New Osx, Now What

hwyrovr · #1 November 25th, 2005, 12:23 PM

MAC crashed last week, resulting in huge expense for new hard drive and OSx installation. Now when we try to load software we get a DEMAND for a password (never had to do that in OS9). Don't have a passworkd, don't know where to get a password, why does it want a password to install a damned printer?

Any thoughts?

Lt Major Burns · #2 November 25th, 2005, 01:09 PM

the pass word is part of unix. it's this password that is needed to anything modifying the system that makes the mac the secure virus free environment we know and love. make your pass word shorter, as you will need it a lot.

your password is the same password you created when you created your account. if it's not your account, contact the administrator.

hwyrovr · #3 November 25th, 2005, 02:49 PM

We did not "create an account". The thing crashed, died, crapped on us. We had to have a new hard drive installed, along with a new OS. "They" put in OSX. Now we have a machine we cannot work with because it keeps demanding a pasword, "they" said they did not create a password for the thing and we certainly didn't - and BTW, this MAC is the biggest piece of junk we have ever had to deal with! It has been a thorn in our butts for three years now, so, please, don't give me the "MAC we all know and love" line.

barhar · #4 November 25th, 2005, 02:54 PM

'Mac crashed last week, resulting in huge expense for new hard drive and OSx installation.', no it did not. There is not one recorded instance where an OS crash (System / MacOS X) that actually resulted in a physical hard disk drive failure. If you are claiming to be the first, I would be willing to accept the damaged hard disk drive for analysis - really!

'Now when we try to load software we get a demand for a password (never had to do that in OS9).', that is because you (and the others of 'we') are booting with MacOS X, and not System 9.x.

'Don't have a password', maybe you do not; but, someone does, '... don't know where to get a password', perhaps, from the person who performed the installation and filled in the respective setup entry fields?

'... why does it want a password to install a damned printer?', 'it' does not want a password to install a printer - since 'it' (an operating system) cannot physically install a printer. However, MacOS X is requesting an administrator's password to install the printer's driver (and / or additional files) into areas either protected by and / or maintained by the OS.

I too (as well as millions of other Mac'ers), do not like the 'Authentication' window appearing either - especially when logged in as an administrator. But, hey - who said that what Apple does is ...

dmetzcher · #5 November 25th, 2005, 03:11 PM

Did you get the OS X DVD after you got your Mac back from "them"? If so, you can use that disc to reset the root password on the machine. Once you can get into the machine, you should create a user account for yourself.

Here is a link to a document that should help you get through all this.
How do I reset my Mac OS X Admin Root Password?

hwyrovr · #6 November 25th, 2005, 03:12 PM

Lots of great SPIN, but it still doesn't help. "THEY" claim they did not set-upo any kind of a password.

How do you boot in OS9? And why would you have to if you have OSX?

Just exactly how weird is MAC? In my opinion, VERY!

dmetzcher · #7 November 25th, 2005, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hwyrovr

Lots of great SPIN, but it still doesn't help. "THEY" claim they did not set-upo any kind of a password.

How do you boot in OS9? And why would you have to if you have OSX?

Just exactly how weird is MAC? In my opinion, VERY!

What are you talking about? Boot into OS 9? Did you read my post above where I gave you a link to the fix for your problem? Calm down and stop freaking out. Bashing Apple isn't goint to fix this for you, and it's not your computer's fault that this is happening. You're getting more worked up over this than you need to. There is a simple fix for this. Unless, of course, you don't have the Mac OS X software installation DVD. Now, you would have gotten that from "them" if you had purchased it as part of whatever repair process they did for you. If they just installed the OS for you without getting you a licensed copy, you might be out of luck, because you are using software that you didn't actually buy and don't actually own. Go to eBay, in that case, and buy a copy of OS X and do a reinstall, which is about the easiest thing you'll ever do with your Mac (insert the CD/DVD, reboot, hold down 'C' key during the boot process). You can find older versions of OS X (like 10.3 Panther) for cheaper than 10.4 Tiger.

If all else fails, it's always easy to go into an Apple store (if you have one near you, which you can find out on the Apple Web site) and talk to someone in there who can look at things for you. You won't have to pay them unless they do an install for you, and I wouldn't pay them for that anyway - just by the OS if you don't already have it.

The fact is, this is not a Mac OS X issue. This could just as easy be a Windows issue if you had "them" install that OS on a PC without providing you with the install discs, except that there is no way to reset the admin password on a Windows PC if you no longer have it. The discs won't help you at all. At least the OS X discs can help you out with this.

dmetzcher · #8 November 25th, 2005, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hwyrovr

Lots of great SPIN, but it still doesn't help.

And by the way, I don't "spin" anything for any company, Apple, Microsoft, or anyone.

Who did this installation for you, anyway? I had forgotten to ask in my last post. Was it a friend, or someone in an Apple store, CompUSA, or other licensed vendor?