[Carl Johnson]

I'm using an Emac running 10.3. Over the past year the computer has been getting progressively slower. I ran some system utility programs which suggested that all of the hardware was working properly so I decided to take on the pain in the behind process of backing up all of my files and starting from scratch via the system restore discs that came with the computer.
After the backup I put the first of the three restore discs in the DVD drive and it ran for about half an hour before saying that the process had worked and that it was time to reboot the computer. Once I rebooted the system prompted me for my name and password. My original name and password don't work anymore, and there are no options to manually reset the password.

I found some information online which said that putting the restore disc in the optical drive and holding either C or Shift on the keyboard would force the system to boot from the disc which would give me the option to change the password. When I do that the computer starts in safe mode and goes immediately to the screen which prompts me for a password.

Any suggestions on how I can either reset the password or start from scratch with the restore discs?

[Carl Johnson]

It took me a couple of hours but I figured out the problem. The first time I reinstalled 10.3 I had the option to either reinstall on top of my previous setup which would preserve bookmarks and such or to start from scratch, and I reinstalled. I couldn't get that to work so I went with the start from scratch option which solved the problem.

[Ronald Epstein]

Carl,

Glad you figured it out.

I started from scratch about three weeks ago. Just wanted Tiger
totally out and a fresh install of Leopard.

Holding down the "C" key during boot did the trick and the rest
went without any problems.