Anoother G5 new guy question

guitron45 · Post by **guitron45** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:13 pm

Hello, Bought a refurb G5 2.0 late 2004. I need to know how to take posession of the admin and root user areas. I changed the passwrod in the admin area but there seems to be two admins next to the leopard skin icon. I'd like to delete all that and start clean. I can not change root user to me because it want's some other password. All this relates to setup issues. It's like the manual I D L'd is about some other computer. And it may be. It was the only choice on the apple manual page. All the other choices are specified by when the box was assembled except the manual. There is early 2005 and I chose powermac g5 with no date. Setup wiz thinks I have a new mac and wants to register it. I doubt that would fly.

The manual makes it sound easy to transfer files w/a firewire cable. Don't you need a network for that? Also can I boot to an external drive via firewire or usb?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ron

inhouseprod · Post by **inhouseprod** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:19 pm

If you want to start clean, I would recommend booting to the Mac OS X Startup disk and do a complete reformat and re-install of the OS. Just insert the CD, and boot the machine while holding down the "C" key on the keyboard (that's on the QWERTY keyboard - not Middle C on your Keyboard - JUST KIDDING!)

Short of doing that, depending on the Mac that you're transferring data from, you can very easily transfer all of your files/apps/etc using a firewire cable. However, you need to be careful because certain applications don't transfer cleanly or might require you to re-register it online because it has been moved to a new computer. To initiate the firewire transfer, boot up your old Mac while holding down the "T" key until you see the firewire symbol floating around the screen. Then either boot the new mac up to the CD as above and choose the option to transfer from an old mac, or open Applications/Utilities/Migration Assistant and have it migrate the data that way. It's pretty easy to do.

guitron45 · Post by **guitron45** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:34 pm

[quote="inhouseprod"]If you want to start clean, I would recommend booting to the Mac OS X Startup disk
Thanks. Don't have a start up disk. Refurbs don't come with a disk just the OS leop. on the drive. I appreciate you taking the time to help.

Ron

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 3:13 pm

If you don;t care about the user data in the old accounts, you might create a new admin account, then log into that account and deleted the other accounts. It shouldn't delete programs unless they were installed in the user area, but it could delete some stuff that was installed for specific users such as plug-ins, authorizations, etc.

guitron45 · Post by **guitron45** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 3:49 pm

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:If you don;t care about the user data in the old accounts, you might create a new admin account, then log into that account and deleted the other accounts. It shouldn't delete programs unless they were installed in the user area, but it could delete some stuff that was installed for specific users such as plug-ins, authorizations, etc.

Yep that's what I'd like to do. See original post. When I start that procedure the os wants a password I can't give it. It's a refurb. but the hard drive should have been wiped and the os reinstalled. Somethings wrong. I don't know what.

Ron

inhouseprod · Post by **inhouseprod** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 6:49 pm

I haven't done this in a while, but you might give this a shot -

- Boot your mac while holding down command-s - this should boot you into a white (?) terminal based screen in single user mode.

- once you're in single user mode, type the following commands (the com mand part is after the #)
* #sh /etc/rc
* #passwd yourusername
* #reboot

There are a few more notes about this here:

http://tinyurl.com/2etxcy

Do it for each of the admin accounts. You should be able to use that password to delete the accounts or whatever.

It might be worth picking up a bootable Mac OS X CD. It's about the only way to do certain disk maintenance things on your system drive.

emulatorloo · Post by **emulatorloo** » Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:04 am

If you got your refurb from Apple or a reputable dealer, then it should have come with an OS X install disk.

So I would call them and ask for a disk.

If not, buy one, because IMHO you really need to reformat and start from scratch.

And as Eric says you need one to do maintenance on your machine.

I have seen decent Leopard prices at newegg.com and eshop.macsales.com

--

guitron45 · Post by **guitron45** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:03 pm

emulatorloo wrote:If you got your refurb from Apple or a reputable dealer, then it should have come with an OS X install disk. So I would call them and ask for a disk. If not, buy one, because IMHO you really need to reformat and start from scratch. And as Eric says you need one to do maintenance on your machine. I have seen decent Leopard prices at newegg.com and eshop.macsales.com--

Sorry it took so long to get back to you guys. Been recording. At least that part is all together. I do have a Tiger install disk. I was thinking this puter had leopard on it but it has 10.4.11 on it now. I updated the other day. And I will ask GainSaver for a disk. Thanks to you and Eric for taking the time to help. I will try the single root user solution.

Ron