Effects of cold booting a Mac

[James Musiyiwa]

Thank you guys your comments were very helpful.

 

[gentlefury]

Hello guys.

I want to know the effects of cold booting a mac book. If it has very negative effects what is the best way to restart it has been locked by user who is nolonger there.

What do you mean by cold booting? Do you mean hard booting? If it has an HDD it could have issues with the heads, if they weren't parked properly...but for the most part no, hard boots won't do any damage. On a MBA or rMBP no chance...since its all solid state.

 

[zachnelson]

This is 2012 not 1988, you can cold boot any computer from this decade and be fine.

 

[mgartner0622]

If you mean turning on the computer when it's cold, that's fine. I've used my MacBook in a garage at -16˚ and it worked fine.
Now, if you mean reinstall so you can use it, you'll need the discs to the computer, or you can download the operating system from the App Store. An Apple Shop or service provider would be able to help you as well.
I don't know where you're located, but the main one Apple advertises is

Shop L330
Sandton Shopping Centre
Cnr Rivonia & Fifth Street
Sandton
2197

http://www.apple.com/za/buy/shop/

I hope this helps...

 

[Slivortal]

Hello guys.

I want to know the effects of cold booting a mac book. If it has very negative effects what is the best way to restart it has been locked by user who is nolonger there.

...But seriously, I haven't seen anyone worrying about cold booting since what, 1985?

If you mean that your computer suddenly powered off, Macs are extremely good at booting back up without any of this Windows "Safe Boot" nonsense...

EDIT: Rereading your post, it seems like your question is more on how to reset the system without having a user login. I'd honestly recommend contacting Apple, but there are a few ways to do it if you know CLI mojo - in which case, please Google it. Without knowing how you came into possession of it, you could possibly even be a thief (not accusing you, just throwing it out there).

Apple will both be able to confirm that you are the real owner, and then help you to restore your system.