Hi, I am trying to resurrect an old laptop and its been over a year since i
used it last. I stupidly didn't write down the password to log on, and don't
know what the admin password was either. I tried the default of
'Administrator' without any password--no luck. I tried to hit f8 or f5 (one
of them worked) and asked it to boot from disk but it isn't picking up the
recovery disk in the drive.

Does anyone know how to break into this laptop and reset the admin password?
The only thing I can get to is the Windows Log On and I'm stuck.

Thanks in advance!

--
T L

<http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=305> might
help. (don't spend time on the user password as admin login can deal
with that)

Before you start you might want to try common passwords such as <blank>
password, 1234

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

also, did you try logging in as ADMIN?

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

Thanks Beverly. I have tried logging in as admin using standard admin sign
on ('Administrator' and then no password). I tried all standard passwords
too including both ones that admins would use or help desk folks as well as
past ones that I've used. Boy--have learned my lesson and next time I retire
a laptop will write the passwords somewhere. I'm trying to resurrect this
one now because my son wants to use it for college.

Anyhoo--I hit f8 and got into logging options and asksed it to boot from
disk but yet it wouldn't grab the recovery XP disk that was in the cd drive,
nor a free 'unlock' tool that I found on the web that I had saved to a jump
drive (which was inserted when I restarted). What function key do I hit
during start up to get into the BIOS? Is it something other than F8? Maybe
I don't have it set correctly to book from a disk because if I did, would
think it would pick up on the vendor provided recovery disk, no?

Thanks for taking time to help :-)

"Beverly Howard [Ms-MVP/MobileDev]" wrote:

> <http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=305> might
> help. (don't spend time on the user password as admin login can deal
> with that)
>
> Before you start you might want to try common passwords such as <blank>
> password, 1234
>
> Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]
>

There are lots of Linux distributions that have a windows password
recovery/reset option. One I have used is Knoppix
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html You download, create a boot CD
from the iso and boot it.

Just a google search on 'recover XP admin password' would net you lots of
help, besides this.

--
Sven
MS MVP Mobile Devices
"Tracy" <jersey.girl.66********.com> wrote in message
news:599BF652-331D-46B8-B4AF-3AB784867606@microsoft.com...
> Hi, I am trying to resurrect an old laptop and its been over a year since
> i
> used it last. I stupidly didn't write down the password to log on, and
> don't
> know what the admin password was either. I tried the default of
> 'Administrator' without any password--no luck. I tried to hit f8 or f5
> (one
> of them worked) and asked it to boot from disk but it isn't picking up the
> recovery disk in the drive.
>
> Does anyone know how to break into this laptop and reset the admin
> password?
> The only thing I can get to is the Windows Log On and I'm stuck.
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> --
> T L

The one I know of is called Trinity Rescue Kit. But you'll need to be able
to boot from a CD. So you need to make sure once you get into BIOS that the
optical drive is listed before the hard drive, and of course that the system
supports booting from an external CD but most do.

As far as booting from the USB drive, not all machines support this but
you'd probably need to enable "legacy usb support" in the BIOS.

--
Josh Einstein (Tablet PC MVP)
Einstein Technologies
Tablet Enhancements for Outlook - Try it free: www.tabletoutlook.com


"Tracy" <jersey.girl.66********.com> wrote in message
news:599BF652-331D-46B8-B4AF-3AB784867606@microsoft.com...
> Hi, I am trying to resurrect an old laptop and its been over a year since
> i
> used it last. I stupidly didn't write down the password to log on, and
> don't
> know what the admin password was either. I tried the default of
> 'Administrator' without any password--no luck. I tried to hit f8 or f5
> (one
> of them worked) and asked it to boot from disk but it isn't picking up the
> recovery disk in the drive.
>
> Does anyone know how to break into this laptop and reset the admin
> password?
> The only thing I can get to is the Windows Log On and I'm stuck.
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> --
> T L

On Oct 10, 8:55 pm, "Sven" <sejohann...********.com> wrote:
> There are lots of Linux distributions that have a windows password
> recovery/reset option. One I have used is Knoppixhttp://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html You download, create a boot CD
> from the iso and boot it.
>
> Just a google search on 'recover XP admin password' would net you lots of
> help, besides this.
>
> --
> Sven
> MS MVP Mobile Devices"Tracy" <jersey.girl...********.com> wrote in message
>
> news:599BF652-331D-46B8-B4AF-3AB784867606@microsoft.com...
>
> > Hi, I am trying to resurrect an old laptop and its been over a year since
> > i
> > used it last. I stupidly didn't write down the password to log on, and
> > don't
> > know what the admin password was either. I tried the default of
> > 'Administrator' without any password--no luck. I tried to hit f8 or f5
> > (one
> > of them worked) and asked it to boot from disk but it isn't picking up the
> > recovery disk in the drive.
>
> > Does anyone know how to break into this laptop and reset the admin
> > password?
> > The only thing I can get to is the Windows Log On and I'm stuck.
>
> > Thanks in advance!
>
> > --
> > T L

Knoppix is a fantastic foss full blown operating system! Great for
internet cafe use while travelling. However, for a small simple CD
dedicated to sysadmin stuff, i like the free and open source SysRescCD
Linux bootable. Now with PXE boot over the network support. You want
the "Offline NT Password & Registry Editor" which now supports MS
Vista. If you want to boot via USB, the HowTo is
http://sysresccd.org/Howto_install-usb-stick

http://sysresccd.org/

Getting the BIOS to boot from the optical first you may have to look
at the manufacturers website.

It may be a good practice to sysprep the machine and blank the
Administrator password if you know it will be stored for a while.