EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: Terry01 on February 15, 2018, 08:11:22 pm
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I know this probably sounds a bit dodgy but......I have an old Compaq c700 that is running windows 7 that has been in my kitchen cupboard for 3 or 4 years-ish! I found it again this evening and thought I would give it a whirl. It's password locked and we can't for the life of us remember the password. The Mrs and I are about demented with it! |O
I tried to reset it but it is saying I need to connect a floppy disk or removable drive to do this! It was built up for my Mrs by one of her geek friends a few years ago and I ended up using it as a gaming laptop but it got a virus so I bought a new machine as it was also getting older and the virus was the perfect excuse for me to get a new machine. The guy who built it said it was a good machine and had been "tweeked" a "little" inside. I have no reason to doubt him. Is there a way around this floppy disk or removable drive thing as I have neither.
Thanks
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If i were you i would try and find that "geek friend" :-//
Other than that i have no clue.
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You're going to create another bootable USB (or DVD) with some password editing tool on it.
https://www.lifewire.com/free-windows-password-recovery-tools-2626179 (https://www.lifewire.com/free-windows-password-recovery-tools-2626179)
I feel like the last time I faced this, I used an ubuntu LiveCD to get what I needed off the PC, but I suspect you'll find a workable answer in the above article.
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Honestly if I was faced with this, I would grab what I needed off the machine, and just reinstall Windows. I find it's a good policy to just reinstall windows on occasion anyways.
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First you need to confirm if it's a Windows 7 password, bios password, hard drive password, some weird OEM ID asset password or a combo
If it's a Windows 7 password you may find what you need on Youtube if an internet search doesn't bring results
If it's a bios or hard drive password... ouch! :horse:
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Thanks for the help guys. I'll give those suggestions a try tomorrow.
The guy who built it is now up in the big geek graveyard in the sky unfortunately. A very nice guy who was very clever with computers. :--
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Thanks for the help guys. I'll give those suggestions a try tomorrow.
The guy who built it is now up in the big geek graveyard in the sky unfortunately. A very nice guy who was very clever with computers. :--
The brightest candles always burn the quickest.
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If it had a virus then wiping it would be best anyhow. If it sat that long unused I doubt there is anything of importance on it to save.
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Why the hell is a Windows 7 machine wanting a floppy disk? :wtf:
If it's a bios or hard drive password... ouch!
If it's a BIOS password...just pull the pin. :palm: Or the battery if you have to (if it's soldered you'll have to cut it).
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If it had a virus then wiping it would be best anyhow. If it sat that long unused I doubt there is anything of importance on it to save.
Just a couple of hundred Bitcoins mined for 5 quid in electricity at the time...
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Download and burn hirensbootcd to a flash drive and use the "Offline NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 Password Changer", find step by step instructions on youtube.
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Why the hell is a Windows 7 machine wanting a floppy disk? :wtf:
If it's a bios or hard drive password... ouch!
If it's a BIOS password...just pull the pin.
Not this guy ! :P
We scored a Toshiba A200 with a fingerprint reader.......locked out, as tight as a drum ! :rant:
It's previous owner had given up on it as it wouldn't recognize his fingerprint. :horse:
Bit of time on the 'net found these A200's could/would do this and it was only a matter of when ! :scared:
Under the RAM cover and under the RAM modules are a pair of BIOS RESET pads that when bridged (RAM out) upon power ON would reset the BIOS and you were 'in like Flynn' ! :-DD
Straight into BIOS was the next move and disable the bloody fingerprint reader and it's been good for years. ;D
OP, do some homework and find the BIOS reset procedure for this MOBO and you should be good to go !
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Why the hell is a Windows 7 machine wanting a floppy disk? :wtf:
If it's a bios or hard drive password... ouch!
If it's a BIOS password...just pull the pin. :palm: Or the battery if you have to (if it's soldered you'll have to cut it).
Windows 7 has an interesting "password reset disk"
It's, from what I gather, just a physical key that allows you to reset your password if you forget it.
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Or just nuke it and do a fresh install, either with a DVD or a bootable USB pen.
Or grab one of the many Windows PE images, boot to that, create a new Admin account and its done, or boot with a dvd/pen with install media, repair, open a prompt and create a new Admin account.
Win is SOOOO easy to bypass, Win10 with Hello and whatnot?
PE boot, new Admin account, done, easy.
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Nobody in their right mind relies on anything near the NT kernel for real security.
Anything secure is done using the Unix family.
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Ok i am in! :-+
I followed one of the Youtube videos and it worked no problem! I have to sort the virus now and get it cleaned up and working!
My Mrs owned up to "downloading" one of the things "a guy at work" told her to do to get free music! I have found a bittorrent so far that was really slowing it down. I'm by no means a whizz! I do know how to clean it up and have it run faster but that's as far as my software knowledge goes! I'll dodge away with it and no doubt be on here again asking how do I do this or that or whatever till you guys get fed up with me asking silly questions |O
Thank you everyone for the help so far! Much appreciated!! :)
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Which method did you use?
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Windows 7 password I think. I forced a shutdown by pressing and holding the power button while it was shutting down. I then started windows using "start up repair" then changed a couple of settings and it was fairly straight forward. Just followed the YouTube video and it's done.
Easy! :) Well easy now I know how!
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Basically it is:
- start with a recovery or install disk and get to a cmd prompt.
- copy cmd.exe over sethc.exe in windows\system32 (copy sethc.exe to sethc.bak first if you want to reverse)
- start windows normally, and on the login screen activate High Contrast mode either by tapping shift 5 times or clicking the icon.
- voila, there is your admin cmd prompt. use net user <username> <new password> to set a new password.
- fix the sethc.exe if you feel like it.
- enjoy
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How does shit like this get past quality control? Think MS knew about it at launch?
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Unless you encrypted your HDD or SSD (most people even some businesses don't even do this!) you can just simply swap your drive to another computer via USB or SATA slave and recover your files and programs. I scared my boss at a small business when I could easily recover patient files/test results no problem. As for booting without a password someone mentioned that up above.
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How does shit like this get past quality control? Think MS knew about it at launch?
:-// If your drive isn't encrypted and you spot an attacker physical control over the machine, it's game over for any OS...
This isn't (just) a Windows thing.
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It was pretty easy to follow and worked 1st time no problems.
Everything on the machine must be well out of date as it keeps saying "certificates are out of date" or "not trusted" for things like google and sites that are clearly ok.
I haven't worked out how to get around this yet but I will. I've just been making an "exception" and it's been working fine. I'm well chuffed it's going again! :-+
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That is likely due to improper date/time settings!
Make sure they're set correctly.
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That is likely due to improper date/time settings!
Make sure they're set correctly.
Yep, chrome [insert browser here] is stupid like that...
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Quick-ish Fix -not too geeky- suggestion if you don't want to re-install:
and get rid of bossy boots browsers
Get Revo Uninstaller and uninstall any unwanted or suspect software
Revo will also stop any start up processes you feel are slowing things up or logging your activity,
you choose which processes (or all or none) and this can be undone :phew:
If that doesn't totally resolve your issues, install a decent freebie or time trial anti-malware program to clean up any nasties
You will have to research which one, many are invasive duds
or eye candy scareware subscription moneypits :scared:
You can always use Revo again to to uninstall the anti-malware program if it doesn't behave later or did nothing but install adware and slow the computer down
You can also try the above in reverse, anti-malware program first, Revo second,
though I prefer to get Revo in first, and get things sorted medieval style >:D
Anyways, you're in now.. good luck with it :-+
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That is likely due to improper date/time settings!
Make sure they're set correctly.
Cool, thank you I will check them. I didn't set the date etc again since I got it going again.
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The login password can be reset or removed if the password can not be recovered back,this is the easiest way.
Here is a tutorial on how to crack the password.
https://www.windows10passwordreset.com/get-into-locked-computer.html (https://www.windows10passwordreset.com/get-into-locked-computer.html)
In addition, there are some free software, just click to download them.
https://www.filehorse.com/download-cain-and-abel/ (https://www.filehorse.com/download-cain-and-abel/)
https://trinityhome.org/trinity_rescue_kit_download/ (https://trinityhome.org/trinity_rescue_kit_download/)
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Wooo, thread necromancy! I'll play...
UBCD https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ (https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/)