Will AppleCare Most Likely Restore My HD, Considering They Dont Have my OSX Password?

[HappyDude20]

This last Saturday I went to my nearest Aople store to leave my macbook pro with them, for sd card slot issues (not working) and also with my LCD screen flickering most times than not...

...however I just now realized that they don't have my osx password to get in.

The genius bar rep. asked me if I indeed have backed up all my data, which I have, with the exception of my applications folders, which of course houses all my apps, important and frivolous.

Im just wondering cause if it is restored, I'm gonna have to contact 1password to get the lincense again, among other of my most used apps. I guess the blessing in disguise however is that my osx would no longer have an array of apps that haven't been opened for years, forcing me to remember and download only the important apps I do in fact use.

But like I said, I've everything backed up, documents, music, movies, photos,...just not my applications.

 

[GGJstudios]

If they have to reformat your drive for any reason, you'll lose anything on it. I recommend in the future you use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup (clone) your entire drive, not just part of it. CCC makes a bootable backup, which you could simply install in your Mac, if you needed to, and boot up as normal. It also allows incremental backups, to keep the clone current.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Yes, as they can easily boot from an external HDD with their diagnostic software on it and they can even reset your password if necessary (but they won't do that) or can easily enable the root user or temporarily copy one of their users onto the machine to log into.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

The genius who helped you should've specifically asked you for the password of an admin account. The receipt you have says they aren't responsible for any lost data and that you should have a backup, so they'll wipe it if they think that'll fix the problem.

You can also call them and either give them the password or ask them to return your computer so you can back it up.

 

[mulo]

if they know what their doing they will just remove the password

 

[seek3r]

if they know what their doing they will just remove the password

Yup, resetting an OSX password is trivial, though anything encrypted and locked to that password will be much more difficult to recover. Even an EFI lockout from alt booting can be reset if you have hardware access, and the drive can easily be pulled and read without in any case. The old axiom is still true: If you've got boot, you've got root - and if you've got hardware access you've got boot