We have a mac mini in the office we need to use. When you boot, it asks for a disk password. They guy who set it left, and he doesn't remember it.
We tried booting with Cmd-S, but the mac doesnt go into single user mode. We found an old Snow Leapard disk, and we can boot with this (by holding down option), it works for a bit, then says you need to restart your computer. when we do this, and restart, it says "your computer was restarted because of a problem" then it just goes back to the "enter disk password" again. I.e it doesnt seem possible to re-install OSX from DVD. We cant find a way to get a newer DVD or installable OS.
I guess we need to do is format its disk some how. Is there any way to do this?
We don't have any other disks. It would appear that its impossible to buy Mountain Lion, as we don't have another mac to access the app store - only PCs.
We don't have any spare HDs, but could buy one if needed. The replacement process looks risky, and we dont have the special tools.
We don't care about the data.
We dont know what version of OSX is installed, but its probably 1-2 years old. We dont know what kind of mac mini it is, but it is metal, with a DVD slot, and a plastic round base which can unscrew, HDMI and displayport.