Creating a new Admin account on Mac OS X without an OS X CD.

Creating a new Admin account on Mac OS X without an OS X CD.
This walk through works for OS 10.6 - older OS X versions will vary.

Apple does not provide this information, you have to scour the Internet to find various instructions in forums.
Some forums have people posting that you can delete your old user profile, after creating your new one, since you don't have access to it.

THAT is incorrect, just reset your password as the instructions below explains
and you can access your old applications, documents and files!


If you forget your Mac admin password, or if you were not the original owner of your Mac,
and you upgrade to a new version of Mac OS X (This happened to me) - Lion in my case, you may lose your old password.

You will need to enter terminal and create a new admin account by following the directions below:


1. Turn on or reboot your computer.
2. Hold apple key + s key down after you hear the chime. (command + s on newer Macs)
3. When you get to the terminal prompt enter in the commands below to create a new admin account. (hitting return after each line):

mount -uw /
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
shutdown -h now

4. After rebooting you will have a new admin account.
You will be prompted to create a new password for your new admin user account.
Create password and login.
Once you login, you will not see your old documents and applications.

5. To regain your old apps and documents, files etc, you will need to go to:
Apple Menu / System Preferences, and open Users and Groups prefs.

6. Click the lock to make changes, then click your old username and click "Change Password".
Enter your Current password (That you just created), then enter your new password
(that you are now creating), confirm password.
You can edit the password hint here also, mine had a previous user's hint that meant nothing to me.

7. Reboot or switch users, log in with your old account and the newly created password.

8. You now have access to your old files!