Locked out Mac Mini

[james234]

I recently purchased a Mac Mini from a business which was shutting down on ebay, it seems to be running windows Xp on it but I cant get any further than the log in screen and all short cuts and have been disabled from the main screen, so I cant get in and change anything, I imagine it under control via admin account. Is there anyway around this either manually or through software, or is there no way? Cheers.

 

[Rodus]

Get an OS X disc, boot from it in the machine (hold 'c' at startup) and install the new OS.

 

[james234]

Thats the problem I have, I cant use the short cuts at that start up as I have tried it.

 

[Rodus]

Erm, have you tried target disk mode? Or perhaps pull the hard drive and stick it as a secondary drive on another machine, that should give you the option to reformat it.

 

[james234]

That sounds like it could work. Is there any website which could show me how to do that?

 

[Heilage]

iFixit.com has guides to open up Minis. Be careful and you'll be fine.

But first, try to hold [alt]/[option] during boot to see what happens. If none of the typical shortcuts work, pull the drive and wipe it.

 

[james234]

Thanks a lot I will check that out

I don't have a Apple keyboard so I don't have option, what's option on a Microsoft keyboard. Cheers

 

[Heilage]

Option is the same as alt.

 

[james234]

Forget that last message, I pressed it and then was given the choice to go Mac Os, but I was stopped again by a log in.

 

[Heilage]

The login can be circumvented by booting to the OS X DVD and choosing "Reset password" from the "Utlities"-menu.

 

[Rodus]

If that doesn't work then try holding down 't' when booting, hopefully then you'll see a firewire logo bouncing round the screen. Connect to another machine via firewire and the mini should mount as an external HD, then hose the drive.

 

[james234]

I tried the short cuts no luck though.

 

[666sheep]

It seems (from what you wrote before) that you got EFI password enabled on this Mini. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1352
Google for how to force disable it

 

[Intell]

Even if he had a EFI lockout it would still ask for a password. From what I'm getting is that he's not getting anything. My guess is he is holding down the key(s) at the wrong time. They need to be pressed right after the startup chime and until the desired result occurs. Example: (Chime), press hold T, wait about 6 seconds while holding T, see bouncing FireWire logo on screen or see a blank text input box for the EFI password.

 

[666sheep]

Indeed, but for example OF protected PPC Mac will do nothing when you want to use "C" shortcut to boot from optical (tested personally not once).