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Reset to Factory Settings

S

Stokes

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 19, 2007
117
0
Or E Gun
Hey Guys,
We got a 27" iMac in that we're actively trying to screw up.:eek:

It's a 2.8Ghz i7 with 16GB of RAM.

It was password protected, so one of the other employees tried to to a factory reset with the boot disc. Before he finished it up, his shift was over, so he just turned off the power. I think he was in the stage of just trying to boot off the disc. Now, when I turn on the machine, I just get the white screen with the apple in the middle and it stays that way for hours. The disc is in the machine.

How to I get back to start?
 
That wasn't working for me, as I believe that the bluetooth keyboard isn't connected that early in the start up, and the USB keyboard I have isn't communicating for some reason.

Any other ideas?
 
Hmmm... I was able to get it back by using another USB keyboard.

So, I tried the reset again.

I put the disc in, then restarted holding down the 'c' key. How long should this take to load? It's sitting on the white screen/grey apple for longer than I'd expect, unless I'm just impatient.
 
Maybe I'm not using the right disc.
The disk I'm trying to use is titled:
Mac OS X Snow Leopard Install DVD

This is what I want to use to get rid of the master password that is on there.
Am I doing this all wrong?
 
No, we don't have it. The original owner isn't cooperative in letting that information out.

Just to head off any speculation about acquiring this computer through nefarious means.... No. We did not. It was used as collateral in a legally licensed and established pawn shop. We gave the fellow an extra month, never heard from him.
 
The disc won't boot because it probably has a version of Snow Leopard that is earlier than what your iMac came with, you will either need to get a restore disk for your iMac model that has the correct version, or a USB install of Mac OS X Lion to install on your iMac.
 
Well, it's logged in now, so I'm able to use the machine and delete off the tons and tons of downloaded porn.

But, if I try to delete some other stuff, or try to load any programs, it asks for a password. I'm afraid that if I log out, I won't be able to do anything.

I'd really like to get this back to factory settings, that way if there is any creepy stuff on it, it won't throw off the next user.
 
Stokes said:
Well, it's logged in now, so I'm able to use the machine and delete off the tons and tons of downloaded porn.

But, if I try to delete some other stuff, or try to load any programs, it asks for a password. I'm afraid that if I log out, I won't be able to do anything.

I'd really like to get this back to factory settings, that way if there is any creepy stuff on it, it won't throw off the next user.
Click to expand...

Not sure if this work. Get yourself an external hardware. Install OS X on the external hard drive, boot to the external hard drive, erase and install to the internal hard drive. If all else fails you may have to take the machine into the Apple store and have them do a re-install for you.
 
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