Password issue

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wicked23

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Now I read the the above sticky and I still couldn't find an answer.

I have a hp Pc, I don't know the specs offhand, that came preloaded with xp home edition from circuit city. It's only about 2 yrs old. Well it doesn't want to boot from any mode all of a sudden. I want to try fixing it in the recovery console with my windows disk, but when i go to log on the c drive I do not know the admin password since I did not set up windows.

How can I reset xp admin password when i can't boot up in any mode?
 
Formating the harddrive is a last resort option here. I was naive enough when i bought this not to ask what kind of connection the hard drive is. It is a sata drive. I have valuable info i can not lose on that drive( My wife spent countless hours scanning our wedding pictures on there and being a prognasticator i have yet to burn to disc).
 
Use a Live CD. Like Knippox or Hirens. From there copy your info to a CD or something else. That way you wont lose the info and you can format the drive.

Either that or buy a new Hard Drive install that and isntall XP. Then you can use this current drive as a 2nd drive and still be able to get the info off it.
 
Credit an5r for this. And it works.


XP password Recovery
1. Place your Windows XP CD in your cd-rom and start your computer (it's assumed here that your XP CD is bootable – as it should be - and that you have your bios set to boot from CD)

2. Keep your eye on the screen messages for booting to your cd Typically, it will be “Press any key to boot from cd”

3. Once you get in, the first screen will indicate that Setup is inspecting your system and loading files.

4. When you get to the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to Setup Windows now

5. The Licensing Agreement comes next - Press F8 to accept it.

6. The next screen is the Setup screen which gives you the option to do a Repair.

It should read something like “If one of the following Windows XP installations is damaged, Setup can try to repair it”

Use the up and down arrow keys to select your XP installation (if you only have one, it should already be selected) and press R to begin the Repair process.

7. Let the Repair run. Setup will now check your disks and then start copying files which can take several minutes.

8. Shortly after the Copying Files stage, you will be required to reboot. (this will happen automatically – you will see a progress bar stating “Your computer will reboot in 15 seconds”

9. During the reboot, do not make the mistake of “pressing any key” to boot from the CD again! Setup will resume automatically with the standard billboard screens and you will notice Installing Windows is highlighted.

10. Keep your eye on the lower left hand side of the screen and when you see the Installing Devices progress bar, press SHIFT + F10. This is the security hole! A command console will now open up giving you the potential for wide access to your system.

11. At the prompt, type NUSRMGR.CPL and press Enter. Voila! You have just gained graphical access to your User Accounts in the Control Panel.

12. Now simply pick the account you need to change and remove or change your password as you prefer. If you want to log on without having to enter your new password, you can type control userpasswords2 at the prompt and choose to log on without being asked for password. After you've made your changes close the windows, exit the command box and continue on with the Repair (have your Product key handy).

13. Once the Repair is done, you will be able to log on with your new password (or without a password if you chose not to use one or if you chose not to be asked for a password). Your programs and personalized settings should remain intact.
 
from another posts. you can do it this way or do the hp system recovery

if you have an I386 folder, all you need is a bartpe cd to reinstall windows. I would back the I386 folder up to an usb hdd, but you don't have to.

you then boot off of the bartpe cd, then you head to the system 32 winnt.exe (correct me if I wrong about the file name warez) or setup.exe file. now if the window installer starts, exit it, as you will come back to it later. head to your C drive. delete your program file folder and your windows folder (delete your documents and settings folder if you don't want them, if you want them, rename the folder to old ). now restart the install. follow the direction until you are done.

when windows is done, copy the old folder to your new documents folder.

come to think about it, you can run a repair this way too, you just have run through the installation procedure first
 
Update.

Well, I tried to do what superdave suggested, But after not seeing the option to do a repair I pulled out the disc and noticed circuit city gave me an XP pro disc when they installed Home edition.

So it wanted to do a clean install. Luckily the hdd decide to give me one good boot and I was able to pull my data off. Now i get the click off death. Which I already expected a bad HDD.

Now as a bonus when I get my new HDD I got XP pro instead of Home edition.
 
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