We have an old laptop with XP on it...no idea about the admin password though...have tried safe mode login and can't get in...don't know any other accounts on the machine and safe mode with command prompt won't get me to a command prompt; it goes to the login screen first

I know how to do the screensaver trick if I can get access to the command prompt but I can't, and it doesnt seem like the BIOS supports USB booting

any other ways to reset/crack the password aside from finding an external CD drive?

10/14/2009 3:08:08 PM

All the nifty little apps I know of require a CD - wonder if you can find one that boots off a jump drive.

10/14/2009 3:18:53 PM

^

Quote :

"it doesnt seem like the BIOS supports USB booting"

10/14/2009 3:54:20 PM

from what you've described, you're prolly gonna have to do the external drive thing.

10/14/2009 3:55:56 PM

even then, it won't work if the bios won't boot from a USB device.

10/14/2009 3:58:00 PM

oh yeah i didnt think of that...shit

maybe the BIOS will support a USB CD drive, but not a USB flash drive, i dunno

[Edited on October 14, 2009 at 3:59 PM. Reason : .]

10/14/2009 3:59:29 PM

Quote :

""it doesnt seem like the BIOS supports USB booting""

Yeah I got a little jumpy on that reply.

10/14/2009 4:13:15 PM

just install a CD drive and be done with it

10/14/2009 4:31:46 PM

BIOS doesn't support it? Or it's turned off and you don't have access to the BIOS?

If it's got a diskette you could use that to boot to dos w/ usb driver support for usb cdrom, etc.

10/14/2009 6:21:15 PM

I was trying to troubleshoot this earlier by phone...I told them how to get into the BIOS setup and check and see if it supported USB boot and then some other stuff came up so we had to put it off and then I made the thread...not sure if it supports USB boot or not but the reason I said I didn't think it supported it was because I think the computer is about 4-5 years old and I didn't know how many computers back then supported it

10/14/2009 6:53:18 PM

Agreed, hook it up in a 2.5 bay, hook up to newer computer with USB and be done with it if older laptop does not have CD drive.

10/14/2009 7:40:54 PM

it probably supports usb booting. if not try and update the bios

otherwise why doesnt it have a cd drive? can u order one?


worst case you can image the drive to another drive, run sysprep to rip the drivers out and plug the drive into a system with a cd drive. or better yet, use the trial of this instead. really good software: http://www.uiu4you.com/free_trial_p1.html

do they really care about that installation of windows? cant you just plug the drive into another computer and grab the files they need?

what laptop is it?

this looks interesting: http://www.loginrecovery.com/instructions.php

Quote :

"www.loginrecovery.com This site provides a tool to recover lost Windows XP passwords. It works for administrator and user accounts, it doesn't change the password just tells you the old one. It works with encrypted files (EFS) and password hashes. It even works if no passwords at all are known for the machine (as long as you have another computer with internet access to view this website with). Author claims it also works with Windows NT and Windows Server 2003 and Windows Longhorn, but the BEST thing about it is the fact that it won't reset your passwords, but simply reveal them for you to remember and then use. Give it a try. The author would like to receive feedback. The fee for the service is very cheap, and is really just to cover server costs."

10/14/2009 7:41:28 PM