My new 2012 mac was given to me with out a startup disc. I have forgotten my password. what can I do

Question

I have a new 21'" imac the my office.  It was ready to go.  We did not get a start up disc, as it has no disc drive
I worked late one evening and put in the password just to check it out.  A couple of weeks later I went finish setting
it up and install some software, but I forgot the password, and I cannot reset it.  Will it have to go to an apple store??

Answer 1

First, make sure caps lock is not on.
You must back up all data before continuing, unless you've already done so. If you need to back up but can't log in, ask for instructions.
If the user account is associated with an Apple ID, and you know the Apple ID password, then maybe the Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password.
Otherwise*, boot into Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select
Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar. In the Terminal window, type this:
res
Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:
resetpassword
Press return. A Reset Password window opens.
Select your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Follow the prompts to reset the password. It's safest to choose a password that includes only the characters a-z, A-Z, and 0-9.
Select
 ▹ Restart
from the menu bar.
You should now be able to log in with the new password, but your Keychain will be reset (empty.) If you've forgotten the Keychain password (which is ordinarily the same as your login password), there's no way to recover it.
*Note: If you've activated FileVault, this procedure doesn't apply. Follow instead the instructions on this page:
If you forget the password and FileVault is on