Access denied issues with two computers

[timboW]

We recently purchased a couple of Dell Optiplex GX520's from my wife's former company that went into liquidation. They're obviously not high tech by today's standards, but we thought that we could set them up for our two young kids to play their games on and perhaps do a bit of homework, with their net surfing confined to our main computer. Only problem is we can't write something or create a file without it becoming write protected – you can't shift it to a USB storage device or burn it to disk without popups jumping up and telling us it's forbidden to all but the administrator. The other computer isn't accessible at all because it has password issues - we don't know what the password is to log in. Obviously these computers were set up in-house to ensure that intellectual property wasn't freely copied and distributed around, but it's left us with a real headache to deal with. Would have been nice if someone had deactivated the admin. security features!

Two questions therefore. Is it possible to unlock the administrative over-rides so we can have free and easy use of the computers? Or is the only way to make them ‘ours' to simply reformat and reinstall XP?

Any thoughts?

 

[KSoD]

Sadly there is no way to "unlock" the PC's without the Admin password. You can try some of the tools listed here to see if you can obtain the password. But the truth is in the time that it would take to get the password, then unlock the PC you could easily just format and reinstall XP. As these tools can take several hours to accomplish their task. While XP can be reinstalled within an hour.

My suggestion, format the PC's and put reinstall. This will give you full control over everything and it will be less of a head ache in the long run.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

I'd suggest downloading "Hiren's Boot CD"
It's got several password reset utilities included on the disc, most of which work extremely well and will let you reset/remove/change the Admin password in under 5 minutes (once you've got the cd downloaded/burned of course)

 

[timboW]

Hi again,
Thanks for that from both of you.

I guess I really just want to avoid all the hassle of reinstalling XP, the service packs, additional basic programs, etc - twice! While it may only take an hour or so to actually get a fresh install of XP on board, adding in all of the other stuff and setting it all up nice and tidy takes hours. Thankfully, because these are for the kids, it's not like we have the usual pile of data that has to be transferred over when you set up a new computer for yourself.

I just got myself another computer, put Windows 7 Ultra 64 on it, and spent the best part of a week setting it all up and sorting out all the glitches associated with having to upgrade bits and pieces that weren't compatible. ****** if I didn't have to go out and order a new TV-tuner card for it, and I still can't get my trusty Canon ip4000 to work with it! You may understand why I don't want to have to spend hours tinkering around with the two small PC's we got for the kids to play around on.

 

[KSoD]

You dont have to take all of that extra time. You only have to setup 1 machine and then make a Image, from there copy it over to the other machine. That cuts down the time by half and as you said, you dont have much to install on there.

The reason i dont suggest just hacking the password is simple. There is no guarantee that this will resolve your issue. You have no idea what the company did to lock down or what they locked down. So yeah getting the password may let you install a game, but what else wont it let you do? In the long run you will be far better of just simply formatting and then making an image.

 

[iPROTechman]

I agree with Mak, it'll probably save you less headaches in the long run as you will Know exactly what's been put on there and have full control over it yourself.

 

[timboW]

Back again!
Okay, here's the current nightmare I find myself in.

I bit the bullet, said to **** with it, and decided to scrub the drives completely by reformatting and reinstalling XP. Not bad in theory, lousy in practice! As soon as I tried with the first unit up popped a box telling me that I couldn't do it because I needed admin permission and an appropriate password.

I then thought I could outsmart it by taking each drive out, hooking them up one at a time to my main computer via SATA cable, and reformatting them that way. Worked like a charm, and feeling very smug, I then tried putting them back into their respective computers. Here's how it then went.

I entered setup for unit 1 in order to set my external CD/DVD unit (remember, these units don't have onboard CD/DVD drives) as the priority for booting. Up popped a box telling I couldn't do it because I needed an admin. password. What the ****, I thought? How is a HD I just wiped still password protected? I wondered if it might be something locked into the motherboard, and tried taking out the battery to reset – still made no difference!

I then tried having a go with unit 2, and for some reason found that I didn't encounter any of the security issues I'd had with unit 1. Maybe all it has was just a standard password block, without all of the admin stuff attached, and reformatting made it accessible. Whatever, when I went into setup it allowed me to set the external CD/DVD as the priority for booting, but when I tried doing so I got a message telling me it wasn't available. I then shoved XP onto a USB stick, reprioritized setup for a USB boot, and tried that. Same message again – not available. I then took the HD out, reattached it to my main computer, loaded XP on there, directed setup to prioritize the HD, and tried again. No prizes for guessing the message I received. In between the rejections notes, I also kept getting a message stating that bootmgr was missing.

I finally decided to try one last tack to see if I could at least get one of the machines running by installing the HD from my old computer into unit 1. As expected it threw up a few boxes because of the new environment it had been inserted into, but I resolved those as the drive became acquainted with the new set up and had it running smoothly in no time except for one thing – I cannot get it to access the net for love or money! Like everyone I've had issues in the past with computers occasionally having fits over net access, but one way or the other I've always been able to resolve them. Not this time! I thought that it might have been having issues with the Belkin router it was connected directly to and reinstalled the Belkin drivers, but that had no effect. I took it off the Belkin and attached it directly to the cable box. Zilch. I reinstalled XP, but that had no effect. The connection wizard gives me no joy (there's no user account and I can't set one up), and all I can track down is that the device manager is having a fit in the ‘other devices' section (everything in there) and claims drivers are missing (code 28 errors all round). Obviously I can't get on line to automatically resolve that particular issue. My best guess is that shoving the HD into a new environment has caused some kind of conflict?

So my questions are –
1) What on earth is causing me to STILL be having security issues with a HD I thought had been wiped clean?
2) How do I get XP to load into unit 2? Is it possible to connect the HD back onto my main computer and do a proper install of XP on it, even though my main computer is running Windows 7 Ultra 64? Or is there something I'm missing that will make it possible for me to install XP via the external CD/DVD drive? I've done it plenty of times before, so I can't figure why I'm having issues this time around.
3) Given that I may not be able to resolve the security issue with the HD from unit 1, how do I resolve the connection issues with the drive from my old computer? If I can get this HD to work I may just take the other troublesome HD outside and give it a little talking to with a sledgehammer regarding what I think about how secure it REALLY is!

Sorry for the long post – so many issues to deal with! Are my kids worth all this grief?