HOWTO - Reset a Forgotten Administrator Password

These steps can be followed when the Mac OS X Administrator account password has been forgotten and the admin is unable to either login, or perform other tasks which require the administrator password to be entered.

1. Boot from a Mac OS X Install CD. To boot from CD, hold down the C key as the computer starts.
   
2. Select "Reset Password" from the Installer menu. If you have upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" this will be in the Utilities menu.
   
3. Select the drive volume where you Mac OS X installation resides.
   
4. Choose the user name of the Administrator account. Be careful to choose your administrator account name. Do not select "System Administrator" as this refers to the root account on the machine. Do not confuse it with a normal administrator account. Concepts involving the use of the root account are beyond the scope of this article.
   
5. Enter your new password and click save.
   
   

You should now reboot from your hard drive and test the new password. Be sure to update your login password in the keychain as well so that they are the same.