I bought a powerbook g4 from a friend, and he has all the documentation, but lost all of his disks. He never really used it, and forgot the password. How can I reset the password without a startup disk? And if not, can anyone e-mail me the start up files?
I guess it has mac os x v.10. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can't use it untill I can get into it.

Thank you
Bev Wells
Configjunkie

There's pretty much no easy way to do it without knowing the password or without an install disk.

yes, i realize that. But I was hoping maybe someone might e-mail me a copy of like the first install disk. (start up disk). If anyone could help me out I would sure appreciate it.

Thank you
Bev Wells
Configjunkie
bwells47@yahoo.com

Without knowing your specific system no one can send you an install disk unless you want someone to send you the install disk from a retail version of OS X which would be wrong.

Your best bet, especially if the machine has an older version of OS X on it, is to look around for a good deal on a copy of the newest version.

I realize it's likely well beyond the need at this point, but for the sake of someone else searching for this answer.

you don't need the install disk at all.

Boot into single user mode holding down apple + s at boot.
Run a disk check by typing fsck -y
ReMount the drive with write access by typing in mount -uw /
remove the setup completion marker by typing rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
Reboot and you should be walked through setting up a new admin user account.

From there you can remove his account from within the Accounts preference pane and go about cleaning up the system.

I'm gonna have to remember that. Thanks

Help..!!!! I just tried your work around for the G4 laptop I have and I'm sitting wondering what to do now as my inept attempt to type in what you wrote above seems to have failed. Can you be more specific to get me back out of this screen? I booted using the Apple + S and then typed in the next line of code and nothing... I don't even know how to restart and get it back where I was at before I tried your work around. Thanks.

What version of the OS are you running(Or do you know?)

Seablade

hi i have the power book g4 and i tried wut u posted on the site (the above quote) and everything worked except when i reached the mount -uw/ part it says
localhost :/ root# mount -uw/
mount: illegal option -- /
usage: mount [-dfruvw] [-o option] [-t ufs external_type secial node
mount [-adfruvw] [-t ufs external_type]
mount [-dfruvw] special node


thats wut it says and i have no idea wut to do i tried many things but the all said the same please help

i now know what you are doing wrong... im sure this is way late for a response, but you must make sure you enter a space before the -uw/ that was the problem i had