Breaking into XP

[loic2003]

So some guy's son at work managed to type a new password in for their home laptop incorrectly twice like a true champion. Now he can't get into his account as he doens't know what he typed in. Of course, there's the all important piece of coursework on the laptop that needs to be retrieved.

I'm looking for a way to boot the laptop such that I can access the HD, copy the file to memory stick/floppy/cd and then reformat the computer.

Any suggestions? I seem to recall a 'Windows PE' version that was a bootable version of windows. Or what about Knoppix? Will I be able to access the HD through it?

Thanks all.

 

[rmrf]

knoppix live cd will do fine for accessing the hard disk. I just saved all the data from my parents ntfs disk with knoppix, and copied it over samba to my fileserver.

 

[Dahak]

why not boot up into safe mode and remove the password for the user account through the administrator account, unless thats the account that he has the password on

 

[Evander]

If you have a spare hard drive, you can install xp on that and set it up as the primary drive and the original as the slave. Copy your files from there. This works for sure as I had to do it recently.

The next method I haven't tried personally:

"Changing ANY user password without having to know the existing password"
To view all of the user accounts:
1) While logged onto the computer, click on Start>Run>and type in CMD.
2) From the command prompt window, type in net users. This will show you every account that is made onto the computer whether it is hidden or not.
To change an account password:
1) While logged onto the computer to an account that has administrative rights, click on Start>Run>and type in CMD.
2) Type in net user then the name of the account then * and press enter. heres an example: net user administrator * or net user "Joe Smith" * . Put the name in quotes if it contains spaces.
3) From there it should ask for a new password. Type in your new password (type very carefully - the command window won't display what you type) and once more to confirm it. If you get the message that the command succeeded successfully you're all set!!

"set the password for the Administrator account without logging in via the Safe Mode."
Just go to "Start", "Run", click "OK", and then type in "control userpasswords2."

 

[dman]

Typically XP Home logs in wiht a user assigned as admin rights. If you reboot into safemode, you can login as Administrator which would typically use a different password.
May be an easy option if they can remember that one (it may even be blank)

 

[imported_Dynamite]

The solution to your problem...

Link

 

[loic2003]

Originally posted by: dman
Typically XP Home logs in wiht a user assigned as admin rights. If you reboot into safemode, you can login as Administrator which would typically use a different password.
May be an easy option if they can remember that one (it may even be blank)

I can't believe it... this is actually true. Cheers for the help, but I am shocked as to how easy it was to get into this machine. Surely there's something very wrong with being able to do this?


Thanks for all your help, people!

 

[rasczak]

what is wrong is the fact that whoever installed the os didn't create an admin password, or the users dont change the admin password when they first receive thier new pc's/laptops. there should be a warning label about that.

 

[sigs3gv]

Originally posted by: dman
Typically XP Home logs in wiht a user assigned as admin rights. If you reboot into safemode, you can login as Administrator which would typically use a different password.
May be an easy option if they can remember that one (it may even be blank)

You don't even need to reboot in safe mode. On a normal boot, when the Welcome screen comes up, press CTRL-ALT-DEL twice and login in as Administrator.