Lost windows password; How to format harddrive?

B

BKSinAZ

New Member
My freind wants me to format his computer and reinstall everything, which I am very capable of doing.

The problem is that he lost his windows password and can not even log into his own computer.

Is there a work around?

I beleive it is win 98 or 2000.
 
Insert a bootable DOS floppy and type Fdisk

Insert Operating System disk and in the installation it will ask you if you want to reformat, or which partition, simply delete the partition(s) and format with OS install
 
When he turns on his computer and it goes to the windows screen tell him to press f8 and put it to safe mode then change the password or create another account.
 
Lost password

There is a program or two which can be used to delete password. I forget the name of the program. One is a dos program which deletes file which holds the passwords. The other is a snooper program which finds password by making changes to the files. I used the dos program, you get a warning about continuing but I went forward and used the program. Also when booting you can press delete or control or f1, what ever the computer uses to go to startup bios. You change to make it start up from the cd drive instead of the hard drive. Put in your OS and type in setup if you do not get an auto setup window. If you do not have the setup disc which came with the computer the windows OS should have whats needed to allow reboot. You may need to download some files such as display, modem or soundcard files. I rebooted my pc this way and had to find files cause win98 does not have the ATI display which was on my pc. I had to download the network files also. The computer had no modem but I found a junk computer with a modem. I installed it, the computer found it and asked for win98 disc to install files for this modem. Worked fine but do not have the capabilies which came with the modem. Can not fax or make calls using the PC
 
I beleive it is win 98 or 2000.
Click to expand...
Well find it :)

You can boot in with knoppix and get the sam file. thats only if you don't mind working for the password.
Click to expand...
You'll also need the SYSTEM file :)

There is a program or two which can be used to delete password. I forget the name of the program.
Click to expand...
Yes but if the system is setup to use EFS then destroying the password effectively nukes the data :)
 
If its windows 98 just click cancel in the login page.I'm not sure about windows 2000 though.

If you want to format your harddrive (win 98) just press f8 at the start and press shift and F5 it will go into a DOS promt.Then just type "format c:" without the quotes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top