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Puter help needed

joinerman

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Mar 23, 2010
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Hope someone can help, my daughter has a laptop she hasn't used for a while & cannot remember her password, it's running Vista Home, I've tried tapping F8 on start up & get the screen to go into Safe mode, but it still wants a password.
 
I'm no puter boff, but when something similar happened to me our IT guy loaded a bootable knoppix cd (a linuxOperating system) and then reset the password from this. But is not as simpleas is sounds.

You're going to need some assistance with this, or just reinstall the platform (Vista Home) but you'll lose all of the data on the LT, it will be back to a fresh start.

Not good news I'm afraid. :|
 
Thanks Clive, been on gurgle all evening & not got any further, probably take it in to the local repair man in the morning.
 
Try all the F buttons for recovery , what com is it ? some need a CD to reset . I wiped mine back to the day I bought it last week .
 
Try all the F buttons for recovery , what com is it ? some need a CD to reset . I wiped mine back to the day I bought it last week .

Yep Shayne, but you've got to "get in" to do that, AFAIK.

Without the password, you're fcuk'd. By loading another platform (as well as the original) it allows you in to reset the password (that's how it was described to me anyway).
 
No you don't shut the com down then restart tapping the F button constantly before your asked for a password , if the password screen comes up you have failed so start again
 
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Worth a try I suppose, not heard of that one... :?
 
Be warned though if you opt for full recovery everything will be deleted and your com will need setting up as it did the day you bought it new .
 
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Not all windows machines come with the 'Recovery Console" in the boot up options but if it has then, as said above, it'll put it back to day 1. The easiest option may be to use some password recovery software form a usb flash drive. There's some vids on Youtube showing how.
 
Yes tried all the F's, cant get into safe mode, daughter doesn't want to loose whats on it.
 
Hold the off button down for 30 seconds (hard shutdown) , when you restart it may give you options
 
Yes tried all the F's, cant get into safe mode, daughter doesn't want to loose whats on it.
You can in any case remove the harddisk and plug it into another computer as a second disk in order to read and copy what's on it. Not the applications, but all user data, pics, films, music, etc.
 
uhu is right

easy way
take the hard disk out and put it in a ext housing that will accept a 2.5 inch hard dish then just connect to the pc via usb

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-5-inch-...es_HardDriveEnclosures_RL&hash=item4615445d42

a bit harder

or if you know what to do put the hard drive inside the pc machine and hope there is a spare cable to connect the hd to the pc but you might have to play with the setting to see the drive
 
If your daughter is anything like ours all the stuff she wants to keep is pics and music , all of which is usually stored online in the likes of photobucket or facebook , iTunes etc so you might want to ask her about that before you pay for a copy .
 
We had a Dell laptop that corked it, and putting the HDD in another carrier we still couldn't get into it as it was linked to the motherboard.

Other options is see if there is an admin account, or another account on the laptop (if it's a windows password) and then you can sometimes get round it - I had to do it on my laptop after I forgot the password.

One benefit of that approach is it's also harder to get a virus if the general user account doesn't have admin (installation) rights, leaving the admin account for that purpose.
 
If all else fails - and I do NOT recommend you try this . You can erase a laptops memory and passwords by opening it up with a screwdriver and removing the internal battery for a few minutes . I have only done this once and it was quite some time ago but if I remember correctly I had to reinstall windows from a disk afterwards and then spend a few hours on the manufacturers website downloading specific drivers . I got it going again though when the shop had told my nephew to bin it .
 
Thanks for all the idea's lads, took it in to my local shop this morning, I'm £20 lighter but it's sorted, daughters happy again, told her not to put a password on this time, LOL
 
Glad to hear it's all resolved JM, it could have been worse than £20 I suppose...
 
take the bottom cover off.
Remove the button backup cmos battery.
Leave the main battery off,
Flip its right way up.
Hold the power on button down for a few minutes, to totally discharge remaining capacitors.

Button battery back in, main battery back in, start up.

Graham
 
If you've forgotten the password going through the hassle of clearing the cmos will do nothing. Windows passwords are not kept in bios.
 
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