Windows XP Recovery problem

[jack b]

Hello,

After almost 3 years, XP Home on my Compaq Presario V4000T has a major
problem. I never set passwords for it, but now XP is asking for passwords.
I've googled multiple solutions, and downloaded ISOs such as ophcrack. All
the software claims the Administrator and user accounts have blank passwords.
Even after resetting them outside of XP, the problem remains.

I have since downloaded rc.iso and a recovery ISO a friend uploaded, but
both do the same thing - it boots to CD, flashes "Setup is now inspecting..."
for a second or two, the CD stops spinning, the HDD LED remains on, and the
screen blanks. I bought a recovery CD from an authorized shop, and the same
thing happened. I finally broke down and ordered one from HP/Compaq, and when
it arrived, the same thing happened. Every place I've talked to tells me to
just put the CD and hit R for recovery. It never even gets that far.

The HDD itself is fine. There are 5 partitions on it. The main XP, Compaq's
recovery partition, Linux boot, Linux swap, and Linux root. I realize that
Compaq does not support Linux but I need to access XP on this machine. I also
realize that by rewriting the MBR, I may have hosed my chances of recovery.
I've tested the RAM and HDD and both test out fine, and the CD/DVD drive
reads and writes data just fine, so I know that's working too.

I was told by HP to press F10 repeatedly while booting, which only takes me
to the BIOS. I was then told by HP to press F11 repeatedly while booting,
which does nothing.

If I take it to a shop, they'll charge me an arm and a leg, and might
possibly reformat the whole drive, which is not an option. I am not paying
$59 to Microsoft for email support. I'm not quite sure where else to turn.
Any ideas?

 

[philo]

Hello,

After almost 3 years, XP Home on my Compaq Presario V4000T has a major
problem. I never set passwords for it, but now XP is asking for passwords.
I've googled multiple solutions, and downloaded ISOs such as ophcrack. All
the software claims the Administrator and user accounts have blank
passwords.
Even after resetting them outside of XP, the problem remains.

I have since downloaded rc.iso and a recovery ISO a friend uploaded, but
both do the same thing - it boots to CD, flashes "Setup is now
inspecting..."
for a second or two, the CD stops spinning, the HDD LED remains on, and
the
screen blanks. I bought a recovery CD from an authorized shop, and the
same
thing happened. I finally broke down and ordered one from HP/Compaq, and
when
it arrived, the same thing happened. Every place I've talked to tells me
to
just put the CD and hit R for recovery. It never even gets that far.

The HDD itself is fine. There are 5 partitions on it. The main XP,
Compaq's
recovery partition, Linux boot, Linux swap, and Linux root. I realize that
Compaq does not support Linux but I need to access XP on this machine. I
also
realize that by rewriting the MBR, I may have hosed my chances of
recovery.
I've tested the RAM and HDD and both test out fine, and the CD/DVD drive
reads and writes data just fine, so I know that's working too.

I was told by HP to press F10 repeatedly while booting, which only takes
me
to the BIOS. I was then told by HP to press F11 repeatedly while booting,
which does nothing.

If I take it to a shop, they'll charge me an arm and a leg, and might
possibly reformat the whole drive, which is not an option. I am not paying
$59 to Microsoft for email support. I'm not quite sure where else to turn.
Any ideas?

First thing I'd do is pop the HD in another machine and backup all your
data.

 

[Mick Murphy]

You can also try Knoppix to recover your Data.

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

Download the above Knoppix Live CD ISO file.

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

Download the Vista Burning software from the above link.

After installing above ISO burning software, right-click on Knoppix ISO
file, make an Image disk.

Knoppix does not install on your PC; just uses your PC's resources, RAM,
Graphics, etc.

Plug in a Flash Drive/Memory Stick, boot with the Live CD, and you should be
able to read your Hard Drive.
Change the Flash Drive Properties from read only.
Copy your Data over to FD

 

[db ´¯`·.. >]

perhaps, your system
is hijacked by malware
or even anti virus software.

if I'm not mistaken, that
new virus going around
called conflicker causes
account lock outs.

if you have a winxp cd, then
you might try booting with
it and accessing the repair
console.

it will also ask for passwords.

but if you simply leave them
blank and hit enter, it would
be a favorable step.

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces

"share the nirvana" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hello,

After almost 3 years, XP Home on my Compaq Presario V4000T has a major
problem. I never set passwords for it, but now XP is asking for passwords.
I've googled multiple solutions, and downloaded ISOs such as ophcrack. All
the software claims the Administrator and user accounts have blank
passwords.
Even after resetting them outside of XP, the problem remains.

I have since downloaded rc.iso and a recovery ISO a friend uploaded, but
both do the same thing - it boots to CD, flashes "Setup is now
inspecting..."
for a second or two, the CD stops spinning, the HDD LED remains on, and
the
screen blanks. I bought a recovery CD from an authorized shop, and the
same
thing happened. I finally broke down and ordered one from HP/Compaq, and
when
it arrived, the same thing happened. Every place I've talked to tells me
to
just put the CD and hit R for recovery. It never even gets that far.

The HDD itself is fine. There are 5 partitions on it. The main XP,
Compaq's
recovery partition, Linux boot, Linux swap, and Linux root. I realize that
Compaq does not support Linux but I need to access XP on this machine. I
also
realize that by rewriting the MBR, I may have hosed my chances of
recovery.
I've tested the RAM and HDD and both test out fine, and the CD/DVD drive
reads and writes data just fine, so I know that's working too.

I was told by HP to press F10 repeatedly while booting, which only takes
me
to the BIOS. I was then told by HP to press F11 repeatedly while booting,
which does nothing.

If I take it to a shop, they'll charge me an arm and a leg, and might
possibly reformat the whole drive, which is not an option. I am not paying
$59 to Microsoft for email support. I'm not quite sure where else to turn.
Any ideas?

Get another hard drive. Move the current one out, set it aside. Do a new
install to the new drive, and after you have it more or less functioning,
attach the original drive as a slave and copy the data to the new drive.
When done, disconnect the old drive and set it aside again for safety.

Where I am, new half-terabyte drives are under $100. This should be enough
to contain your old data.

If the install fails to the new drive, replace the system with a working
used one. You will waste more time and money than it's worth trying to
diagnose the old one.

HTH
-pk

 

[jack b]

Not to sound ungrateful to most that have replied, but I did not ask about
data recovery. I am not concerned about data recovery, as I can access the
Windows partition via ntfsmount under Linux. Data recovery is not the
problem, which is why I didn't ask about it.

As the 4 recovery CDs I've tried do not work, and the CD/DVD drive, hard
drive, and RAM are all fine, all I asked was any suggestions as to how I can
get back into XP. I never had the original XP install CDs, and the laptop
came with no recovery CDs - just what is on the factory-set recovery
partition which I guess is useless without the CDs.

I did state that XP is now asking for passwords when it never did before. I
did not state until now that entering blank passwords (just hitting enter)
does nothing except tell me there is an account restriction.

Now... Since I asked how I can possibly get back into XP (even a command
shell before logging in) and not about buying a new (or used) machine or
backing up data, is there any way this is possible?