This is probably a stupid question.. My friend was given a laptop by someone who no longer needed it but he doesnt know the admin password, and I was wondering if I have any way of reformatting the hard drive without having to get a windows 7 installation disk? I can't access command prompt, system restore, or any admin privileges. If I can force admin and then restore to factory settings would that require a CD?
Is the key on the bottom of the laptop?
Getting past windows passwords is really easy, but you won't be able to format it without a copy of windows [url]http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/[/url]
[editline]26th October 2013[/editline]
u can totally get a windows ISO and put it on a USB drive btw, you don't need a physical disk
You can use the Windows 7 USB tool from Microsoft to make a USB Windows 7 installer:
[url]http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool[/url]
And you can get whatever version of Windows 7 you need directly from Microsoft's Digital River CDN:
[url]http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/14709-Windows-7-Digital-River-direct-links-Multiple-Languages-X86-amp-X64/page72[/url]
Make sure you get the correct ISO for the key on the bottom of your laptop. The key on the laptop is good for both 32 and 64 bit versions of the OS. If you have less than 4 GB of RAM, you'll probably want to use the 32 bit version to save disk space and a bit of RAM.
Couldn't you just burn a CD/flash drive with Hiren's Boot and use one of the five formatting tools it has? I don't see how not having a windows password would be a problem if you're trying to format the HDD
[QUOTE=Shadaez;42659178]Getting past windows passwords is really easy, but you won't be able to format it without a copy of windows [url]http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/[/url]
[editline]26th October 2013[/editline]
u can totally get a windows ISO and put it on a USB drive btw, you don't need a physical disk[/QUOTE]
Ophcrack is useless if the previous user have any kind of strong password, or if he's running Win8. If you do not need to know the password of the computer (Which you shouldn't as its not your password either) then its better to use ntpasswd/chntpw.
If you burn an cd with ex. Backtrack 5, the chntpw tool is included on the cd, and allows you to remove or change the password of any user. Tutorial on usage here: [URL="http://whatisgon.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/chntpw-tutorial-resetting-windows-passwords-editing-registry-linux/"]Brief chntpw Tutorial[/URL]
[QUOTE=latin_geek;42660270]Couldn't you just burn a CD/flash drive with Hiren's Boot and use one of the five formatting tools it has? I don't see how not having a windows password would be a problem if you're trying to format the HDD[/QUOTE]
Hirens has a really nice offline password changer, accessible from the boot options menu. It will remove or change a password in a couple of seconds, works on Win2K or above. I prefer to blank the password instead of changing it on 7/8/8.1.
I put the OS iso on a usb using that usb tool but the computer's bios didn't have the option to boot from usb so I used plop on a cd but its saying there's no bootable usb devices connected but the USB is being read when I open the computer... So then I got Hiren's Boot and used the password reset and it worked! It seems like the dude who gave up the laptop didn't bother erasing his file and I just found a giant folder of pictures of his dick. Also his desktop was very messy. I feel like you should undergo a basic training program before being allowed to buy a new laptop. Thanks everyone
[QUOTE=Anderen2;42687416]Ophcrack is useless if the previous user have any kind of strong password, or if he's running Win8. If you do not need to know the password of the computer (Which you shouldn't as its not your password either) then its better to use ntpasswd/chntpw.[/QUOTE]
Ophcrack works fine on Windows 8, you just need the latest version. And I've rarely had it not be able to find a password to at least one admin account. And if it can't, then NT offline password recovery can just wipe the password. Both of these are way easier than using backtrack.
burn a live disk of Gparted
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