iM 4,1-14,4 iCloud Lock Bypass With HDD Swap

[Ctrlos]

OK, I know how this one sounds but here me out. A friend of mine gave me his old 2009 iMac which is currently locked to his old Apple account, to which he does not have the password.

If I were to dismantle the machine, swap out the HDD for a blank one and perform a fresh install of OSX would this bypass the problem or are there extra security blocks like the serial being logged with iCloud or something?

If what I'm asking is illegal or something then please delete or lock this thread as required.

 

[TheShortTimer]

A friend of mine gave me his old 2009 iMac which is currently locked to his old Apple account, to which he does not have the password.

Why doesn't your friend contact Apple and ask them to reset it?

 

[Bigwaff]

A friend of mine gave me his old 2009 iMac which is currently locked to his old Apple account, to which he does not have the password.

Are you sure it is iCloud Lock and not firmware password? I ask because 2009 iMac only run High Sierra 10.13 or lower and it maybe possible to reset the firmware password by resetting NVRAM.

 

[MacCheetah3]

If I were to dismantle the machine, swap out the HDD for a blank one and perform a fresh install of OSX would this bypass the problem

No. That only relates to security such as FileVault, which would still allow you to erase the storage drive and (re)install the OS, just not access the data.

@Bigwaff is on the right track. That iMac is about a decade before Activation Lock, which (among other things) requires T2 or equivalent hardware security. Your hurdle is (indeed) likely a firmware password:

How to remove a firmware password from an Intel Mac

There are many millions of pre-Apple silicon Macs out there that can use a firmware password.

www.macworld.com

 

[BigBlur]

The 2009 iMac doesn't support activation lock (no T2 chip), so it's definitely not that...nor does it have anything to do with his Apple Account.

It must either be the firmware password or Mac account password you're dealing with. If the latter, you can try the steps below. (Not sure if they're still relevant for a 2009 iMac.)

If you forgot your Mac login password - Apple Support

If you can’t log in to your Mac user account, try these solutions.

support.apple.com