If i look and i have the dvd what would be the steps to cleanly do an
install removing everything and making sure that nothing is left behind?
On 9/3/2015 2:50 AM, Cheryl Homiak wrote:
All the solutions I know of, given that you don't have the install cds or dvd
that came with it, involve booting into safe mood, where you have to type
several lines without any feedback as voiceover doesn't work. Even if you
either erase the current users and reset it to run the setup assistant again,
or just reset the password for a user, then you have to also fix or delete and
restart building the keychain. I wouldn't recommend this to anybody unless
he/she had excellent typing skills that don't need audible feedback and had
experience with the Mac, especially using terminal. If I was right there to
guide step-by-step or could do it myself, I might do this and actually have
done it on a Mac on one occasion. But honestly, even if doing this works, you
will not have securely erased this other person's information. What really
needs to happen is for you to completely erase and reinstall your system. The
only way I know of for you to do this would be to purchase the snow leopard dvd
from the Apple Store (not available in the app store; you need to buy a
physical product). You would bring up the dvd for install which can be
explained in more detail once you are doing it but go into disk utility on the
dvd and totally erase your drive first. Then you would do a clean install via
the dvd and would set up your own user information. Long-term, I think this
would be the best solution though I can understand that you would like a quick
fix so you can go ahead and install Adobe flash player and get on with life,
but I honestly think this approach would benefit you most in the long run.
As for installing Yosemite, first you would need to know if you meet all the
requirements for running Yosemite and have enough memory to make it a positive
experience; I would tend to recommend more memory than the minimum requirement
especially with running voiceover. But again, trying to install it over your
Snow Leopard install is going to require the password for the administrator.
Starting over again from scratch may seem like a daunting undertaking, but I
think that long-term it would prove to be a better choice than trying to deal
with a system that was given to you with somebody else's information and setup
already on it. Unfortunately, people who want to make money, or want to help
other people, or both, do this way too often: hand on a computer without fully
erasing and reinstalling a clean system and without even remembering and
passing on passwords if for some reason it cannot be reinstalled by the
giver/seller. It's often a very well-intentioned action, but it often makes
things very difficult for a new user and may even end up discouraging that user
from trying to use a Mac.
Did you post here what your Mac's model is, amount of memory, etc. It's very
possible you could and should eventually install Yosemite but you would want to
know that your system is compatible.
If you need help doing an install and don't already have somebody to help you,
and live in the U.S. and could work over the phone, I would be glad to help
you. You would be welcome to email me offlist and we could explore whether this
would be doable. There are probably others on the list who would do the same
and if you feel that your best course is to do this as independently as
possible, I know that people on the list will be glad to continue assisting you
via the list. I actually know nothing about your background and experience and
don't at all intend to underestimate your knowledge and work in this area; i
hope my offer does not sound like I am doing this.
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