StevStep wrote:
Is it possible to reset the user name and password without the start up disks and if so how can it be done?
Do you know the password for an existing user account? If so, just log in as that user, go to the Accounts system preference & click the "Change Password..." button to change it. You can also change the 'long' user name to whatever you want in the "User Name" box in that same preference.
However, if you want to change the 'short' name of any account (the one used for the account's home folder, the
Reset Password utility on the Mac OS X Install disc won't help -- it just allows anyone that can boot the Mac with that disc to reset the admin password, but not change the user short name associated with it.
To do that follow the procedure in
Mac OS X: How to change user short name or home directory name. Of course, to do that, you need to know the password for an admin account (to enable the root user), so if you don't know the password for any admin account, you would need to use the reset password utility from an installer disc.
AFAIK,
any Mac OS X Install disc capable of booting the Mac in question can be used for this, & using one that you don't actually own should not violate the software license agreement, since you are not using that disc to install anything.