Mac pro quad core 2.8 Find

[Sirfranky]

I need help... I came across an old Cheesegrater Mac pro A1186 with windows 7 on it from a sale. I want to make it great again...
I am not a tech so my question is will a password unlocker get in to get to work on it? I have followed a few sites info to get all the way
into the Admin and its password locked as well. Is there a way to factory reset?
I have searched a lot and have not found a workable way in yet.
Thanks

 

[Raz0rEdge]

That's a Mac Pro from 2008 and it can run OS X 10.7 Lion at the most. Since it doesn't have a version of OS X on it right now, you don't want to deal with breaking into whatever is already there.

Grab a copy of OS X Lion for $20 from Apple. Once you get the installation media, boot from it and erase the current contents of the HD and do a fresh install of Lion and be on your way.

Understand that you'll not be able to use any recent version of applications since most of them require at least Yosemite or greater to work. You'll have to find applications that work with the older version of OS X.

 

[harryb2448]

Not quite true Ashwin as a 2008 Mac Pro will run right up to El Capitan OS X.11.6. Mountain Lion OS X.8 is available from Apple Online, and then from there up to Elo Capo. Alas it is a download so you will need access to another Mac for the download and burning to a DVD.

Certified Refurbished Products

We test and certify all Apple refurbished products and include a one-year warranty.

www.apple.com

 

[Sirfranky]

Ok I don't have another Mac so with the Lion can I just load it and be prompted to get in. As of now I don't have any way through the Windows password.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Harry, you are right, I was looking at the Original Mac Pro as opposed to the 2008 version. Either way, since there is no current version of OS X/macOS installed on the machine, you need to start somewhere and so starting with Lion is good since that upgrades are free after that.

 

[harryb2448]

Understood that Ashwin.

Alas Apple has dropped the OS X.7 Lion available at Apple Online for Mountain Lion. OP you will need either operating system on a DVD to pop it in, boot holding down C ,erase and format the drive Mac OS Extended Journaled and proceed with the install.

 

[Sirfranky]

Thanks guys for help. I'm glad I found this site.

 

[MarkAllread]

Also, not to forget that you can actually run Sierra using Dosdude's patch ...mine has been running it flawlessly for a year or so.

macOS Sierra Patch Tool

dosdude1.com

 

[Slydude]

Also, not to forget that you can actually run Sierra using Dosdude's patch ...mine has been running it flawlessly for a year or so.

macOS Sierra Patch Tool

dosdude1.com

I'm not suggesting that'a bad idea, but I think I'd get a clean system installed before attempting the patch. As it stands now, if you run the patch and it doesn't work, there are too many variables that could be fouling things up. In other words, get a stable OS installed before trying to install a patch to run an unsupported OS.

 

[MarkAllread]

Totally agree. Keep it simple at first. You still need a working Mac to make this happen.

I'm not suggesting that'a bad idea, but I think I'd get a clean system installed before attempting the patch. As it stands now, if you run the patch and it doesn't work, there are too many variables that could be fouling things up. In other words, get a stable OS installed before trying to install a patch to run an unsupported OS.

 

[Slydude]

Totally agree. Keep it simple at first. You still need a working Mac to make this happen.

You said that in a much simpler way than I did.

 

[MarkAllread]

Maybe, but you said it first haha!

 

[Slydude]

I speak from experience. I ran one of those patches on my MacBook Pro for a bit. IIRC the first time I tried it, things didn't work. It's entirely possible that this was a mistake on my part. I got the patch working well for a while, but then something caused things to go haywire. I haven't bothered trying to figure out what went wrong.

 

[MarkAllread]

Interesting how people can have different experiences. I have had it running (for Sierra) on 2 Minis, an iMac and a Mac Pro for ages. I've had very little problem with any of them except for losing WiFi on the Mac Pro, which is a known potential issue for some models, and I used his update tool for any updates.

Anyway, I mentioned it earlier just as an option to consider...But always keep a backup haha!

 

[Sirfranky]

Thanks for more info. I had to find a hard copy on ecrater. Waiting on mail now I don't have an extra Mac for download just the old Mac Pro find. There is alot of people that do upgrades on these at youtube. I'm new to upgrading computers I thought this might make a decent Trading Platform..

 

[Slydude]

Interesting how people can have different experiences. I have had it running (for Sierra) on 2 Minis, an iMac and a Mac Pro for ages. I've had very little problem with any of them except for losing WiFi on the Mac Pro, which is a known potential issue for some models, and I used his update tool for any updates.

Anyway, I mentioned it earlier just as an option to consider...But always keep a backup haha!

I didn't really have major problems once I got it up and running. For some reason, the initial attempt failed. The second attempt worked and I ran it for a few weeks till something messed things up. I think I ran a security update or something that borked things up.

The whole project was really just an experiment to see if it could be done. Fixing the problem was always a low priority for me.