Factory reset PPC iMac G5

Orcvader · 16 Jun 2016 at 15:09

Have an old PPC iMac G5 in the office at work, and we want to factory reset it. Problem is, the original owner has forgotton his password to the account and has lost the original install discs.

Is there any other way to factory reset the Mac?

shiver · 16 Jun 2016 at 16:03

You could try resetting the password from single user mode (providing there isn't a firmware password):

Code:

1. Boot into single user mode (press Command-S at power on)
2. Type fsck -fy
3. Type mount -uw /
4. Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
5. Type dscl . -passwd /Users/username password, replacing username with the targeted user and password with the desired password.
6.Reboot

Tomsonn · 20 Jun 2016 at 21:01

The installation disk only works in another machine if the models are exactly same. Good luck finding one.

shiver · 27 Jun 2016 at 22:05

Tomsonn said:
The installation disk only works in another machine if the models are exactly same. Good luck finding one.

Unless it's a retail disc, but yes, even harder to find!

Orcvader · 6 Jul 2016 at 13:49

Bit of a bump but only just had some free time. The commands didn't work, it can't find the file to load.

However using this command in single user mode allowed me to create another admin account:

Code:

rm /var/db/.applesetupdone

Deleted the old account and now it's sorted.

Now need to work out how to bring it back up to speed...

PardonTheWait · 6 Jul 2016 at 22:51

Orcvader said:
back up to speed...

It's at least ten years old - it's never going to get back up to speed!

MagicBoy · 9 Jul 2016 at 00:43

Single core G5? Never going to be that quick...

OS X likes lots of RAM, at least 1GB is a good idea. TenFourFox should get it browsing the modern internet, all be it a bit slowly.