Hand me down mac

[Braille]

I recently acquired my mac from my brother who got it from his friend as collateral for a loan that was never paid off... Anyway..

I can't get ahold of the previous owner to gain his password to keychain and I desperately need it to install programs and such. Outside of going to a mac store (the nearest is two hours away), is there anyway to get the password or reset it so I don't lose everything on the computer? I have things like office suite and such that I haven't the disks or codes for so I really need to avoid slicking the HDD and getting new software.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[BlueRevolution]

You mean keychain as in admin password? No, and if there were, I wouldn't tell you how to do it. What you're talking about constitutes hacking. Going to the Mac store won't do anything for you either. The only person that can set you up with an admin account is the admin.

Whenever I get a used computer, even if it appears to be running a fresh install, I always do a full format and reinstall first thing. I would never try to run someone else's system as you are apparently doing.

Just resign yourself to losing the applications or find other means of obtaining them.

 

[175170]

There is a way to reset the Admin Password- but no way to get the keychain password.
To get the Admin Password, think of Google.

 

[Braille]

All I really want to do it be able to install new software such as games. I really could care less what his former passwords are. I was just assuming that's how it worked. If the keychain and admin passwords are supposed to be different then I only want the admin to do the above listed.

 

[madog]

The only way that I know of, is through the use of system disks. Typically, the original ones that come with the machine, however, as it sounds those are not available then you would have to purchase the appropriate disks either from Ebay or Apple.

If it is an older machine and doesn't meet the requirements to run the current system Leopard (no older than 5 years or so) which can be easily purchased at any Apple store, then you'll have to head online to find an older Tiger system disk or a copy of the system disks that originally came with the machine.

With those in hand, it'll be easy to format the drive, and do a fresh install of the OS, giving you full access and a fresh drive.

As for the keychain password, it believe it can be the same as the Admin pass and is only necessary to view the keychain and its contents. However, to just install apps then only the Admin pass is needed. Best case scenerio if you were able to reset the Admin password, the keychain password would still remain.

All in all, it shouldn't be too difficult to get in contact with the previous owner and ask for the password, or possibly get the grey system disks that came with it (or upgrade) in order to do a clean install.

 

[Braille]

Well, I had good luck in my searches last night. I found a way to supersede the previous administrator account on my mac without any disks or 'password retrievers'. Of course I don't have the keychain password, but I never wanted it anyway.

Thanks for all your feedback, I appreciate it!

 

[BlueRevolution]

I still highly recommend doing a fresh install, even if you have managed to get it to do what you want for the time being. Especially since there seems to be some ill will over how the computer was obtained, there's no telling what the previous owner has installed on the computer. There may be a keylogger or some such on there.

 

[johto]

Did you get the original disks with it? Just erase and install it from clean.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Might want to try reading the thread... or even the first post.

 

[johto]

Might want to try reading the thread... or even the first post.

Yeah? Just get OSX installation disks(buy?) from somewhere and BAM!
Dont know about rest of you, but I would much rather have a clean system that i know what its eaten over the time...

 

[layedoutnissan]

I have a similar question, I bought a used imac and want to install updates, the previous owner set up the admin as new owner but im not sure what to do. Do I install the original gray osx disks to reset ?

 

[BlueRevolution]

Yeah, that's all there is to it. Stick the disk in and restart, holding C until the Apple logo appears. Be sure to customize the install and deselect anything you don't need. That'll save you up to about 8 GB of space.