Re: Fixing Clobbered MBR -- the real message

Tech-Archive recommends: Speed Up your PC by fixing your registry

On Jun 14, 10:04 am, "Norm Dresner" <n...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Sorry for hitting the wrong key and posting an incomplete message. Anyway,
the scene is my wife's laptop. Previously I had a WinXP Pro and Linux dual
boot setup. The goal was to remove the Linux installation and reclaim the
desk space for WinXP.

1. Using Norton Partition Magic, I deleted the Linux partitions. So far
everything's okay, machine still boots.

2. Then I used Partition Magic to move the WinXP partition forward on the
disk to where the Linux Partition was so I could later extend it backwards.
OOPS! Having moved windows stuff into the space that Linux occupied, I
overwrote the Linux loader (LILO) and could no longer boot.

I know that I have to restore the MBR to fix the problem.

3. I booted the Windows XP installation CD to the recovery console and
discovered that I had no idea what the administrator password was set to.
I've tried about 15 variants of the passwords we usually use (including
blank) with no success.

QUESTIONS:

I have about a half-dozen computers here ranging from Win98 to Win2K to
WinXP. I have complete access to all of the hardware.

A. Is there any way I could attach the hard disk from laptop to another
computer and reset the MBR that way?

B. Could I attach the hard disk from the laptop to another computer and
"reset" the administrator password that way?

B. Would purchasing a USB floppy and booting a, say, MS-DOS or Win98 (or
better) floppy and running FDISK work?

C. What else is there that I can do?

Thanks in Advance
Norm

I don't think you would be able to pop your laptop drive into another
computer and do it that way for a number of reasons, the largest one
being that laptop drives (2.5") and desktop drives (3.5") are
different ATA standards.

I would recommend burning Ophcrack to a CD and running it. Assuming
you don't have a password longer that 14 characters and never screwed
around with the registry to change the encryption method, Ophcrack
should provide your password for you (although it may not have the
correct capitalization). Link after the break.

http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/

.

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