MacKarma: Getting Past a Password on an Uncooperative Mac
by Erik Jay
Seeing as how I am committed to "The Macintosh Way" (a philosophy as well as a book from the Old Days of Computing by Guy Kawasaki, an original Apple corporate "evangelist"), I really do try to help folks out with their computer problems — even PC people. Fact is, I really am on a mission to help restore civility, neighborliness, community spirit, and what the heck, the gold standard too. I am making some progress on all these fronts (well, not the last one) and had a nice example of a Virtual Neighbor-like thing to do recently.
Craigslist, for you Internet newcomers, is a renowned online "community" that has something for just about everybody. There a job listings; gigs, which are jobs without employee benefits (or drawbacks either); areas for women to meet men or women or wombats, and for men and wombats to do the same; and all manner of things for sale, to do, to discuss, and so on. As a freelancer -- writing, editing, proofing, music, design, etc. -- I check the jobs and gigs regularly, but I also cruise the other categories since so many postings are miscategorized.
So, anyway, I ran across a posting ("Help, Mac expert needed!") from this poor guy and his ladyfriend down in Marina del Rey, which is all the way across the county from me, although we are both "in L.A." Seems they'd got hold of an 867MHz dual-processor G4 PowerMacintosh tower. It was a great deal (free, I think) except for one little thing: they couldn't get past the password screen.
Oops. Bummer.
In the posting, Rob, the "poor guy," said he was a PC type and admitted ignorance of Macs, as did his ladyfriend. I wrote them back, commiserated with them a bit, and asked a few questions -- what other computers did they have around? did they have any external drives? did they have the original installation discs? what OS was it running (OS 9 or OS X) and what version number?
When I got his reply, the first few sentences were the statements I have gotten used to during my Free Helper career, mainly "wow!" and "thanks!" with some version of "I didn't think people were this nice anymore." I also got the answers I needed to hel "poor Rob" become "empowered Rob," and his ladyfriend be a roaring OS X Tigress. (Hey, why doesn't Apple use feminine feline names for its OS? There's Panther, Jaguar, and now Tiger, but no Tigress or Lioness. What's the deal?)
I sent back an e-mail the length of a short novel, wowing Rob again. What follows is pretty much the verbiage as I sent it to him. Remember, this was not a bench tech, this was a PC-using marketing guy and his marketing gal ladyfriend. And this is what I told them...
Hello again, Rob. There are various startup methods that allow for getting around simple 'admin' password protection, which is what your situation sounds like; in other words, there's no fancy third-party software running that will defeat most or all of the following workarounds. None of the methods are completely painless or free, but you have to decide how important it is for you to have the contents of that drive on the unbootable machine. Now, let me break the methods down for you one at a time.
(1) By holding the 'c' key during startup, you can boot from a CD, most any CD with a valid Mac System.. Your G4 will boot into either OS 9 or OS X, so you can get one or the other versions or both. You can buy the final OS 9 package (9.2) for about $50, or you could buy Mac OS X with the latest version (10.4) setting you back $100 or so. But you don't need the newest version of OS X, so you can buy 10.3 or even 10.2, which will cost about $50 or $20, respectively.
Frankly, if you guys are not 'Mac fanatics' and don't need the latest and greatest of everything -- and just want to use the G4 for basic web surfing, word processing, digital camera stuff, music, etc. -- then you can do just fine with 10.2. Of course, it might be on the G4 already, or a newer version might be there, or it could have OS 9, or both. You won't know until you start up the G4 somehow. If you do start up with a Mac OS installer disk, you can go to Reset Password on the Installer or Utilities menu (depending on what version of OS X you get). And then you're in business.
(2) Another startup option is to do just that -- meaning hold the 'Option' key as you hit the power switch or keyboard button. This allows you to choose a boot volume among any connected drives, including Firewire devices. The only way this will work is if you have an external Firewire drive, with Mac OS 9 or X and some utilities installed, attached to the G4. Although the Mac also has USB ports, you cannot start-up from an external USB drive; don't believe anyone who says otherwise, just look it up on Apple's site for yourself. Who knows why they made 'em that way, but they did. If you can beg, borrow, or steal an external Firewire drive with a System and some utilities already on it, this will definitely work. Then you can back-up whatever you want from the drive before reformatting it. If you cannot borrow such a device, one would cost you about a hundred bucks, plus you'd need the OS to put on it, so this is a potentially pricey option.
(3) A slightly more geeky approach is to hold down 'Option-s' while starting up, so that OS X boots into 'super user mode.' No password is required to muck around with essentially 'Root' access. Of course, you would be using Unix commands at this point. If you don't know Unix at all, you could probably get enough help from Wikipedia and other geeknoid sources online to learn how to seek out and disable the password protection scheme. If you are not a 'computer guy,' though, this is probably not a realistic option for you. This is a free option, money-wise, but you can do untold damage dorking around in the G4's mind (the processor and RAM are the brain, if you will) if you're not sure about what you're doing.
(4) Finally, you could start up while holding the 't' key down, and turn the G4 into a 'Firewire target disk.' What this means is that you could simply plug the G4 into another Mac, and that other Mac will see the G4 as an external drive. Then you could copy all the files you want to keep to the borrowed Mac, or to an external drive that you have also hooked up to it. This option, like #2 above, requires coming up with some equipment from somewhere, and of course you want to beg or borrow it, not steal it — or buy it, of course, unless you have to. Do you have any friends with a Mac laptop (a third millennium PowerBook, iBook, or new MacBook or MacBook Pro with the Intel chips)? Sure, you could use an iMac, a G4, or a G5 tower, but a laptop sure would be easier. You will also need a Firewire cable (an 'A' to 'A' one, meaning both ends are the same size).
Rob, this is what you are up against. I know it can seem hopeless at times, but it's not. We'll work something out that will get you going. In the Old Days, Macs were fairy easy to troubleshoot and maintain. Not so any longer with the Unix-based OS and more sophisticated hardware. But, with a little help, which I am happy to provide, I know you can do it. Regards, Erik...
Long story short (make that very long story shorter), Rob got the files off the G4 via the “Firewire target disk” method, reformatted the hard drive, and has adopted the platinum tower into his family. His ladyfriend is filming some of her own commercials and editing them with Final Cut Pro. Rob uses the G4 for some musical and creative tasks, still runs his trusty PC for most everything else, and everyone is living in digital era harmony. How could I charge someone for getting to be part of this? How much more I have been compensated by leaving money out of it.
Karma. What ye sow ye shall also reap. What goes around, comes around. All major religions — Buddhism, Christianity, and Yuppie-ism — have that same concept, by whatever name. I don’t just “believe” it, I have seen it in action. And I had a chance, with a couple of strangers and a neat piece of modern machinery, to get into action with it myself.
“The Macintosh Way,” indeed. I really need to get a hold of Guy Kawasaki and tell him about this.
