[Fazz]

hi,

My m8 has got himself locked out of his comp (longish story)

I have been trying for about 6 hours to do this, but now i need help

Some usefull facts:
-There is only 1 account on the laptop
-Vista operating system
-Bios password is unknown
-He wont pay for any password-breaker programmes

is there any way to get back into his comp? preferably with the files intact, but i dont think he is too fussed with a full system restore

thanks for help, but i think its hopeless, lol

fazz,

[jawfin]

If a reformat is ok you can pull the hard-drive out, plug it into another computer as a slave and copy what you want. Put it back and re-install. I'm sure there are smarter ways, but they do require password breakers. I don't know any free ones as I don't do this kind of work ordinarily - we'll see what our English lasses come up with (btw, paid for ones can be freely obtainable, if looked for in the right places, so i've heard, apparently, so the rumor goes...)

[Fazz]

i did see that you can get around it with meddling with its innards, but im not comfortable doing that with a laptop, as i dont know them as well as desktop computers. :S

Also, im not too keen on these rumors, i know quite a few people that have recentally recieved fines by useing things they have 'found'

[Fazz]

i forgot he doesnt have any of his disks, so i cant re-install from them

[Zabuza]

i can find stuff... <_< >_>

i still like my idea of going to her faraway house and getting her drunk to get the pass

[saunby]

Take it to PCworld and let them deal with it, thats what I'd do lol, and tell them its your brothers or something, dont wanna look stupid

[RVCA]

Best bet is to blank out the old password. If you aren't familiar with linux, use Offline NT password & registry editor. It's a bootable utility disk with a reg-editor that allows you to delete old passwords from any user account.

I've used it on a few occasions - works like a charm

Download ISO Image Here

In-depth easy to follow instructions Here

[Fazz]

Thanks rvca, will give it a try, and matt, he wont pay for pc world, lol, and i dont care about lookin stupid, the story made me laugh when he told me, XD

[Fazz]

im gunna have to buy a blank disk

[saunby]

Thanks rvca, will give it a try, and matt, he wont pay for pc world, lol, and i dont care about lookin stupid, the story made me laugh when he told me, XD

It costs like 15 quid, and if you pm pho and ask really nicely he can probably get you the disc that does the job!

[Fazz]

well, ive broken it even more now, and somehow managed to lock the HD with a password that doesnt exist, so im just telling him to buy a new hard drive :S

[AJ]

well, ive broken it even more now, and somehow managed to lock the HD with a password that doesnt exist, so im just telling him to buy a new hard drive :S

I did all I could last night

[Zabuza]

throw it away and buy a new computer.

[RVCA]

Don't give up, its easy.... Maybe this video guide I found will be of more use.

http://video.techrepublic.com.com/2422- ... 07247.html

Also try booting into safe mode(usually F8 key) and and type in administrator for the user name and and leave the password blank. If that doesn't work try the following passes...

password
Password
administrator
Administrator
admin
Admin
pass123
Pass123

[Melissa]

Hold on a sec

how exactly have you locked his hard drive with a password??? what on it requries a password..

do you mean windows password or bios??

[jawfin]

Maybe BitLocker? That would make things more fun.

[Fazz]

i dont mean windows or bios password

HDD password: http://www.laptoptips.ca/security/hard-disk-password/

and i dont know how it managed to do that, seeming i didnt touch the HD password setting atall, and i cant try safemode or anything, as i need to type in the HD password in order for the laptop to even think about turining on, the only thing i could try, would be to connect the hard drive to a seperate pc/laptop and try to unlock it from there, but i dont wana do that, coz he (my friend) is cleaver and uses no internet security programmes, so probally has loads of virsus', he seems to have accepted the he needs a new hard-drive tho

[Melissa]

If slaving isn't an option he could always use a dock to dock his hard drive and access via usb if you know someone who has one.. I have one at work and they are a life saver when somone messes up their machine and needs to get data off.

I am not having a go or anything but your original post and the actually problem are completely different.

Perhaps through no fault of your own you sent everyone off on a wild goose chase there since you implied something completely different

[jawfin]

If that's what you used (and btw I don't even know if that article is true - i am 100% sure that not all harddrives have a legacy encryption chip) then I'd say you've bricked the computer

[Fazz]

ye sorry about that mel, i overcame the origenal problem, and then somehow the HD gave itself a password, creating a new problem, i should have said that :S

i dont know any1 who has one of the usb things, but i will suggest he buys one, and then try that if its the case

and jaw, its the not computer, its just the Hard drive, if i use a different had drive, the computer is fine, so i basically just told him to buy a new hard drive

[Chantelle]

Two things to consider here:

If he is buying a new laptop hard drive make sure he gets the right one 2.5" and he needs to determine whether its SATA or not (depends on the age of the laptop)

Sata connectors look like this



where as older PATA look like this






However the second thing I was going to say is despite what alot of manufactures say there are downloadable tools to unlock the hard drive but you will need to mount it in another system and you will erase all the data off it..

Its weird how he got into this mess anyway a few days prior to it he couldn't get into windows then he enables a hdd password and immediately forgets it.

[Fazz]

i dont think i forgot the hdd password, i think i reset it to facotry default, and since he brought it second had, he has no proof of ownership, so cant phone for it

and it is sata, thanks

and i dont trust it plugged into another pc, as probs full of virus', thanks for help tho