How to disable existing, unknown, password from AppleTalk on MacOS 7/8?

Question

My Grandparents computers are connected to each other via an ethernet cable, and communicate via AppleTalk. One of the computers is an iMac G3 with Mac OS 8 and the other is a "SuperMac" from the Apple clone era with Mac OS 7.

They have recently either forgot the password they set up, or the hard drive has become corrupted in the exact location of the password. Based on their -- I'm talking computers here -- age, I'm completely will accept either answer.

The problem I'm having is that I can't find any documentation on resetting the password or removing it without first knowing the original password.

Any help on this would be immensely appreciated.

Answer 1

If you have local access to the computer where the password is set, it is a simple matter to reset the password. You don't need to know the current password in order to change it.

Go to Apple menu → Control Panels. Then, open the "File Sharing" control panel:

^{(Image taken from Maria Langer's Mac OS 9.1: Visual QuickStart Guide)}

As you can see in the above screenshot, there is an "Owner Password" field, right underneath the "Owner Name" field. Just click in that text box and type a new password—or clear it to remove the password altogether.

I don't think you need to stop and restart file sharing for the new password to take effect—it should take effect immediately—but if you're having problems, it can't hurt.

These steps work on System 7 through 9.