Don't know account passwords

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Level 1

5 points

Don't know account passwords

I am helping a dental office - recently acquired from previous dentist who has since moved overseas - update and configure their MacBook Pro (circa 2011) that they have in the waiting room for patients to use. In System Preferences>Accounts it says "Dental Office" with "Managed" underneath as the top account. Under that is Other Accounts which has the previous dentist's name as administrator. When I click the lock to make changes the Name is blank (but it could be dentaloffice) and nobody at the dental office has a clue what the password is. I've taken the MBP home to work on it - starting with upgrading the memory and the OS - but can't do anything until/unless I can wipe out the hard drive and start from fresh (i.e. there's nothing to backup) or at least get the password to upgrade from its current state. Anybody have ideas?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Mar 2, 2016 5:22 PM

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Answer 1

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Mar 2, 2016 5:25 PM in response to ehstoker

Erase it and set up your own account.

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Answer 2

ehstoker Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 2, 2016 7:42 PM in response to Csound1

Assuming you're suggesting that I erase the hard drive....

a) in order to do anything in Disk Utility I've got to type in the name and password of an administrator which I either don't have (password) or not sure of (name)

b) even if I could erase the HDD then I must have an operating system to go back on the hard drive, and I don't have the original discs though I may have a standalone Snow Leopard install disc which, once again, I probably can't use without an admin name and password

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Answer 3

Camelot

Level 9

54,333 points

Mar 2, 2016 9:49 PM in response to ehstoker

You can boot the system into single-user mode by holding Command-S during power on and startup. This gives a restricted environment that eschews most of the normal account restrictions.

http://osxdaily.com/2011/04/25/change-admin-password-mac/ has a step-by-step.

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Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Mar 3, 2016 7:48 AM in response to ehstoker

Boot off the Snow Leopard DVD and 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. Use the combo update to get to 10.6.8. You can then access the App Store and download 10.11 if desired.

10.6.8 Combo Updater

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