09-18-2006, 08:19 AM

... to remove the previous owner's settings? I just got an older iMac with OS9 & OSX and would like to learn to use it from the ground up, eliminating the previous owners passwords and such. Can I reset the machine without losing programs or files? On my PC, when I had to reset the machine everything was lost. Can you help me on this one? Thanks!

09-18-2006, 09:19 AM

Originally Posted by Michael

On my PC, when I had to reset the machine everything was lost. Can you help me on this one? Thanks!

A clean install (resetting) works the same with Mac OS. If you do so, you will lose all of the information and applications. Archiving and installing is an option if you want to keep certain applications and do something like update the OS, but you will also retain the previous user's information as well.

09-19-2006, 06:04 AM

ok- I have a similar issue. a dark small screen comes up saying I need to restart. Upon restarting the screen appears again...and agaain...and again.
Clean install is the only way out and lose everything?

09-19-2006, 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by brupaint

ok- I have a similar issue. a dark small screen comes up saying I need to restart. Upon restarting the screen appears again...and agaain...and again.
Clean install is the only way out and lose everything?

First, remove any hardware (external drives, printers etc.) in case that is causing the problem (known as a kernel panic, or to a PC user, a crash).

Then reset the parameter RAM (hold down the Option (Alt), Command (Apple) P and R keys and start up the computer, keeping the keys held down until you hear the startup chime THREE times).

Then check that your RAM is correctly installed (sometimes it can get knocked loose, which can cause kernel panics).

If you still have no joy, try seeing if you can target firewire the harddrive. You will need another Mac and a firewire cable. Start up your Mac holding down the T key until you see a giant firewire symbol on screen. Then plug it into the working Mac as if it is an external drive. You should be able to retrieve any data you need before doing a clean install, but if you delete all user preferences (Users>"username">library>preferences) and any junk lying on the disk you might be able to bring it back to life without formatting.

09-21-2006, 02:16 AM

Umm... bru, your case isn't similar to the OP's

Michael has a functional machine with someone elses accounts on it.
Boot from the OSX CD, and choose Password Reset. This give you the ability to make your own administrative password for ThePreviousGuy. Now, boot the machine with ThePreviousGuy's password and using System Preferences: User Accounts (or something similar) create a new user for yourself, and give your new user Administrative priviledges. You may have to choose the option at startup to display the 2 users so you can select which one you will boot from.
Now boot from your new account.
Voila, you should have a spanky clean account, and you should be able to still use all the applications. You will be missing anything that was in ThePreviousGuy's personal Documents, Desktop, Music, etc. folders.
If you really wanted some of that stuff (hey, they were his personal tings - whattarya, some kind of voyeur?) you can log back on as ThePreviousGuy and move these items out from his Home folder to a common folder on the hard drive (not the Desktop)
Now you can reboot and log in as yourself, go back into System Preferences: User Accounts and Delete ThePreviousGuy.

If you run into issues with insufficient priviledges, then get yourself BatChmod from www.versiontracker.com

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com

09-24-2006, 06:08 AM

Originally Posted by CanadaRAM

Umm... bru, your case isn't similar to the OP's

Michael has a functional machine with someone elses accounts on it.
Boot from the OSX CD, and choose Password Reset. This give you the ability to make your own administrative password for ThePreviousGuy. Now, boot the machine with ThePreviousGuy's password and using System Preferences: User Accounts (or something similar) create a new user for yourself, and give your new user Administrative priviledges. You may have to choose the option at startup to display the 2 users so you can select which one you will boot from.
Now boot from your new account.
Voila, you should have a spanky clean account, and you should be able to still use all the applications. You will be missing anything that was in ThePreviousGuy's personal Documents, Desktop, Music, etc. folders.
If you really wanted some of that stuff (hey, they were his personal tings - whattarya, some kind of voyeur?) you can log back on as ThePreviousGuy and move these items out from his Home folder to a common folder on the hard drive (not the Desktop)
Now you can reboot and log in as yourself, go back into System Preferences: User Accounts and Delete ThePreviousGuy.

If you run into issues with insufficient priviledges, then get yourself BatChmod from www.versiontracker.com

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com

That stinks...... not the same I'll try the same thing I guess unless you have another suggestion for me?