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Question

mac book pro problem with cmd+S

Dec 9, 2014 10:20PM PST

hi mac daddys,

ok bit of background as this is a security related issue which needs explaining before i go further,

we are a small company and my job is many fold but part of it is to administer our network, web presence and employee's laptops, these are for the most part PC but summer last year we had an employee who opted to have a mack book pro.
as you can guess said employee left end of november and i am sitting here looking at a mac book and unable to log in.
we have the original purchase receipt and the 24digit file fault key and i am told that i have to take it to the mac store to resolve, this i find problematic as our local dealer only shifts boxes and the nearest store proper is 60miles away. before i explain further, we have a cpl of other employees who want macs but unless they are easier to locally administer i might have to turn them down.

ok so, we have login screen, single user, and we have no password. so i am told that i can boot to single user mode and create an admin from there, by pressing cmd+s on boot, but this does nothing and it still boots to login screen.
then i am told that firmware might have lock and that pressing option (alt key) on boot will prompt me for a password if this is the case. on booting with option(alt) pressed all i get is a mac hard drive icon, and am asked to select a wireless network from a drop down menu, selecting the hard drive icon just takes me to the log on screen again.
of course i could take a day out from doing normal stuff and drive to the mac store with id and receipt in hand but it must be easier to resolve, and being a mac virgin i just dont have the skillset, if we get a few more of these as staff lap tops i need to be able to not get locked out by employees, or if they do i need a work around to get company data off before nuking it back to zero day.
if you folks could help a poorly paid overworked IT grunt i would appreciate any input you can give.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
So why not just reload the machine?
Dec 10, 2014 1:49AM PST

I mean, the laptop could be purposely left with some software bomb or trojan. Be safe, start fresh.

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Answer
Try this.
Dec 10, 2014 8:56AM PST

If it works for you, and you get into the machine,then your next step is to Reinstall the OS using the Command + R on reboot.

FYI, next time you deploy a Mac, create yourself an Admin account on it and then another USER account for the person who is going to use it.

Let us know if it works

P