Lost Admin Password - can't find partition!

[Guest]

laptop crashed and demanded the admin password on reboot - like many here, I
have no idea what it is. I am running XP Pro and have tried all manner of
attempts from the various posts in here (ntpasswd, loginrecovery, NTFS-DOS,
NT recovery, EBCD etc) but each time I come up against the fact that none of
these progs can see the NTFS partition............please note that it is
about this point that I reveal that things are starting to get over my head!
I really do not fancy a clean reinstall & I can't work out how to install to
new partition......help!

Any ideas without spending lots of hard earned cash????

 

[Steven L Umbach]

It sounds like you have a hardware problem possibly. What you could try is
to put the hard drive in another computer as a slave drive and try to access
it from the XP operating system on that computer to see if it is detected
that way or not. You can get adapters that let you put a laptop hard drive
in a desktop computer.

Steve

 

[Malke]

laptop crashed and demanded the admin password on reboot - like many
here, I have no idea what it is. I am running XP Pro and have tried
all manner of attempts from the various posts in here (ntpasswd,
loginrecovery, NTFS-DOS, NT recovery, EBCD etc) but each time I come
up against the fact that none of these progs can see the NTFS
partition............please note that it is about this point that I
reveal that things are starting to get over my head! I really do not
fancy a clean reinstall & I can't work out how to install to new
partition......help!

Any ideas without spending lots of hard earned cash????

It is possible that either the laptop drive is damaged or that it is a
SATA laptop drive and the rescue system can't see it. I would try to
connect it with an external usb drive adapter as Mr. Umbach suggested
and try to retrieve the data from a working XP box. If you don't have
an adapter and you can't wait to get one, take the machine to a local
professional who will have the necessary equipment.

If you buy an external laptop drive enclosure, make sure you get the
right kind or one that supports both SATA and PATA.

Malke