How to retrieve Mac's Password (prev. data lost!)

dogstarheaven

my Mac died on me last week and had the choice to save the data but being the fool/skinflint that I am, decided against paying for a £6 caddy as I knew paying for the upgrade would be costly (hardrive and 4G £120). Now, I'm totally regretting it, and hadn't realised 'losing data' means my passwords, prev. software, the lot!!. I'm trying to install Adobe Flash, but it's got MyMac window asking for my password (prev. known as a personalised name) which I thought I knew but it didn't accept, so I'm wondering if the Mac has reconfigured, does it revert to a previous password that I never knew about. I'm not sure how to go about this and I want to restore all the bookmarks that I've lost... Can someone help please!

Thanks in advance (I'm a girl of a certain age, so forgive me!:o)

Cash-Cow_3

Post this on Apple's own forum.

Handsome90

I'm not a tech expert but it seems really unlikely the mac reverted to a previous password.

Regarding bookmarks, did you store those in Safari or some other internet browser? Depending on the browser and OS, you may have saved that in the cloud.

Figment

So you replaced the hard drive and installed the operating system (original or upgrade) onto the new (blank) drive)?

If this is the case, you would (should have) set up a user account and password during the installation process.

dogstarheaven

Handsome90 wrote: »

e other internet browser? Depending on the browser and OS, you may have saved that in the cloud.

it was Safari that I saved my bookmarks in, although, on this new system I have decided to go with Google Chrome (man in shop said it was good, tho' what would I know!!) How do I retrieve from Safari or 'in the Cloud', whatever that is??

Figment wrote: »

So you replaced the hard drive and installed the operating system (original or upgrade) onto the new (blank) drive)?
well, man in shop gave me the Office 2008 and Lion system as a courtesy.
If this is the case, you would (should have) set up a user account and password during the installation process.

Why would it show 'MyMac' and not my old username and not accept my password - is MyMac, Apple's own default name for the product as I've not heard of it before (prev. my Mac was setup by ex so I can't find out and ask for help now:o)

I"m going back to the repair shop tomorrow and ask. Atm, I'm lost without my downloads (Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead!:(:(:()

Im_just_careful

I may be being a bit thick but I don't follow what has happened.

Have you replaced the hard drive and re-installed the OS on the same Mac ?

If so and you still have the old hard drive I THINK you can still put it in a caddy and recover the old accounts.

I've done various Mac OS moves in the past (albeit not for a while) and I think the new OS can get the old accounts off an old drive.

Mr_Toad

dogstarheaven wrote: »

my Mac died on me last week and had the choice to save the data but being the fool/skinflint that I am, decided against paying for a £6 caddy as I knew paying for the upgrade would be costly (hardrive and 4G £120). Now, I'm totally regretting it, and hadn't realised 'losing data' means my passwords, prev. software, the lot!!. I'm trying to install Adobe Flash, but it's got MyMac window asking for my password (prev. known as a personalised name) which I thought I knew but it didn't accept, so I'm wondering if the Mac has reconfigured, does it revert to a previous password that I never knew about. I'm not sure how to go about this and I want to restore all the bookmarks that I've lost... Can someone help please!

Thanks in advance (I'm a girl of a certain age, so forgive me!:o)

It's not that clear what you've actually done but guessing you've had a new drive fitted to replace a faulty one and whoever did it installed the OS X operating system on the new disk?

All your files, everything will be on the dead drive you've had replaced. Your new install will have a new password, unless you told whoever did it what your old password was?

As far as I can tell from your post the old drive is dead and gone in which case you won't be recovering anything. You're going to have to start again from scratch.

dogstarheaven

yes, I have a new hardrive which means that i will have to start from scratch but i don't have the wherewithal to download all the free software that i need such as Adobe Flash. It comes up with a window that states 'MyMac' as a username and a password. As my then ex. sorted out the original software for the Mac, I don't have any knowledge of what I need to do all the things I've taken for granted such as IPlayer, some downloads won't work as the system says it's not "applicable". I shall go back for the old hardrive as someone said on here there is a way of retrieving the data from that to a caddy. But can someone help/verify that MyMac is actually a genuine window that pops up after a new drive is put in for when you're installing software please? I've never known this before so I'm not sure what to do with this. I'm at a loss as I can't watch anything that I like (don't have a TV so I'm rely on streaming/dl).

dogstarheaven

Mr_Toad wrote: »

All your files, everything will be on the dead drive you've had replaced. Your new install will have a new password, unless you told whoever did it what your old password was?

anyhow, upon leaving the shop, i had a quick look at it and it didn't have a password save on it as it opened without one. and yes, i did have one previously (and didn't tell the repairer) but it didn't have to logon with it as it was done automatically.

hope i've explained myself clearly here. i did say i'm a bit of a ditz, didn't i?!

Mr_Toad

dogstarheaven wrote: »

anyhow, upon leaving the shop, i had a quick look at it and it didn't have a password save on it as it opened without one. and yes, i did have one previously (and didn't tell the repairer) but it didn't have to logon with it as it was done automatically.

hope i've explained myself clearly here. i did say i'm a bit of a ditz, didn't i?!

I take it the repair peole didn't tell you the Admin password? Have you tried leaving the password blank or putting in the same as the user ID?

If all else fails you'll have to ask them what the set the Admin password to.

WilliamO

I think the OP is talking about this:

https://support.smithmicro.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1433/~/my-mac-is-asking-for-a-username-and-password-when-i-try-to-install-software