KristianTuvang

Q: [iMac 2389] No admin or root rights?

After installing mountain lion 10.8, I was surprised to see I add no admin rights, and to make matters worse I'm getting a prompt saying I need an admin name and password every time I want to make an update to something or install something. This was a used PC the previous owner and, my friend ,can't recall the password used, since its a 6 year old Mac I understand, it was on a lot of peoples hands, belonging first to her brother, then her, now me.

Basically I can't do anything. The SUM passwd root gives me an error saying there is no root user which is rather strange.

 

Can someone help me figure this out?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Jun 24, 2016 7:37 AM

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Q: [iMac 2389] No admin or root rights?

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  • by Eric Root,Apple recommended

    Eric Root Eric Root Jun 24, 2016 7:45 AM in response to KristianTuvang
    Level 9 (69,956 points)
    iTunes
    Jun 24, 2016 7:45 AM in response to KristianTuvang

    Has the hard drive been erased since you got the computer or before you got it?

     

    Selling old Mac (4)          Apple support

  • by KristianTuvang,

    KristianTuvang KristianTuvang Jun 24, 2016 8:01 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 24, 2016 8:01 AM in response to Eric Root

    Not sure if it was the hard drive or the partitions, but it came with yosemite, with a lot of problems including this one, then i updated to el Capitan which made the system crash, both partitions were erased  by me. I opened the PC up to clean some 6 year old dust, fresh install of mountain lion altought all the drive is being taken by the os there is no recovery partition. Can't recall if the hard drive it self was formatted.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Jun 25, 2016 8:00 AM in response to KristianTuvang
    Level 9 (69,956 points)
    iTunes
    Jun 25, 2016 8:00 AM in response to KristianTuvang

    Based on what you posted, I think the best thing to do would be to erase the drive and start from scratch. If you have access to another Mac computer, go to the App Store, sign in with your Apple ID, and download an OS, either from your Purchases tab or El Capitan. Use the program below to make a bootable USB Flash drive. On your computer copy anything you want to save to an external drive. Then boot of the USB drive. If El Capitan, run Disk Utility and select First Aid. Reformat the drive using Disk Utility/Erase Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then click the Option button and select GUID. Then re-install the OS. If pre-El Capitan, run Disk Utility Verify/Repair Disk and Repair Permissions until you get no errors.  Reformat the drive using Disk Utility/Erase Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then click the Option button and select GUID. Then re-install the OS.

     

    Bootable USB Flash Drive – Diskmaker X