04-16-2004, 02:38 PM

Alright here is my problem, there are two accounts on my computer one is owner account with a password with all the access rights and such and the other account is just a general account with no password I dont have the password for the owner account because i bought the imac g3 off ebay. So i try popping in the cd so I can finally have a clean hard drive and be able to do stuff since i can get into drive utility or anything and I click on restart and it tells me i dont have startup rights or something like that so it wont let me upgrade or use the cd so i can delete the hard drive and start new, anyway i can change the startup rights on the general account or am i jsut screwed?
Thanks for your help.

04-16-2004, 02:51 PM

Have you tried this? Taken from Mac Help, which I actually always find to be very helpful and a good first place to check for help:

Changing your administrator password

To change the administrator password, you must know the current administrator password. If you're logged in as the administrator, open Account preferences and click Change to set a new password.

If you don't remember the password and automatic login is turned off, you can reset the administrator password using the Mac OS X User Install 1 CD.

IMPORTANT: Because a user with the CD can gain unrestricted access to your computer, you should keep the CD in a safe place.

To reset the administrator password using the Mac OS X CD:

Insert the Mac OS X Install Disc 1 CD and restart the computer.
When you hear the startup tone, hold down the C key until you see the spinning gear.
When the Installer appears, choose Installer > Reset Password.
Follow the onscreen instructions to change the password.
Quit the Installer and restart your computer while holding down the mouse button to eject the CD.

Be sure to change your login password in Keychain Access to match your new password.

04-16-2004, 02:53 PM

are you trying to upgrade from a previous version of OS X? because if so, then when it restarts you can try to change the password of the admin (owner) account through the installer menu. but i might be wrong, because from the way you're wording it, it sounds as if you can't even get it to restart. maybe a little more info would be helpful to us.

04-16-2004, 02:55 PM

yep padawan got to it 2 minutes before me :p