"Breaking into" a Vista disc

[marcplante]

I inherited a computer that has a drive with Win Vista Running on it. i do not have the user information or passwords to log onto the disc, and I was wondering if there was a way to get into the disc and use the existing operating system.

My alternative would be to wipe the disc and install an existing copy of XP Pro I have lying around (From an upgrade to Win7).

It's a 110G SATA notebook drive that I would swap into my work computer on the road to turn it into a "personal" computer as needed.

Is there an easy way to access the Vista OS and use it? or should I just wipe it and start over?

 

[ImDonly1]

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

Everyone seems to be recommending it when I searched google.

 

[sonoma1993]

check out hiren bootcd. It has various utilities: password reset tool, hard drive imaging programs, anti virus utilities, etc

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

 

[JackMDS]

You have to take into consideration that if you plan the use the HD in a computer that Vista was Not originally installed on, that it might Not work even if you had all the credentials.

Migrating as is from one computer hardware to another is always a big problem.

It also a possibility the it was in a OEM version and might Not re-activate even if you mange to reinstall it.

If I had to it I would put the drive as a secondary drive on another system back it up with Acronis Echo, and then Ghost it back with Echo set to Universal Restore.

By doing this there is a chance that at least, hardware wise, the OS would adapt to the new computer.

.

 

[marcplante]

Thanks, Jack. The machine I will plug it into is a fairly new notebook, but running XP, and I have a copy of XP Pro that I can install (Full not OEM). Guess I'll just format and start over. No data worth saving, i was just being lazy about building a new HD up.