need some help logging in to system

[fredsugar]

Hi guys/girls
I need some help for my friend who has an osx mac....she tried to rename the machine with her name aftersplitting with her boyfriend and to change the password in the system utilities and now cant access or login at all...it just wont accept her password and when offered to create a new one it does nothing.
Is there a way to boot in safe mode?...sorry I use a pc not a mac and am trying to help her due to the fact she cant get in to her machine at all.....she thought she could reinstall the os....? but needs to get a couple of documents off the machinme first!
all and any help greatly appreciated...thanks

 

[ProblemChild]

Hi fredsugar Does the screen that wants the password appear before the blue Apple screen? If it does then its a firmware password not a login password which is why your changes haven't helped. You can also use Target Disk mode; get yourself another mac and a firewire cable. Connect the two macs together by firewire and power on the machine that you don't know the password to, holding down the 'T' key. Once you see the firewire symbol, (same one as on the port you plugged the cable into) on the screen the HD inside should mount on the desktop as a removable hard drive. Then you can pull the files. Apple or command + s will get you into single user mode but you'll need to know at least basic unix to get the files out.