery mode for now then. Boot your iMac while holding command+R. This should boot you into recovery mode. From here you can reinstall Mac OS from the main window or if you go up to the Utilities menu at the top you can open Terminal to try “resetpassword” thing.

 

[MrNeedSomeHelp]

 

[DieBeachballDie]

Sooooo... i got to the 'select the volume containing the user account' box... 55 in the vid), but there was nothing in the box. No options... and nothing worked without one. Might this mean there is a firmware password too?

Also, tried the OSX reinstall... but it needed a password to proceed... which obviously i dont have.


Interestingly enough, when i did the latter, there were two discs, one entitled 'untitled' and the other 'recovery HD'. The untitled one says 2tb. So someone might have hotrodded this thing at some point. The recovery HD says 650MB total.

Edit: its a Hitachi HDS722020ALA330 media HD 2tb! I wonder if they updated the RAM too... This might be a fairly useful old machine.


So, any other suggestions?

 

[DieBeachballDie]

Upon further reading/googling... how about going to disc utility, and then erasing the HD? The article says its easy, but cannot be undone. So far every suggestion here (and from articles) has hit a snag that is not mentioned, so i dont want to make things worse. Or... is it that easy. The data on this machine is of no interest to me.

 

[yey365]

Erase the HD in Disk Utility and make the new partition. Once completed you can then (re)install the OS from the installer you created. Not sure if an over the air install works on a 2009 model, but you can select your wifi connection in the top right-hand side of the menu bar to try.

 

[DieBeachballDie]

Just to clarify... 'make the new partition'? 'Installer i created'? Do i have to know what that means? Or will it just do it.

As for wifi, it picks up my wifi signal, but that was as far as i got. So i THINK it works?