Trying to reload snow leopard on Mac Pro A1186

Hey guys, this unit has yosemite on it but the owner was messing around with the password and now can't get it so I am trying to reload SL on it. Following the usual instructions of holding down the C key after the chime is not working and it's booting straight to the user accounts page. I have the SL Disc inside an attached external USB Optical drive and I am using my regular windows keyboard and mouse on this desktop, help please?

What kind of Snow Leopard disk is it? It should be the retail version (Picture of Snow Leopard on disk). Also, holding down the C key booting from an external optical drive is probably not going to work. Try holding down the Option key (Alt on Windows keyboard) to see if the disk shows up as bootable.

There are no less than five different models of Mac Pro with that identifier, so being more specific about the specs of the machine would be helpful. Most of the models with that identifier could run Snow Leopard, but there's a mid-2012 version I believe that would of course not be able to, having originally come with Lion or Mountain Lion.

I don't understand why you can't just reload Yosemite onto it -- going back to SL represents a big security risk, plus then you'll have the extra work of upgrading the SL to 10.6.8, then using the Mac App Store to regain Yosemite, then reinstalling Yosemite. If it had Yosemite on it, it's got a recovery partition, so why not just use that to either reset the password or reinstall the system?

Sorry for the late reply guys, I will address this in the morning. This is according to to the owner a a 2008 model. I don't have yosemite on a disk and since I can't bypass the password screen I am not seeing a way to reinstall yosemite?

Restart holding the Command and R keys that will get you into the Recovery Partition see instructions here: http://coolestguidesontheplanet.com/reset-forgotten-admin-password-mac-osx/


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Holding down the ALT key doesn't do anything and pressing the windows and R keys is showing a screen as in the attached pic, guess it's looking for the password?

Command key left of space bar, there is no widows key on a Mac. Unless you are using a different keyboard.

As mentioned in my OP, I am using a windows Keyboard and my research showed the windows key is the equivalent of the command key on a mac keyboard?

That lock indicates a firmware password. If the owner didn't steal the unit, ie he set up that firmware password, and now can't figure it out, you're done -- there's no getting into that machine.

There are 2 password accounts on the screen, I had seen the guy's name on of the accounts, the other is "Guest" so I have to believe all is genuine. If nothing can be done then how can I get back to the original login screen again please?

The padlock means that the system is sealed from alteration at the hardware level -- even erasing the hard drive won't gain access. He has two options, if there are two accounts there: use the Guest Account (but this won't let him access his stuff or change anything), or remember the password to his previous account.

EDIT: this thread indicates that there IS a way around the firmware lock: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2757017?start=0&tstart=0

At this point I would STRONGLY recommend that you take it to an authorized Apple tech with proof that the machine belongs to the owner, and let the Apple guys give him the lecture about messing around with passwords and other things he clearly didn't understand. Hopefully he didn't encrypt the hard drive as well ...

Thanks chas, do you know of any way for me to get back to the original screen with the two accounts?

Here's a couple Apple documents regarding firmware passwords:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204455
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203409

- Nick

chas_m said:

He has two options, if there are two accounts there: use the Guest Account (but this won't let him access his stuff or change anything)

Click to expand...

Yes you are correct, the drive is encrypted so nothing can be done. Thanks for the help!

Just one of the reasons we do not encourage encryption unless there is a specific need. When people ask, "why not?" these are the examples I need to remember. Sorry mikehende, you did everything you could. Sorry about the keyboard confusion I was replying on an iPhone and obviously did not pick up that you were using a Microsoft keyboard.