How do I reset/recover my superuser password without the boot disk?

Question

I lost the superuser password for my iMac and I don't have the boot disk. I already tried the second answer on this page, but every time I type su from the command prompt, it still asks for a password that I don't have anymore. Is there another way to reset the superuser password?

Answer 1

sudo passwd root

Enter YOUR password and you're in.

Answer 2

If you have an administrator user account set up on your Mac in addition to the root account, you can use the Directory Utility to do the following:

1. Open the Directory Utility from /System/Library/CoreServices.

2. Click the lock button and authenticate as an administrator:

3. Go to the menu Edit → Change root password...:

4. It should prompt you to enter a new root password:

Again, you have to have access to an administrator account to do this (so you can authenticate).

Good luck.

Answer 3

I found this on the web.

http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-73393-change-mac-admin-password-without-the-disk

The obvious downside is the fact you can't actually recover your password: you'd have to delete the account, and use the new administrator. Nonetheless, you could get hold of the files in the Home Folder before the account is deleted, or even after, as OSX allows you to delete an account but keep the files in it.

The files will be protected, though there are some ways in which you should be able to remove the restrictions on them. You could simply use Terminal to chown the directory and all it's contents, and once you remove the permissions all the files in your previous account should be accessible to your new account.

If you decide to follow this method I could provide more information on how to chown the directory, though a web search should do.

Hope it helps!

Answer 4

Open Terminal.app and run:

sudo passwd root

Type the current admin password
Type the new password to root
Re-type new password to root

Done!