Hello, and thank you for asking your question, with JustAnswer.com/Mac.
I am Sr. Mac Tech Support Specialist, Terry, glad to assist you.

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Here are some steps you can try to resolve the issue but be advised it is going to require you having your Mac OS X install disc available.

Hello, and thank you for asking your question, with JustAnswer.com/Mac.
I am Sr. Mac Support Specialist, Terry, glad to assist you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some steps you can try to resolve the issue:
In order to reset your password XXXXX any Mac OS X platform
you will need your Mac OS X installation disc, then all you need to do is:

BOOT TO TIGER/LEOPARD DISK-
• Place your installation Disk (Tiger or Leopard I presume) into your drive and
allow it to load.
• Restart your Mac
• As soon as you hear the Apple Chime, press the "C" key on your keyboard
and hold it.
• You will see a White Screen, Grey Apple first, do not release the C key until you
see a Spinning gear.
• Once you see that Spinning gear, release your C key and allow the disc to
continue loading

- RESETTING ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD-
(Works for both Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard))

• When the booting to the Mac OS X disc is completed, you will now be in the
Installer environment
• Enter to next page, look up on upper left corner you should see "Installer" near
the Apple menu.

• Two spaces over you should see Utilities. Click Utilities>Reset Password.
• Select your user name from the drop down list and reset your password.
• When you are done, simply exit the Reset Password XXXXX Installer and reboot.
• At the Login window, enter your new password XXXXX you should be back into your home profile.

If you have any more questions, regarding your technical issue, please feel free to reply to this post as I am always ready to assist. Thank you!

Regards,

-Terry

Thanks for your replyCustomer

The issue here is that, without the Mac OS X install disc, you would not be able to reach the Password XXXXX utility from the disc.

The only option I do have, is I can help you setup a new Administrator account
without the install disc, but this would not gain you access to your previous account,
just access to your Mac until you either acquire an install disc that matches the current Mac OS X system you are currently running.

I can tell you this as a final thought however, although you cannot access your main user account, there is a way, to actually set up a new user account as I have mentioned, then delete (yes delete) your password XXXXX account, but in turn save your home folder and all its content, to your Macintosh hard drive as a .dmg file (an installable file).

Then you can assess that file, open it and take out the files that you need, while in your new user Admin account.

This is the only workaround I have available to help you with this issue.

If you decide you have no choice but to try this, just let me know. I can assure you
as a professional Mac tech, that you will not lost those previous account files, you would just have to delete the user account to get them back, and I have done this before many times successfully.

So I leave that to your discretion.

Thanks for your patience,

-Terry

AlrightCustomerthanks for allowing me to assist.

We are going to do this is 3 Phases.

Phase# XXXXX:

Hello, and thank you for asking your question, with JustAnswer.com/Mac.
I am Sr. Mac Tech Support Specialist, Terry, glad to assist you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some steps you can try to resolve the issue:


I have a process here that may work as an alternative, since you do not have the Mac OS X Install disc in order to gain Administrator access.

-RESETTING ADMIN PASSWORD XXXXX USING STARTUP DISC-

To reset your OS X password XXXXX an Mac OS X CD or DVD (for Tiger and Leopard), you will need to enter Terminal and create a New Administrator Account:

Here is what you will need to do:
• Reboot your Mac
• Next hold Apple Command key + S key (Single User mode) down after you hear the Apple chime.

• When you see the text prompt, type in the following
terminal commands to create a brand new Admin account (hitting Return after each line):
mount -uw /
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
shutdown -h now

After rebooting you should have a brand new Administrator account.

** When you login as the to the new administrative account.

Let me know when you have completed this phase and we will move to the next phase.


Thanks for your patience!

Regards,

-Terry

Excellent.

Phase #2

By now you should be looking inside your new User Admin account.

What you need to do now is click on the Apple menu icon located in the upper left corner of your screen and select System Preferences from the drop down menu.

Next, select Accounts pane in System Preferences.
• Click the Padlock on the left bottom corner of the screen
•this will open up Accounts for you.
• Now, once you are in you will locate the previous user account that you were
locked out of and now you are ready to delete it.
• you will now select that account and click the minus "--" button
located under the Login Options box



• this will then bring this pop up window into view.
• It is here, that you need to save your Home folder into a disk image
or .dmg file (1st selection in list below)



When you have selected that radio button, you will then click the
Ok Button

• What will happen next, is that your newly deleted Account will now be
available to you in your Macintosh hard drive icon on your desktop.
Go into the Users folder and locate the Deleted Users folder:


• Click and open that folder and you will see:


• When you do see this file, that is the previous user account, as identified by the
user name which was used prior to deletion.

Let me know when you reach this point. If you have any questions at anytime during this 2nd phase, just let me know.

Thanks!

-Terry

That is correct, because the last command of the thread I provided you (shutdown -h now) was a shutdown command.

So now start up your Mac and attempt to boot up to see if you can now access your new Administrator user account.

Let me know how it goes.

-Terry

So are you in the new Administrator account and have you also completed Phase#2?

let me know I am ready to keep going, as we are almost done.

Thanks!

-Terry

You did selected the option: "save home folder to a disk image selection" and pressed "OK" and it would not save your old user account as a .dmg file in the Delete Users folder?