I bought a refurbished 2009 Macbook Pro running Mavericks. The old administrator has it password protected. I've come to the conclusion that they had filevault enabled as well. I need to factory reset!

What you will need to do is get duplicate installation disks from Apple They will require a serial number of the MBP (on the bottom) and there will be a charge.

When you get the disks, start up the MBP, erase the HDD, format it, install the OSX and set up your own Apple ID. Then you may consider any upgrades for the OSX or applications.

Ciao.

Hi. Do you happen to know the year of the MBP? If your MBP came with a newer operating system that snow leopard ,you could not use the disk you have. And even if it did come with snow leopard, if the version was 10.6.4 and the disk you have is 10.6.3 . You still could not use it. And if usable at all if would have to be a retail install disk. Use the serial number on the bottom of the MBP to find out.

Most 2009 MBPs came with Leopard, late ones with Snow Leopard. If the Snow Leopard disk is white, it may work. If it is gray, it will not work. I do not know the price of duplicate disks. Apple Customer Service will tell you that.

Note that the white Snow Leopard disk will not have all applications on it.

Your MBP was not purchased from Apple. The party who sold you the MBP should have supplied the original installation disks, but that often is not done on e-bay.

Ciao.

You can get the retail Snow Leopard discs for $20 from Apple. Have you gotten in touch with the seller? Perhaps the seller set it up and knows the password. The seller should have checked all this out before putting the MBP up for sale.

Be aware that until you get your Apple ID associated with that MBP, upgrades from Apple will not be available to you. Proceed accordingly.

Ciao.

Hi. I never asked why you think file vault is enabled. Do you see a lock icon? See if you can use this to reset password,http://osxdaily.com/2011/04/25/change-admin-password-mac/ I do not know if you have the unibody macbook or the earlier 2009 macbook. But anyway there is a way to disable filevault. You have to remove one memory stick and restart the macbook. Then you can shut it down and reinstall the memory.

With systems later than Snow Leopard 10.6, and those which did not include

install-restore DVDs originally, rely on operating systems that access download

from the internet, & use an owner's AppleID to tie the software to the computer.

The story you tell, is evidence of how not to buy a computer; the auction or resale

of previously owned and not-really-refurbished models can limit you and rip you off.

Your best path is to return the computer since it appears to be tied into the former

owner's purchase and upgrade installation history with their AppleID & password.

An honest refurbish process would not send you a locked computer, it would be

one where you'd start up into a set-up mode and you'd enter your personal info.

Anything less than that, is even more headache & heartache down the road.

So to return it, is the suggested and recommended procedure. 😐

I wonder if you could use this:-

Start up holding down alt cmd and r. This should bring up the Utilities window. From the menu you choose Disk Utility and in Disk Utility select Erase (using the extended journaled format) (I am an amateur, so might not be expressing this in the correct way). Once you run it and Restart you are offered the choice of reinstalling an OS from Apple. You will have deleted everything including the previous owner's Preferences.

I have today used this process to wipe my 2009 MacBook prior to disposal. The next user to switch it on will be able to get an OS over the Internet.