Lost password

Easy way to retrieve his data is to boot with a Linux live Cd ( Knoppix etc.) and use it to download it to CD's., or move it to a thumb drive and offload it that way. I had to do this when my best friends computer had so many virii and crap it wouldn't boot anymore, I got his stuff off and then brain wiped it and started over.

www.knoppix.net



GG.

Easy way to retrieve his data is to boot with a Linux live Cd ( Knoppix etc.) and use it to download it to CD's., or move it to a thumb drive and offload it that way. I had to do this when my best friends computer had so many virii and crap it wouldn't boot anymore, I got his stuff off and then brain wiped it and started over.

http://www.knoppix.net



GG.

Thank you. All our trials so far have been unix or Linux based. Thumb drive version didn't work. You used knoppix on a vista machine with success?

need to make a live Linux CD and use it to boot the computer rather than Windows Vista. The operating system then, will be Linux rather than Vista and you can download his data files. What happened when you tried to boot using the Linux live CD?

need to make a live Linux CD and use it to boot the computer rather than Windows Vista. The operating system then, will be Linux rather than Vista and you can download his data files. What happened when you tried to boot using the Linux live CD?

The boot would never complete. Everything we tried got to roughly the same point and stopped. On the thumb drive version the first thing we got was a password request. That's when we gave up. He's getting ready to hit the road again and would like to take his machine.

The answer is easy. Remove the harddrive,and Install into another computer. Use Partition Magic to resize and re-letter the C partition. Create a new bootable C partition. Re-install the drive into the original computer, and install a fresh copy of Windows 7. You can call my husband at 454-6628, and he can fix your computer.

The answer is easy. Remove the harddrive,and Install into another computer. Use Partition Magic to resize and re-letter the C partition. Create a new bootable C partition. Re-install the drive into the original computer, and install a fresh copy of Windows 7. You can call my husband at 454-6628, and he can fix your computer.

If i was working with a desk top box I would have done just that, minus the partition magic.

I've used the following website, http://www.loginrecovery.com/index.php , to recover a password. My experience was not with Vista, but they claim the service works with Vista and if they cannot get the password or reset it for you you're not out any money.

Current fee is 34.50 and my experience was that it worked as advertised and saved me a lot of time that I didn't have to recover the password with some of the other suggested means. No business connection with the service just a satisfied customer.

Good luck and hope that helps you out-Doug

Sorry I missed the bat signal.

If you're still stumped and can get the laptop to St. Matthews I'd be happy to help. I've sent you a PM with my phone number.

2.5" laptop harddrive to 3.5" harddrive (or USB) adapters are available.

2.5" laptop harddrive to 3.5" harddrive (or USB) adapters are available.

I've used this type of thing to recover stuff off drives. Yank the drive, plug it in to another system, take ownership of the files if needed and copy all the data over.

2.5" laptop harddrive to 3.5" harddrive (or USB) adapters are available.

I've used this type of thing to recover stuff off drives. Yank the drive, plug it in to another system, take ownership of the files if needed and copy all the data over.

Yes, it is actually quite easy. And the adapters are cheap. They often will work for multiple sizes of drives.

$20-25 range at Newegg.com sometimes even cheaper.

Buy a new hard drive and install it into the notebook and setup Win 7 on it.

Buy a USB caddie (get an IDE one if old drive is not SATA) for the current hard drive and connect to the notebook's USB port.

Recover all the files from the old hard drive that you want by simply copying them to the newly installed hard drive.

Once you are VERY sure that you have recovered all the files that you are interested in, then reformat the old drive in the USB caddie and continue to use it as a back-up storage.

I have used most OSs and will not touch Vista thus know little about it except it is flakey... Go to http://www.thepcgurus.com/email.php and email the issue. Kevin should be able to help.