Mac Attack

No, I do not condone hacking when it's done with mal-intent.

On the other hand, I recently brought my Mac PowerBook to work to transfer some video files to it that I will be working on later.

I haven't used it in a while, and I didn't do the original setup. Nevertheless, I was pretty sure I knew the password - and I'd clearly entered it many times before, so it had to be one of my "regulars." It wasn't.

Apple has a nice, easy fix. Get your installation CD, and boot from that. Ok, but how many of us carry our disks around with us? Or can even quickly put our hands on them? In my case, my Mac was refurbished, so I don't even have the install disk.

Now what??

Well, there is a workaround (that's the polite term; the less polite term is hack). It's surprisingly simple:

Reboot your Mac holding down the Apple (or Command on a newer machine) and S keys (after you hear the chime). You will boot into the terminal. (This is the interface where you are talking directly to the Mac's inner workings.)

 You will get a prompt which on a Mac involves "root." Don't be afraid - this is just like the command prompt on a PC.  Now, follow these instructions hitting "enter" after each line:

mount -uw /
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
shutdown -h now

Be sure to use the spaces as indicated (the first time I tried it I did not leave a space after the rm and before the /var and the sequence failed.

That's all there is to it - you can now set up your Mac as if it were a new machine. Installed software will still be there.

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