I have an old laptop running Vista. I mainly use my tablet now and fired up the laptop after not using it for ages only to find I can't remember my password (menopause strikes again). Apart from hitting it with a sledge hammer can anyone help me. If you give me I instructions on how to crack the password, just imagine that you giving them to a 5 year old!!!
Laptop password
Knitty on 23/03/2015 - 22:31
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If you have a desktop, then you could take the hard drive out of your laptop and connect it to your desktop as a secondary hard drive. Then turn your desktop on and you can view the content and retrieve data from your laptop hard drive.
Other than that, I have no clue on how to access your laptop. Try using all your passwords you used on other stuff, like facebook, youtube, etc.
Good luck mate.Not instruction a 5 year old can understand or follow but easy enough if you want to try it.
http://www.howtogeek.com/96630/how-to-reset-your-forgotten-w…
http://www.howtogeek.com/96805/how-to-reset-your-windows-pas…
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/passrecover…
Ooh, my method's only to retrieve the files and most 5 year olds wouldn't manage…:)
You can access your files using a Ubuntu Live CD/Flash Disk. But even this will need a computer nerd to help you.
Like ppp said, if you download Ubuntu iso file, or the smaller Puppy linux usually ~100mb. Write it to a CD or Dvd and put it into the laptop cd drive.
Then boot into it by pressing Del key or f1/f2/f12/esc maybe. You will see your harddrive icon on the booted linux desktop. Double-click the icon to see your files. Then copy important files to a usb flash drive.
Seems complex but worth learning to do.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windowsvista/f/forgetvistapass…
As others have said you can use the HD in a desktop computer to get all your files back and if you have a mate who's handy I'm sure they'd help you put it into a external case (essentially making it a external HD).
If you don't have a desktop computer then again if you have any IT minded friends I'm sure they'd help you out, otherwise you could probably pick up something cheap used as long as it can boot windows the HD with the lost password can be used as an additional HD and the files should be readable.
Are you trying to get the files? or just reformat so you can use the computer?
If this is the case (just reformatting), it's still a good idea to back up the drive just for the drivers in \inf, \system32 etc…
A fresh install from a cd is super simple for most users. Also can't really do much harm trying it yourself.
I want to be able to use my laptop. I think by the look of the above comments I might get my nephew to pick one the above suggestions and give it a go. Keep your fingers crossed. Thanks everyone for your help.
In that case try Forskin's method (or other direct methods above). If you have the original Vista CD then you can ask your nephew to do a "repair", giving you access to change the registry manually and allowing you to create a new admin password as per http://mobile.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/3433989/how-gai…
Just wanted to chime in and say good luck.
Hi all,
On a similar subject, I have an Ibm/Lenovo R61 laptop with a bios level password set. So I can only change restricted bios settings.
Lenovo help indicates you would have to have the motherboard changed to get access to bios again.
Do you think this is true? Is there any known hacks, overides to get or restore a bios password.
I guess this near perfect condition laptop is rendered effectively useless due to password feature.
Any ideas?If it's the supervisor password, try posting an ad in Gumtree or Airtasker looking for a hacker. It's worth trying your luck. Some people may already have a "bus pirate" etc that they've used to hack EEPROM before and they probably can't wait to test it again if you tell them there's nothing to lose for both of you.
If you're into messing with electronics you could even try it yourself. Here's how it was done on an old Thinkpad (http://sodoityourself.com/hacking-ibm-thinkpad-bios-password…) so there might be links for your model floating around.
Love tinkering. Definately will follow this up and try. And post here in a couple days if any luck.
Didn't expect anything could be done, and the laptop is pretty crippled with this lock. It may be why it looks near new.
I have done this before and it worked. The free version will work with 32-bit windows OS.
Download Kon-boot from this link http://piotrbania.com/all/kon-boot/index2.html and burn the image into a disc.
Leave disc / insert disc after turning on the pc and it will bypass Windows login.
Do you have the installation CD for Vista? Read this