One of my friends has a Mac laptop. She can't remember the admin password and was asking if there was a way to retrieve it. I know on a linux box I could just do a 'linux single' at the LILO/Grub prompt (assuming it wasn't locked out). Is there anything similar she can do, or is a format/reinstall the only option? I wish I could help her, but I barely know how to turn a Mac on.

Thanks!

What admin password? Usually the password that it asks you for is your own password. To be honest, I can't remember what situations you might get into when you'd need the real admin password.

However, if you really do need it, open a Terminal window and type 'sudo passwd root'. It'll ask you for your password. Then you can change the password of root, which is the admin username. Um, that is, assuming that "passwd" and netinfo work together properly. I assume they do, but don't know for sure.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106156

Scroll down to "Resetting the original administrator account password".

You'll need the OS disk that came with the computer.

Here's a scenario:

Single user Mac OS machines start with the user as an Admin. They also start with Auto login.

If for some reason auto login was disabled, the person may not remember their password to get back into the system.

Or they may have set up another user without Admin rights and started using that account as primary. If they've forgotten the password from their original user, they'd never be able to do anything requiring admin authorization.

She uses a normal login daily, and the admin account only when she needs to (kind of like you are suppose to do on Unix boxes). I guess it has been a while since she needed it because she couldn't remember it.

Thanks for the link Loren, I passed it on.

FWIW, an "Administrator" on MacOS X only has additional powers when you tell it to. Like when you type your password into one of those dialog boxes for Updates, or when you use the sudo command from the command line. Otherwise it's just a normal user. As such, unlike Windows, there's not any compelling reason not to have your regular-use account be an Admin account.

Ahhh, thats why I was confused about the question. See how little I know about Macs?

Yes and No.

Many files on the system belong to the Admin user group to which your Admin user will belong. You can take action on those files/folders with the Admin account where you would otherwise not be able to with a run of the mill User account.

As an Admin user it is also possible for an authentication process to ask only for Admin credentials (instead of Root) to gain elevated privs. This means the Admin user doesn't even need to type their password. An Auth request will generally get elevated to Root when it is properly authorized by an Admin (who is obviously not Root themselves).