Second Hand Mac Mini Factory Reset with No Password

passwordrecovery

I bought a second hand Mac Mini from a friend a couple of years ago. I've only just got round to trying to set it up. He wiped the device before he sold it to me. I believe the device is the late 2009 2.26GHz model. It currently has 10.6.8 Snow Leopard installed.

When the device boots it goes straight into Mac OS, no login challenge. I was trying to set up screen sharing so I can remote into the device and when I attempted to secure the VNC connection with a password, I was challenged for an admin password. I tried the usual basic things to no avail. I then asked the guy I got the mini off and he cant remember what he set it to.

I've spent all afternoon trying all the different options I can find and can't get anything to work. I'm assuming my best option is to try and wipe the device. What I've tried (I'm using a Windows style keyboard) –

  1. Command – R to enter recovery mode. Tried Ctrl – R, Alt – R, Windows – R, Shift – R, none of these work. Each time it just boots straight into OS.
  2. Checked for a recovery partition. Can't see a recovery partition, is this why Command – R does nothing?
  3. Found and downloaded an El Capitan (Mac OS 10.11) image. I believe this is the latest version supported by the device. Then tried to create a bootable USB disk using Disk Utility on the Mac. When I get as far as restore I'm challenged for the admin password which I don't have so can't continue with this
  4. Tried to create a bootable USB on a Windows device using Transmac and another tool that's name escapes me. Did this with 2 different USB thumb drives. Trying them many times in the Mac. Each time booting and holding the Option key (Alt). The device boots to a screen that shows the Hard Drive only, no option for the USB drive. It has the option to log in to WIFI at the bottom of the screen (the device is connected to the network via a cable as well). I tried connecting to the WIFI which worked, but then it gave no further options
  5. Tried the various key combinations I could find to try and launch the internet recovery, is it even supported on a Mac this old? Nothing came up with any of the combinations I tried.
  6. Tried looking for a password hint, doesn't look like he set one

Can anybody offer any advice?

Best Answer

The single user mode solved this for me. As detailed in this post - How can I reset a Mac's password from Single User Mode?

I had to use the version mentioned by Kelli, ie launchctl then passwd [username]

I now have administrator control so I can use the machine. Many thanks everyone

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