ColTom2 said:
Hi:
I have a friend who bought a used HP laptop from Best Buy that had been
returned and he does not know the User Password to be able to sign in.
Previous owner apparently had established one.
If the person or business from whom your friend purchased the
computer cannot give your friend the password, I would also strongly
suggest that your friend check with local law enforcement agencies to
ensure the laptop isn't stolen and he hasn't inadvertently purchased
stolen property.
There must be a simple way to resolve this problem where he can delete the
current unknown User Password? Can you boot to Safemode and delete User
Password while in Safemode?
Any assistance and/or fix will be appreciated.
ColTom2
Simply log in using the built-in Administrator account (which
cannot be deleted) and modify the desired account(s) and use Start > Run
"control userpasswords2" to modify the desired account(s). Failing
that, Linux-based password cracking utilities abound on the Internet,
freely available to anyone who can use Google.
However, with second-hand computers, especially if acquired from
strangers but perhaps even if acquired from a family member, your
friend's wisest course of action would probably be to format the hard
drives and start fresh. He doesn't want to get in trouble because the
original owner may have filled the hard drive with kiddie porn, or have
problems because the original owner downloaded/installed viruses or
other malware. Because Best Buy didn't reformat the hard drive and
return that laptop to its original ex-factory condition before
re-selling it, your friend should also seriously wonder what else is
wrong with it.
Simply boot from the WinXP installation CD. You'll be offered
the opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the
installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the order of boot
devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.)
--
Bruce Chambers
Help us help you:
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