iMac 2011

[CactusMel]

Hi All,
I have just got myself an 2011 iMac 21.5" with a 2.5GHz i5 CPU, 4GB ram.
I have a couple of problems, it still has the old users data and account on it, but the user cannot remember their password, despite many tries. How could I get around this?? I did think of reformatting the drive but I don't think as a guest user I could do that!

Upgrading ram is quite easy on this model. but what about up grading the HHD to an SSD as I think this would mean removing the screen, etc..

Any help or advice very welcome...

Mel

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hi All,
I have just got myself an 2011 iMac 21.5" with a 2.5GHz i5 CPU, 4GB ram.
I have a couple of problems, it still has the old users data and account on it, but the user cannot remember their password, despite many tries. How could I get around this?? I did think of reformatting the drive but I don't think as a guest user I could do that!

Upgrading ram is quite easy on this model. but what about up grading the HHD to an SSD as I think this would mean removing the screen, etc..

Any help or advice very welcome...

If the drive inside is an HDD, it's time to replace it with an SSD.
Watch the below video several times before do it yourself.

In the video, the guy used 2 small suctions cups.
It's OK if you can control your pulling strength.
I prefer using my finger nails. 100% gentle enough.

After SSD replacement, just do Internet Recovery, or boot with an USB installer of High Sierra. Easy peasy.

If the drive inside is already an SSD (booting quite fast), and you don't want to open the iMac, use the USB installer method. Hold Option when power it up to select booting from the USB.

 

[Loyola]

I just replaced the HD in my 2010 iMac and it works great now. It was relatively simple but I had trouble with the LCD cable and lost my mind when it got damaged. I was able to find a reasonably priced new one and all is good.

Here is what I used and you can find one that works with your model.

DIY Bundle - 250GB OWC 3G SSD and HDD Kit for 2009-2010 iMac

Get everything you need to add an SSD to your hard drive equipped iMac to experience faster booting, application launches, and transfer speeds.

eshop.macsales.com

 

[glenthompson]

My preference is to install MacOS on the SSD before installing it. That way you can verify that it works ok before going through the install.

 

[robertosh]

I replaced the HD on my work's 2011 and i did not need to unplug the cable screen (which is the most delicate part), I've just held it from the top side with one hand and do the disk swap with the other hand (only 2 screws and they accessible from the top). It took me 15m for the full process. With help of someone would be even faster I think.

 

[CactusMel]

Hi,
Thanks for your replies, it looks like a job I could do! I also watched a few other videos on Youtube too, and will perhaps watch more later. There is mention of a temp sensor in the OWC kit, but, but there does not seem to be one on the original HHD and the SSD runs cooler? One chap just fixed his SSD with double sided tape!! If I run Samsung magician it gives me the SSD temp, I assume the SSD has one built it? can OS not read it?

Can anyone help with the first question regarding the forgotten password, the iMac has not been used for some years and the user cannot remember the account password? or if there's an icloud account too. Until I can sort this bit out, I can really do any of the other stuff!!

Again any help and advice would be very welcome.

Mel.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hi,
Thanks for your replies, it looks like a job I could do! I also watched a few other videos on Youtube too, and will perhaps watch more later. There is mention of a temp sensor in the OWC kit, but, but there does not seem to be one on the original HHD and the SSD runs cooler? One chap just fixed his SSD with double sided tape!! If I run Samsung magician it gives me the SSD temp, I assume the SSD has one built it? can OS not read it?

Can anyone help with the first question regarding the forgotten password, the iMac has not been used for some years and the user cannot remember the account password? or if there's an icloud account too. Until I can sort this bit out, I can really do any of the other stuff!!

Again any help and advice would be very welcome.

Mel.

You get around the password by removing the HDD and do a fresh install of Mac OS. That's killing two birds with 1 stone.
Worst case scenario: The iMac came with a firmware password, which can be overcome, but a little tricky.

 

[CactusMel]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply, that's what I was hoping for, but I didn't think the password was held on the HHD? and was in firmware, somewhere!! perhaps as you say a fresh install will cure it. What's the highest OS I can use on this perhaps Mojave?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply, that's what I was hoping for, but I didn't think the password was held on the HHD? and was in firmware, somewhere!! perhaps as you say a fresh install will cure it. What's the highest OS I can use on this perhaps Mojave?

What you think is not correct.
The log-in password stays with the OS, re-install OS will erase everything, including the log-in password.
The firmware password resides on the EFI chip on the logic board. Replace the HDD can't remove the firmware password.

 

[CactusMel]

Hi,
So replacing the HHD may not get me out of the password problem!! So it there a way around the hardware EFI password, other then replacing the chip, can I reset it via the monitor??

 

[Amethyst1]

Hi,
So replacing the HHD may not get me out of the password problem!! So it there a way around the hardware EFI password, other then replacing the chip, can I reset it via the monitor??

The question is if the machine has a firmware password in the first place (it won’t boot from another drive in this case)... or just a macOS user account password. The latter is easily gotten rid of by reinstalling macOS, but you can also boot to the recovery partition by holding [Command]-[R] after turning on the Mac and reset the account passwords from there without reinstalling macOS.

What's the highest OS I can use on this perhaps Mojave?

You can officially go up to High Sierra. Unofficially, i.e. with patches, Monterey is possible. No idea about Ventura.