hey guys this is kinda urgent i restarted my mac pro today only to find when i put my password in to sign on the screen goes all blue and the log on screen comes right back up? anyone have any idea what the hecks the problem or what should i do
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Help! My Mac Pro Wont Let Me Log On
- Thread starter joshwest
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Hello,
Try following the steps in this guide to reset your password:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=151815
It is for 10.3.x, but it will work basically the same in 10.4.x
You may need to use a different keypress on the Intel Macs to boot from the CD though. But, I think it is still the "C" key on the Intel Macs.
Here's a list of Intel Startup keypresses:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303124
Give the above resetting the password a try. Perhaps that will get you back in there.
Good luck.
it wouldnt let me boot to a cd i can boot to an external drive that i had a backup to not to long ago, this way i can just back up my Raid Array to an external HD and then do a clean whipe of my system maybe this will help it? i was wondering if maybe one of my HD in the mac pro are trying to fail? is there a easy way to test the life of your drives?
Quite odd that it won't boot from a CD. That would seem to indicate that you have something weird going on.
Your idea may work.
As for testing the drives, there is the Apple Hardware Test that came with your computer. And, you could also check it's "SMART" status in the Disk Utility within the OS X Applications/Utilities folder. Of course the first option requires the computer to boot from a CD, and the second option requires the computer to boot to OS X.
I have never heard of a Mac that won't boot from a CD unless the CD is broken or the HD is so screwed up the machine doesn't know what's going on. You don't seem to be an advanced or power user yet you are using a RAID, so I would look into that as a possible problem. A poorly configured RAID is a good reason for HD problems. You should also try resetting the PRAM as that still sometimes works.
If you can boot from the OS install disc, (by holding down the "C" key during boot), you can reset the password easily with the password reset utility. If you can't boot from the CD then either the CD drive is busted, or your HD is completely toasted or both. Again, if the CD is not making grinding noises, the culprit is more likely to be your HD and again the first thing I would suspect is the RAID configuration. If the CD is actually broken, then swapping in a different CD drive and booting from that should give you access again.
The only other thing that might work is booting to target mode (by holding down the "T" key during boot). If you can do that, then you can connect another computer to it with a firewire cable and drag all your files across. This will probably take days though if you have multiple drives in the Mac Pro.
On the other hand the more I think about it, if you can get to the log-in but then it fails when you go further, that sounds like the file system failing (RAID again?), or a corrupt OS. All of these are possibly fixed by re-installing, which requires booting from the CD again, or by using a utility like DiskWarrior which also requires booting from the CD again, so you are kinda screwed if you really can't boot from the CD.
im quite a advanced user, ive used macs for about 10 years and my raid is a quite simple raid concentrated set i have 4 drives 1 250 and 3x500 i just added an extra 500 last week and it was quite to add to the already exsisting raid set, i tried resetting the pram, botting to disk i was able to boot to the disk by holding down the option button but not by holding c, when i booted to the cd i changed the password yet it didnt help the problem, now i booted the mac pro to a old external i had for backup when i did this i ran diskutility no errors came up i ran tech tool pro no errors either so now i am doing a carbon copy of my raid to another external and then im just going to whipe my raid setup and do a clean whipe..