Re: I inherited my Father's Computer on His Passing April 27,2009
- From: "Patrick Keenan" <test@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 19:28:37 -0400
"TrueAmericanRebel58" <TrueAmericanRebel58@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
in message news:BCB28BC7-921A-4285-976A-C81E8CFDBDB8@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The Problem is that Dad was Always Changing the Widows Password and NO ONE
KNOWS the the LAST Password that He Used . So My Question is After Windows
loads and It Shows Username and ask for the Passwork WE ALL ARE STUMPLED
and
Not Even Mom knows it He left a list of Wedsights and Passwords for Each
and
The Only Password He did Not Leave was the XP Windows Password to Start it
all . So Is there a Way to Put a NEW Password and Still KEEP ALL HIS INFO
Like Web sights and Games and Hardware that He Has Installed . PLEASE HELP
ME
SALVAGE MY DADS COMPUTER PLEASE.....
SINCERLY
Don Pen
First, sorry to hear of your loss.
Second, if this is not XP Pro, the password problem is simple and can be
fixed in a few minutes with no ill effects.
However, if it's the XP Pro, there is a possibility that encryption was
invoked, and if you *need the data*, you must not attempt any of the
password reset or recovery techniques until you are sure that it wasn't.
Unless the account credentials were backed up and can be restored, changing
the password from outside the account will permanently block decryption.
This does not apply to XP Home or Media Center Edition, as neither of those
have the encrypting file system.
If it's XP Pro, the first thing to do is to get another hard disk, similar
in size to the old one, and attach both the bold drive and the new one to an
XP system with cloning software installed, such as the free trial version of
Acronis TrueImage. Clone the old disk to the new one, and set the old one
aside in a safe place.
This will allow you to work on the new, cloned copy of the drive, reset the
passwords, and determine whether encryption was used; if it wasn't, you're
done and you have access to all the data. And there will be no risk of
data loss. You can just re-clone as many times as you need to.
If the OS is XP Home, boot to Safe Mode (power down, power on again, press
F8 to get to the boot selector screen, choose Safe Mode; then choose
Administrator when you get to the Welcome screen. This account normally
has no password, and you can reset the other account passwords from Control
Panel, Users. This often also applies to XP Pro, but so does the warning
about changing the password from outside the account.
There are a number of password reset utilities available, many based on
Linux boot CDs. There are a number of links on this page that will get you
free reset utilities:
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm
But again, if it's XP Pro, and if you do need to be *certain* that you do
not lose any data, clone the drive and work only on the clone, not the
original. Encrypted files will be unreadable after you change the
passwords, so you will know you've found the problem as soon as you see it.
As well, in Explorer, they will appear in a green colour.
Again, condolences on your loss.
HTH
-pk
.
- References:
- I inherited my Father's Computer on His Passing April 27,2009
- From: TrueAmericanRebel58
- I inherited my Father's Computer on His Passing April 27,2009
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