Can't Access Mac Laptop

Question

Can't Access Mac Laptop

A friend called me just now. A friend of his has just suffered a traumatic brain injury and his wife needs to access his laptop. They asked me if I know how to gain access as his friend obviously can't now.

In searching the forums, I find a lot of info about file sharing over networks, but my question is about simply logging into the laptop all together.

Is there a way? If this info is somewhere online already, and I can't imagine it isn't, I just couldn't find it among all the network access posts. Sorry.

Thanks,
Steven

G4 Quicksilver 867 mhz, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Jun 3, 2007 4:39 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 3, 2007 7:50 PM in response to Steven Shmerler

Hi Steven

I'm assuming someone there has direct access to the laptop? One way is to reboot from the original installation disk, run Reset Password from the Installers menu, and reset the main user's password. Then log in with the new password.

Matt

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Answer 2

Jun 4, 2007 6:10 AM in response to Matt Clifton

Hi Matt,

Thanks much. Yes, his wife has it. I've passed on the info and hope this will help. I gather she is not much of a Mac user, so we'll see. Perhaps they have a guru in the neighborhood or a local Genius Bar.

Thanks,
Steven

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Answer 3

b3av1s

Level 4

1,010 points

Jun 4, 2007 11:37 AM in response to Steven Shmerler

Steven,

You can also boot into single user mode by starting the laptop and holding down command S. After you are in single user mode type 'sh /etc/rc' (without the quotes) Now type 'passwd username' to change the password of any account on the laptop, where username is the name of the account.

This works on MacBook, MacBook Pro and Intel Macs. I haven't tested this on G4 or G5 Macs.

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