Complicated password reset question
I have just about given up trying to regain access to my Leopard Server, which some time ago stopped recognizing my password - and any password - and no reset options seem to actually reset the password.
So I thought I'd at least log on to the main non-server computer and make sure my data was there, figure out some alternative backup scheme since my Time Machine won't work without the server, etc.
I discover that I can no longer log on to the local computer as an admin user. I can log on as a standard user, but I cannot reset the password for the admin user.
When I use the install disk and reset the password for that admin user, it claims to have reset it...but in fact, it does not recognize the password when I try and log on as the admin user (or when I try from the standard user to reset the user password for that user through system prefs/accounts...won't unlock without that admin password).
Can it be that somehow the admin user on this computer, since it is a networked machine, still needs to validate the network password even though I am just trying to get access to the local machine? If so, then every computer on my network is essentially toast because the server has locked everything out.
(As an aside: I can see from a command-line ls of the server computer that all of the files appear to be there...it's just that no user can access them. so it's not as if the server's HD is gone).
Do I have any other options...other than to try and do a file-by-file recovery to removable media, wipe all network computers, and start over?
