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piperty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 17, 2010
2
0
I am needing to update some software, and am being asked for my permission to do so. I can not, for the life of me, remember my admin password, and don't have install disks (computer was a hand-me-down). Is there anything that I can do to recover the password? TIA!
 
I know this works on SL, haven't tried it on Leopard, but it should work.
Reset password
Method 1
* Hold Apple+S when booting to enter single user mode
* #sh /etc/rc
* #passwd yourusername
* #reboot

Method 2
1. Power on or restart your Mac.
2. At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
3. This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete before going to the next step.
4. Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
5. Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist and press Enter.
6. Type ls /Users and press Enter. This lists all of the usernames on the computer – helpful if you don’t know or remember what these are.
7. Type dscl . -passwd /Users/username password and replace “username” with one of the users displayed in the previous step. Replace “password” with a new password of your choice. Press Enter.
8. Type reboot and press Enter.
 
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