Mac Panther Lost Password

Factual Questions
1

So I dug out one of my old computers - a Mac G4 tower with panther installed - with the aim of selling it to a buddy who wanted to mess around with ‘anything that’s not windows’

I cleaned up all personal data, and it’s all ready for him, except for one thing - I can’t change the user accounts because at some point I had set a password on it. The hint is of no help - it’s been a few years and a lifetime ago.

Mac Help tells me I can use the Install Disc to change the password, but I only have the Panther Upgrade discs, not the original OS X (Tiger? Ocelot? Can’t remember the cat name, but it’s the first one) discs.

When I load the install disc one, it asks me to authenticate before I can re-install. Back to Square 1.
Thoughts? All I want to do is remove the authentication password and delete the 2 user accounts on the machine.

Keychain is no help.

Thanks!

2

You don’t need to reinstall, but if you boot from the install CD, one of the menus at the top should have a reset password option. IIRC.

3

Follow this hint: Macworld - News, Tips & Reviews from the Apple Experts
and they will get the “Welcome to Macintosh” setup option next time the machine is booted. Your old User will be left intact, and they can erase it if they want to.

4

You need to boot from the install CD. Stick the disc in, restart, and hold down the ‘C’ key to force it to boot from the CD-ROM. Then you should be able to wipe the machine and reinstall, or just reset the password if that’s what you want.