crash + password trouble

Hello people,

I'm having some big trouble with my iBook and was hoping someone here might be able to help. I'm no computer wizzard so you'll have to pardon me if my questions are bit stupid....

A couple of days ago my computer started to behave badly, it kept crashing as if it was overloaded. I do graphic design and websites, so I have a lot of gigantic files + loads of rubbish on it, so to me it seems quite likely that the harddrive is overloaded (?)

I have quite a lot of work that I haven't backed up (*doh*), and because I had no CDs or other means of backing up at home, I turned it off and went out to get myself a memory stick.

The next day I tried turning it back on. It started up slooooowly, and then asked for my password (which is odd, because I've got it set up not to). So I put my normal password in, but for some strange reason it won't accept it!

I read in another thread that you can create a new password by reinstalling OSX, but wouldn't this mean I'd loose all my files?
Is there any way I could get past the password problem AND save my files?

I'd be eternally grateful if anyone could help me with this!

What you do, is boot off of your install media (CD/DVD). Once you have done this, under the frist menu item there show be some about changing your system pass word.

rman said:

What you do, is boot off of your install media (CD/DVD). Once you have done this, under the frist menu item there show be some about changing your system pass word.

Click to expand...

I'm with you that far, but will I not lose all my saved work when I do that?

As long as you don't do anything other than change your pass word, you will be okay.

rman said:

As long as you don't do anything other than change your pass word, you will be okay.

Click to expand...

Really? You're a genious, thank you!

Just thought of another potential problem. I've got my OSX cd, but a while ago someone helped me out and updated it to a more recent version of OSX with his own software. If I use my own, early version of OSX, will I still be able to do the same thing, i.e. changing password without losing any information?

I can not say for sure. If you are running panther, then I would use a panther install disk and not a jaguar install disk.

Hmm...I'm afraid I dont know the differce beween Panther and Jaguar...

I tried creating a new password, it comes up with a window where I can choose to change the password on the install disc or on the harddrive, but the harddrive is grayed out so I can't select it. And I can't change the password on the disc.

Nor can I reinstall OSX, as the version on my computer is newer than that on the CD, and it won't let me overwrite it with an older version.
Could this be the reason why I can't change the password either?