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Well, I have an older mac iBook from my school, and I need to enter a password to transfer applications from the iBook - the New iMac I got yesterday.. How can I over ride the password?

3 Answers 3

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You can reset the Administrator password on Mac OS X by using any Mac OS X Install DVD that corresponds to the same version. To do so you need to:

  1. Start up off the DVD
  2. Choose your language and press Continue once to get into the "Installer"
  3. Under Utilties choose Reset Password
  4. Reset the password and then restart the computer.

You can find more on Apple's KBase article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1274

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If you don't have the original install/restore CDs which accompanied the iBook when it was new, you won't be able to reset the password. (The DVD that came with the iMac won't work as a startup disk for the iBook.)

To get around this, you can start up the iBook in Target Disk Mode, run a Firewire cable between the two computers, and use the iMac's Migration Assistant utility to transfer your applications. If you find it necessary to transfer Preference files and/or Application Support files, you can select and copy those files individually, just as you would when transferring data from any external drive -- which is exactly how the iBook will appear to the iMac.

Unless you are already certain that the applications in question are universal binaries and will work on an Intel Mac, I suggest you verify their status first.

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  • Don't PPC binaries work on Intel Macs? I thought that was what Rosetta was for. Aug 23, 2009 at 9:16
  • You're right, of course. Leaving that out was a mistake. My only defense is that the problems I had with Rosetta convinced me to avoid using it, and apparently also caused me to forget it existed. Rosetta works well for the majority of PPC executables on Intel Macs, though, and your helpful comment will let the questioner know he does not need to screen out perfectly usable software.
    – Ambrose
    Aug 25, 2009 at 6:52
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OS X Daily has a great article that describes two approaches in detail (one with an install DVD and one without). It's actually pretty scary how easy this is.

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