Re: Unable to log in

copterbob wrote:
We have a stand alone PC that has Win.XP PRO SPK 2 operating system installed.
We recently attempted to boot it up in order to get some data that we needed, and it boots to the welcome page, and shows an Administrator ID, and a log in pasword box. The pasword hint indicates a birth date is the password. Neither my wife or I have ever setup a login password requirement to boot this PC, and neither of our birthdates work. We suspect that a former resident set it up without our knowledge, and that person is not available to give us the pass word. Is there any way we can disable the password requirement or get around it in oder to access the operating system, and regaing the Data we need?

if you have another user account with administrative privileges you can log into that account and change your original user account's password from the User Accounts applet in Control Panel. If you don't have another account like this set up or don't have the password to it, you'll need to log into the built-in Administrator account.

In XP Pro, at the Welcome Screen do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the classic Windows logon box. Type in "Administrator" and whatever password you assigned when you set up Windows. If you didn't assign one, the default is a blank.

If you reset the built-in Administrator account's password in Home or have Pro and don't remember the password, use NTpasswd to change the built-in Administrator account's password to a blank.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Then go to the User Accounts applet in Control Panel and set passwords that you will remember and make other desired changes. WRITE THE PASSWORDS DOWN AND PUT THEM SOMEWHERE YOU WON'T LOSE THEM.

An alternative if you don't want to bother with the above and just want the data is to pull the drive and either slave it in a working machine or put it in an external enclosure and attach it to a working machine.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
.

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