Forgotten Password/Laptop

[Soylent Brice]

so, i know the standard methods of pw reset disc for win 7, and formatting, etc, in the event you forget your pw.
i got a buddy who bought a dell inspiron from the amazon warehouse.

they did not give him an OS disc
and the original owner's username is still showing up as admin login

i found instructions regarding factory default format for the laptop itself but he said that didn't work either
( http://en.kioskea.net/faq/7319-dell-inspiron-restore-to-factory-default-settings )


any ideas on how to do this w/o a disc?

i have win7 OS disc, and if that doesn't work, i can get new one if i must.

just trying to avoid that.

any tips would be greatly appreciated.



p.s. i told my buddy to call amazon and bitch up a storm, all they said they would do is reimburse for the expense to have it restored.

how gracious of them.

[gvstn]

1. If you are trying to remove the password

You could try either software mentioned in this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10956199

Lazesoft: http://www.lazesoft.com/lazesoft-recover-my-password.html
PCLoginnow: http://www.pcloginnow.com/

You would write the ISO file to a CD/DVD as an IMAGE file (not data), then boot from the CD and remove the password. Then you could login to Win7 and create a new account with Administrative privileges and delete the one with the old owners name.

The screenshots aren't that intuitive for PCloginnow but basically all you do is click on the win7 installation then click on the name of the old owner and make sure the box for "password is empty" is ticked then Finish. That removes the password and you should be able to login to that account without a password.

http://www.pcloginnow.com/screenshot_3.html

I'm not familiar with Lazesoft but it appears to be basically the same.

[Phillip McCleod]

2. yep i use lazesoft and it works basically the same..

.. only difference worth mentioning is that lazesoft offers a two options on startup.. 'fast' or not. if 'fast' recovery doesn't work, try the other one (usually 'fast' works but sometimes not)

[Thor_MN]

3. Could try Ophcrack

http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/download.php

A scumball stole the laptop I gave my mother for Christmas. It was recovered from a pawnshop. The @sshole destroyed her account and left a password on the account he created. Ophcrack had me into the laptop in seconds (idiot had a really simple password).


What's more, dumb@ss left me a present, a picture of himself, with most of his name as the filename. Couple minutes with Google gave me a police community alert posting with his full name, for burglary in a neighborhood not too far from my mother's house. So off the laptop went, back to the police for evidence. They copied the hard drive and gave it back to her.

I've also used it to get the password for a laptop my neighbor bought used. As long as the password isn't too complex, the free version of Ophcrack will get it.

[thecrow]

5. I got a warning from Norton's that oph crack is a malicious file and that the download was deleted

[hobbit709]

8. Norton is as useful as a screen door on a submarine.

It will give you warning on stuff like that and let the REAL nasties through.

About 2/3 of the infected computers I work on have Norton.

[Soylent Brice]

4. ***update***

*sigh*

So my buddy brings the laptop over last night. It's a dell 1750, I think.

No disc drive. I tried making a pw reset disc with a usb flash. Got all the way to the point you submit a new pw, get the error:

Encountered an error...

FML

I'm all out of ideas.

[CK_John]

6. Oldie but it works.

I've used this for yrs, on a floppy. But you put it on cd or flash if they are bootable. Be careful building a bootable usb it usually reformats.
I recommend burn a cd. ImgBurn is very easy to use if needed.


While running the program, the default is usually what you use. I just hit enter for new password prompt (blank pw). Read instructions very carefully, it is a powerful tool.

Link: scroll down to "how to get it" click then go down to download section following history.

http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

[Soylent Brice]

7. i ended up

booting a new OS from usb, had him buy a new product key.

Works fine.

Still an ignorant display of Amazon

[hobbit709]

9. the product key on the laptop should have worked.

I use what I call my magic Dell disk. I have the Dell restore disks for XP-both home and pro, Vista and 7.
Never had one fail to validate with the key on the sticker on the computer.

[Soylent Brice]

10. yeah, you'd think it was supposed to work,

but alas, no. Wasn't shocked at that point. I let it go. Too much fight, not enough left in me. I'm coding a site currently which is my main focus.

[gopiscrap]

12. Welcome to DU

[Warren DeMontague]

13. Try "password"

that's the one I use for everything.

[Soylent Brice]

14. i tried that and

all the usuals.

I ended up installing a win7 home image via usb, and used a key he purchased online. IIRC Amazon did reimburse him for it too.

pain in the ass.