Re: Password


"Bob" <bobl@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Q5-dne38vqHQVdfVnZ2dnUVZ_hOdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have a friend who I gave a Dell Laptop to and she changed her password
and now has forgotten it...other than reformatting and putting on again her
original XP disk, does she have any other way of getting to reset her
password. She of course did not leave a hint as she was going to remember
the phrase.

Any ideas? I told her to sleep on it over night and a good change the
phrase will come back to her.

Am I overlooking something obvious. She has her original installation XP
disk.

Bob


Bob:
Assuming your friend can't come up with her password and the other responses
to your (her) query aren't sufficient to resolve the problem so that she's
able to once again have a bootable, functional system...consider the
following:

Access the following website: http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/
and download the freely available program that will allow you to create a
bootable CD that with which you will be able to reset your password.

We prepared step-by-step instructions for using this program for some local
PC users. Hopefully it will be of some use to you and your friend (or others
interested in this issue). And you will help her with this, won't you?

1. On the top of the webpage click on the "Bootdisk" button.
2. In the "Download" section of that page click on the cd070927.zip file and
download it to your Desktop. Note it's a ZIP file so the contents of that
file will have to be extracted.
3. I assume you know how to do this by merely right-clicking on the ZIP
file, click on Extract All, Next, Next, Finish.
4. A folder will be created on your Desktop titled "cd070927".
5. Inside that folder will be the cd070927.iso file. It's this .iso file
that allows you to create a bootable CD from that .iso image.
6. Hopefully, you have a CD-burning program, e.g., Nero, Roxio, etc., that
allows you to merely double-click on the .iso file and the program will open
and create a bootable CD from that .iso image. If you don't have such a
program perhaps you have a friend or acquaintance who does and he or she can
help you with creating the bootable CD. There are other programs available
on the net that allow you to do this as well but these third-party programs
that I've mentioned make it a very simple & straightforward process.

Now that you've created the bootable CD that's designed to reset your
password, insert the CD in your optical drive and boot to it.

The following are step-by-step instructions for using the program. The
example involved is a single-partitioned HDD, but the basic steps are the
same for any size HDD, except where the drive is multi-partitioned. If the
latter is the case the steps will be slightly different but they will not be
unduly complicated or substantially different under those circumstances.

As you progress through the screens the information provided and steps
involved look more complicated than they really are. In virtually every step
during the process you, as the user, will simply be pressing the Enter key
or some other simple keystroke. So please don't be unduly concerned as you
look through the following. Relax, and take your time during the process.

1. Hopefully your PC is set up so that it will boot to a bootable CD. If
it's not, change the motherboard's BIOS boot priority setting so that the
CD-ROM is first in boot priority.

2. Boot to the password reset CD. At the first screen you will see the
"boot:" prompt. Press Enter.

3. The next prompt ("Step ONE") will be "Select: [1]". Press Enter.

4. The next prompt ("Step TWO") will be "What is the path to the registry
directory? (relative to windows disk)
[WINDOWS/system32/config]:". Again, press Enter.

5. The next prompt will follow text "Select which part of registry to load,
use ..." and list three options. The default prompt will reflect the first
option ("Password reset ..."), indicating "[1]". Again, press Enter.

6. The next prompt at "Step THREE" will indicate "What to do? [1]". Again,
press Enter.

7. A bunch of information will follow with the final line displaying the
prompt, "or simply enter the username to change [Administrator]". Type your
user name, e.g., ANNA, and press Enter. Ensure you've correctly entered your
user name in the proper case (uppercase or lowercase as you have originally
set it).

8. More information will follow ending with the following prompt...
"Please enter new password:". Type an * (asterisk or star) and press Enter.

9. The next prompt will be...
"Do you really wish to change it? (y/n) [n]". Type y and press Enter.
(You'll receive the confirmation "Changed!")

10. The last line of the following prompt will read...
"or simply enter the username to change [Administrator]". Type !
(exclamation point) and press Enter.

11. The last line of the next prompt will read...
"What to do? [1]" . Type q and press Enter.

12. The next prompt ("Step FOUR") will read...
"About to write file(s) back! Do it? [n]". Type y and press Enter.

13. At this point you should get the "EDIT COMPLETE" message with the
following prompt...
"You can try again if it somehow failed, or you selected wrong New run? [n]"
Just press Enter.

14. The final prompt will be a "#" signaling that the program has finished
its work. Remove the CD from your optical drive and reboot.

Hopefully your Administrator's password has now been reset to a blank
password and you should gain access to your system.
Anna


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