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how can i recover a forgotten administrator password?

I have forgotten my administrator password for my macbook and I want to try and recover it without resetting it is this possible

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Dec 12, 2012 2:53 PM

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Posted on Dec 12, 2012 2:56 PM

Mac OS X 10.6- If you forget your administrator password will work for Leopard.


Resolution

  1. Start up from your Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Install DVD.
  2. From the Utilities menu, choose Reset Password....
  3. Reset the password for the affected account(s).
3 replies

Dec 12, 2012 3:11 PM in response to BigJMurph2

Sorry, but the installer disc is needed to make such a change. You might try the Terminal to try and change it, but no guarantee this will work:


You can reset the password by printing out (or writing down) and carefully following these steps.


First, find the short name of the admin user on the machine. The easiest way of doing this is by looking at what their directory is called in the Users folder.


Now, start in Single-user Mode. It should boot into a command line.


Enter these exact lines. Press RETURN after each.


mount -uw /

ifconfig lo0 up

cd /var/db/netinfo

netinfod -s local


Now you'll need that short name. Enter "passwd", a space, and the short name of the admin. For example, if the admin was rather prosaically called "admin", you would enter "passwd admin".


The computer will now prompt you to change the password for "admin" (or whatever the short name was). Go ahead and enter a new password.


Now, enter:


sync

reboot


and the machine will reboot. The admin password should now be changed.

how can i recover a forgotten administrator password?

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