Mac SE SuperDrive password

On 30 Jul 98 at 10:43, Russ Blakeman wrote: The password on an SE can only be implemented at software level on the boot volume (internal hard disk), so you can forget about batteries and jumpers. Guess 1: the password is implemented using a fairly insecure shareware tool. Try holding down the Shift key on boot up. If the Mac is running System 7 or greater this (usually) prevents extensions from loading. You can then try to identify the extension (INIT in older Mac speak) that is locking down the computer. Note: there are one or two utilities that can disable Shift-booting in System 7. Try booting from System 6 or 7 Disk Tools (downloadable from ftp.info.apple.com) which both work fine on an SE. You will need a Mac to generate the boot disk. Try booting from this disk and try looking for a suspicious extension or INIT in the System Folder. If necessary, move all of the extensions (or INITs) out of the system folder altogether (eg folder at root area of hard disk); the Mac SE will still boot without them. Guess 2: If you've moved all of the extensions and you're still getting a password dialog box, it may well be a more sophisticated security tool (eg FileGuard, Empower). Boot from your Disk Tools disk yet again and run "Apple HD SC Setup". With any luck, you should see the name of the hard disk and it will be identified (most likely) as SCSI Device 0. Press on the "Update" button to replace the SCSI driver on the hard disk (surprisingly this will defeat some of the older security tools). Don't be surprised if a dialog box pops up asking for a password. Even then you're not necessarily 100% stuck. If the security software has encrypted the hard drive, the only solutions are to enter the correct password or to format the hard drive. The security software will even try to prevent you from formatting the hard drive but there are ways around this. If the security software has not encrypted the drive, you can boot holding down Command-Option-Shift-Backspace. You can then use a disk editor such as Norton to hack away at the boot blocks to remove the offending software. The hard disk will no longer boot but you can access the contents; running the "Update" function on "Apple HD SC Setup" will repair the disk sufficiently so that you can reinstall the System software. Phil ************************************************************** Phil Beesley -- Computer Officer -- Distributed Systems Suppport University of Leicester Tel (0)116 252-2231 E-Mail pb14(a)le.ac.uk