I inherited my Father's Computer on His Passing April 27,2009

[TrueAmericanRebel58]

The Problem is that Dad was Always Changing the Widows Password and NO ONE
KNOWS the the LAST Password that He Used . So My Question is After Windows
loads and It Shows Username and ask for the Passwork WE ALL ARE STUMPLED and
Not Even Mom knows it He left a list of Wedsights and Passwords for Each and
The Only Password He did Not Leave was the XP Windows Password to Start it
all . So Is there a Way to Put a NEW Password and Still KEEP ALL HIS INFO
Like Web sights and Games and Hardware that He Has Installed . PLEASE HELP ME
SALVAGE MY DADS COMPUTER PLEASE.....
SINCERLY
Don Pen

 

[Daave]

The Problem is that Dad was Always Changing the Widows Password and
NO ONE KNOWS the the LAST Password that He Used . So My Question is
After Windows loads and It Shows Username and ask for the Passwork WE
ALL ARE STUMPLED and Not Even Mom knows it He left a list of
Wedsights and Passwords for Each and The Only Password He did Not
Leave was the XP Windows Password to Start it all . So Is there a
Way to Put a NEW Password and Still KEEP ALL HIS INFO Like Web sights
and Games and Hardware that He Has Installed . PLEASE HELP ME SALVAGE
MY DADS COMPUTER PLEASE.....
SINCERLY
Don Pen

Don, If your Dad used encryption, you might be out of luck. For now, try
using the built-in Administrator account. Try a blank password. If no
joy, read these:

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

and this one:

http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

 

[Patrick Keenan]

The Problem is that Dad was Always Changing the Widows Password and NO ONE
KNOWS the the LAST Password that He Used . So My Question is After Windows
loads and It Shows Username and ask for the Passwork WE ALL ARE STUMPLED
and
Not Even Mom knows it He left a list of Wedsights and Passwords for Each
and
The Only Password He did Not Leave was the XP Windows Password to Start it
all . So Is there a Way to Put a NEW Password and Still KEEP ALL HIS INFO
Like Web sights and Games and Hardware that He Has Installed . PLEASE HELP
ME
SALVAGE MY DADS COMPUTER PLEASE.....
SINCERLY
Don Pen

First, sorry to hear of your loss.

Second, if this is not XP Pro, the password problem is simple and can be
fixed in a few minutes with no ill effects.

However, if it's the XP Pro, there is a possibility that encryption was
invoked, and if you *need the data*, you must not attempt any of the
password reset or recovery techniques until you are sure that it wasn't.
Unless the account credentials were backed up and can be restored, changing
the password from outside the account will permanently block decryption.

This does not apply to XP Home or Media Center Edition, as neither of those
have the encrypting file system.

If it's XP Pro, the first thing to do is to get another hard disk, similar
in size to the old one, and attach both the bold drive and the new one to an
XP system with cloning software installed, such as the free trial version of
Acronis TrueImage. Clone the old disk to the new one, and set the old one
aside in a safe place.

This will allow you to work on the new, cloned copy of the drive, reset the
passwords, and determine whether encryption was used; if it wasn't, you're
done and you have access to all the data. And there will be no risk of
data loss. You can just re-clone as many times as you need to.

If the OS is XP Home, boot to Safe Mode (power down, power on again, press
F8 to get to the boot selector screen, choose Safe Mode; then choose
Administrator when you get to the Welcome screen. This account normally
has no password, and you can reset the other account passwords from Control
Panel, Users. This often also applies to XP Pro, but so does the warning
about changing the password from outside the account.

There are a number of password reset utilities available, many based on
Linux boot CDs. There are a number of links on this page that will get you
free reset utilities:
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

But again, if it's XP Pro, and if you do need to be *certain* that you do
not lose any data, clone the drive and work only on the clone, not the
original. Encrypted files will be unreadable after you change the
passwords, so you will know you've found the problem as soon as you see it.
As well, in Explorer, they will appear in a green colour.

Again, condolences on your loss.

HTH
-pk

 

[Daave]

Don, If your Dad used encryption, you might be out of luck. For now,
try using the built-in Administrator account. Try a blank password.
If no joy, read these:

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

and this one:

http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Don, don't click on those links unless you have already read and
understood Patrick's much more detailed post. The reason: If this is XP
Pro and if encryption was invoked, you do *not* want to change the
password. His advice to clone the drive is also spot on; you don't want
to take any chances whatsoever. There are password cracking utilities if
it has to come to that. But before you do anything, what flavor of XP is
on this PC -- Home or Pro?

 

[JS]

Note: There is a hidden 'Administrator' account (the account name is:
Administrator) in Windows.
The default password for this hidden account is normally blank (none).

For XP Home users:
Boot the computer into Safe Mode
Do this by pressing the F8 key (several times) after the Power On Self Test
is finished, until the Start menu appears.
This will get you to the correct menu window.
Once in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden Administrator account
and any other accounts.
(Note: Accounts are displayed alphabetically).
Use the mouse or Up/down arrow keys to highlight the 'Administrator'
account.
The default password is a blank (no password required).

For XP Pro users:
You do not need to go into Safe Mode.
At the Welcome Screen, do/press the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys twice to display the
Windows logon box.
Type in "Administrator" (without the quotes), by default the password is
blank, no password need be entered.

 

[Buffalo]

Don, don't click on those links unless you have already read and
understood Patrick's much more detailed post. The reason: If this is
XP Pro and if encryption was invoked, you do *not* want to change the
password. His advice to clone the drive is also spot on; you don't
want to take any chances whatsoever. There are password cracking
utilities if it has to come to that. But before you do anything, what
flavor of XP is on this PC -- Home or Pro?

It could also be a stolen computer.

 

[Anna]

The Problem is that Dad was Always Changing the Widows Password and NO ONE
KNOWS the the LAST Password that He Used . So My Question is After Windows
loads and It Shows Username and ask for the Passwork WE ALL ARE STUMPLED
and
Not Even Mom knows it He left a list of Wedsights and Passwords for Each
and
The Only Password He did Not Leave was the XP Windows Password to Start it
all . So Is there a Way to Put a NEW Password and Still KEEP ALL HIS INFO
Like Web sights and Games and Hardware that He Has Installed . PLEASE HELP
ME
SALVAGE MY DADS COMPUTER PLEASE.....
SINCERLY
Don Pen

Don:
Assuming none of the other responses you've rec'd have resolved your
password problem...

There is a freely-available program mentioned by Daave that many users
employ to get over this hurdle by resetting the administrator's password to
a blank. You may want to give it a try in case you've found no other way to
resolve this password problem.

Obviously you have available another PC connected to the net so that you can
download the necessary program.

Download the file to reset your password from...
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
1. On the top of the webpage click on the "Bootdisk" button.
2. In the "Download" section toward the bottom of that page click on the
cd080802.zip file and download it to your Desktop. Note it's a ZIP file so
the contents of that file will have to be extracted.
3. I assume you know how to do this by merely right-clicking on the ZIP
file, click on Extract All, Next, Next, Finish.
4. A folder will be created on your Desktop titled "cd080802".
5. Inside that folder will be the cd080802.iso file. It's this .iso file
that allows you to create a bootable CD from that .iso image.
6. Hopefully, you have a CD-burning program, e.g., Nero, Roxio, etc., that
allows you to merely double-click on the .iso file and the program will open
and create a bootable CD from that .iso image. If you don't have such a
program perhaps you have a friend or acquaintance who does and he or she can
help you with creating the bootable CD. There are other programs available
on the net that allow you to do this as well - one popular program is the
freely-available ISO Recorder program - see...
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

Now that you've created the bootable CD that's designed to reset your
password, insert the CD in your optical drive and boot to it.

The following are step-by-step instructions for using the program. The
example involved is a single-partitioned HDD, but the basic steps are the
same for any size HDD, except where the drive is multi-partitioned. If the
latter is the case the steps will be slightly different but they will not be
unduly complicated or substantially different under those circumstances.

As you progress through the screens the information provided and steps
involved may look more complicated than they really are. In virtually every
step during the process the user will simply be pressing the Enter key or
some other simple keystroke. So don't be intimidated by what appears to be a
lengthy & complicated process. It really isn't.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Case is important when responding to the prompts so ensure
you enter the correct lower or upper case.

1. Hopefully your PC is set up so that it will boot to a bootable CD. If
it's not, change the motherboard's BIOS boot priority setting so that the
CD-ROM (optical drive) is first in boot priority.

2. Boot to the password reset CD. At the first screen you will see the
"boot:" prompt. Press Enter.

3. "Step ONE" is to select the drive on which the Windows OS is installed.
If the drive has been multi-partitioned all the partitions will be listed.
The prompt ("Step ONE") will be "Select: [1]".
Press Enter assuming [1] is the boot partition. Otherwise enter the correct
number of the partition containing boot system.

4. The next prompt ("Step TWO") will be "What is the path to the registry
directory? (relative to windows disk) [WINDOWS/system32/config]:".
Once again, press Enter.

5. The next prompt will list a number of options of which [1] is "Password
reset...".
Press Enter.

6. The next prompt at "Step THREE: Password or registry edit" will list
three options. The default prompt "[1]" will reflect the first option, "Edit
user data and passwords". Again, press Enter.

The next prompt will ask for the username listing the default
[Administrator]. Enter your dad's username (ensuring that you enter the
proper case, e.g., DAD), and press Enter.

The "User Edit Menu" will display listing various options. The first option
is to "Clear (blank) user password" so enter "1" at the prompt. The
confirmation "Password cleared!" message should appear.

7. At the next prompt enter "!" (exclamation mark) to quit the "User Edit
Menu".
Press Enter.

8. At the next prompt enter "q" to quit the process.

9. At "Step FOUR" enter "y" to write changes. Press Enter.

10. At the "EDIT COMPLETE" message, press Enter to confirm ending the
process.

11. The "#" prompt will appear indicating termination of the process. Remove
the CD and reboot.

Hopefully your dad's Administrator's password has now been reset to a blank
password and you should gain access to the system.
Anna

 

[Daave]

It could also be a stolen computer.

Or not.

 

[db]

if the owner of the
pc wanted to share
the pw,

then he would have.

so if the pc truly
belongs to the beloved
wife and kid,

then why keep the
secret?

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @hotmail.com
"share the nirvana" - dbZen

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