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SVT_Tactical
MODERATOR Chief Sackscratch Joined: December/17/2009 Location: NorthCackalacky Status: Offline Points: 31233 |
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Posted: April/05/2012 at 11:42 |
So my sister in law has a gateway laptop, she set herself up on it as the administrator and has a password. She can't remember it now. I tried last night downloading the free OPHCrack software but could never get it to work when i used it in her computer. I do have the BIOS menu setup to run from CD/DVD first. Any of yall have a disk that you know works? OP is Windows Vista. I also tried to disconnect the battery and then remove the smaller watch battery under the keyboard, that seemed to only affect the BIOS menu password if there was one. Any advice?
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"Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be" - Abraham Lincoln
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scooter65
Optics Master Extraordinaire Joined: December/29/2006 Location: mi Status: Offline Points: 3567 |
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Desktops aren't my speciality but try booting from a bootable cd or recovery disks and perform a repair. Maybe it will let you reset the admin password again. I'm also not all that Vista knowledgable.
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Bigdaddy0381
MODERATOR Georgia peach Joined: February/27/2007 Location: Georgia Status: Offline Points: 13682 |
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I'm not to computer savvy but you can replace the sister in-law and it will fix the problem.
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P&Z Firearms , Pro gun cleanings and gun repair and wood refinishing.
Ecclesiastes 10:2 |
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BeltFed
Optics Retard Joined: February/12/2008 Location: Ky Status: Offline Points: 22287 |
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I have a 12lb sledge hammer you can borrow.
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Life's concerns should be about the 120lb pack your trying to get to the top of the mountain, and not the rock in your boot.
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scooter65
Optics Master Extraordinaire Joined: December/29/2006 Location: mi Status: Offline Points: 3567 |
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and thats why the call him 'bigdaddy'
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jonoMT
Optics Master Extraordinaire Joined: November/13/2008 Location: Montana Status: Offline Points: 4853 |
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There is a way to create a Linux boot disk that will reset a password on a Windows install. It worked for XP when I had to do it once. But I don't know if that would apply to Vista.
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Reaction time is a factor...
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Kickboxer
MODERATOR Moderator Joined: February/13/2008 Status: Offline Points: 23679 |
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Vista is a new animal with new "security". I think your only way out is to do a complete system reset from the original disk, reimage, which means that you will probably lose everything not backed up. We just recently moved to Vista and I have not spent a lot of time exploring it because we will soon move to Windows 7... However, loss of the admin password is killer, from my limited understanding of Vista.
We waited until Win7 came out to "upgrade" to Vista, have spent a few months with it and soon moving to Win7. I just couldn't see the point in investing a lot of time learning Vista for such a short use. Sorry. Maybe Monday I can ask one of the network guys, if you want to wait that long.
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Opinion,untempered by fact,is ignorance.
There are some who do not fear death... for they are more afraid of not really living |
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supertool73
Optics God Superstool Joined: January/03/2008 Status: Offline Points: 11814 |
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I wouldn't just wipe it. You may be able to get the data off the hard drive by putting the hard drive in another computer. I have found with Vista and 7 that even if the other computer had a password if you have admin rights on the 7 machine you are using it will allow you to access all the files. That way you can get any pictures, music and other documents she may have had.
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Lifetime warranty and excellent customer service don't mean a thing when your gun fails during a zombie attack.
"A Liberal is a person who will give away everything they don't own." |
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supertool73
Optics God Superstool Joined: January/03/2008 Status: Offline Points: 11814 |
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You also have the option of booting to safe mode and using the built in admin account. This will work as long as she did not set a password on that account also, most home users dont as they do not know the account is even there. If not then you can just delete or reset her password from that built in account.
Edited by supertool73 - April/06/2012 at 13:25 |
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Lifetime warranty and excellent customer service don't mean a thing when your gun fails during a zombie attack.
"A Liberal is a person who will give away everything they don't own." |
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supertool73
Optics God Superstool Joined: January/03/2008 Status: Offline Points: 11814 |
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Here are a bunch more things you can try.
http://4sysops.com/archives/three-ways-to-reset-a-windows-vista-admin-password/ |
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Lifetime warranty and excellent customer service don't mean a thing when your gun fails during a zombie attack.
"A Liberal is a person who will give away everything they don't own." |
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Kickboxer
MODERATOR Moderator Joined: February/13/2008 Status: Offline Points: 23679 |
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Some of those things do not work or work well, some require upfront configuration (which i'll bet did not happen), some are not well explained and could cause destruction of files...
The best bet, if you want to try to keep all your files, is try to read or get the disk read and downloaded to a backup. Then wipe the machine and make sure you keep the new admin password in a safe place.
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Opinion,untempered by fact,is ignorance.
There are some who do not fear death... for they are more afraid of not really living |
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supertool73
Optics God Superstool Joined: January/03/2008 Status: Offline Points: 11814 |
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Did you try them all Dan? Reformatting should be the last resort. That is why all those steps were in that order, like a check list.
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Lifetime warranty and excellent customer service don't mean a thing when your gun fails during a zombie attack.
"A Liberal is a person who will give away everything they don't own." |
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BeltFed
Optics Retard Joined: February/12/2008 Location: Ky Status: Offline Points: 22287 |
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Maybe Dan has some C-4 left over.
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Life's concerns should be about the 120lb pack your trying to get to the top of the mountain, and not the rock in your boot.
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lucytuma
Optics Jedi Knight Joined: November/25/2007 Location: Wisconsin Status: Offline Points: 5389 |
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"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." - Thomas Jefferson
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Kickboxer
MODERATOR Moderator Joined: February/13/2008 Status: Offline Points: 23679 |
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I was saying that your suggestion of backing everything up and THEN reimaging was the best solution. No, I have not TRIED them all, don't want to. A number of those "suggestions" lead to potentially "fatal" results in that they will not save anything. In Information Assurance (IA) the primary rule, as with medicine, is "first, do no harm"... I tend toward those things that are better known, less susceptible to loss of data/information. I back up everything daily, so I never have to guess what might happen in a "worst case scenario". I thought your suggestion to get the disk copied and THEN try other options was excellent. Are you telling me that is not what you meant???
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Opinion,untempered by fact,is ignorance.
There are some who do not fear death... for they are more afraid of not really living |
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supertool73
Optics God Superstool Joined: January/03/2008 Status: Offline Points: 11814 |
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I meant no offense dan just questioning your comments. Building and managing desktops is most of my job. I have built several hundred of them and deal with this tupe of problem often. So i have quite a bit of experience here
The data will still be there even if u mess up the os. It will always be there unless u format the drive or the drive fails. Most times even when it is formatted u can still recover the data. I have used probably half of those ways and they work pretty well at times. I am saying try other ways first before a reinstall. Backing up definitley being one of them. Depending upon how the comp was set up he may not getthe data with out cracking the password. Wiping and reinstalling will for sure ruin the data with no chance of recovery. Wiping should be the last resort. |
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Lifetime warranty and excellent customer service don't mean a thing when your gun fails during a zombie attack.
"A Liberal is a person who will give away everything they don't own." |
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koshkin
MODERATOR Dark Lord of Optics Joined: June/15/2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 13182 |
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Upgrading to Windows 7 would be my suggestion.
Dealing with Vista is kinda like hemorrhoids: not lethal threatening, but painful and frustrating. ILya
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Son of Ed
Chuck Norris Joined: June/18/2011 Location: TEXAS Status: Offline Points: 122210 |
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BigDaddy is my kind of guy. Define the problem and he comes up with a workable solution. No problemo, señor.
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Visit the Ed Show
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8shots
Optics Jedi Knight Lord Of The Flies Joined: March/14/2007 Location: South Africa Status: Offline Points: 6253 |
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Leave it in the local Walmart.....call the security and tell them you saw a suspicious looking fella leave it behind. They will call the FBI who will crack the password, find your sister-in-law, interrogate her for a while and then release her..... and all is solved.
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SVT_Tactical
MODERATOR Chief Sackscratch Joined: December/17/2009 Location: NorthCackalacky Status: Offline Points: 31233 |
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Finally got it with a boot disk set to clear passwords. Took a while and tried several different things but this was the only one that worked. I youtubed the instructions and it walked me through it once I had the disk.
nt password & registry editor - this is the program I used
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"Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be" - Abraham Lincoln
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