Maximum PC

As you can tell by the title of my posting, an explanation of what happened to my buddy is not necessary.

Suffice it to say, she is now an ex-girlfriend and he is locked out of his computer. Even Dr. Phil couldn't mediate this break-up.... which is now heading towards Jerry Springer status. I got recruited to rescue the poor guy.

If it had been an XP install, I would have had the password issue solved by now - but Vista has me stumped. I already tried Ophicrack and at least two other bits of freeware to no avail. Any suggestions for a workaround short of reinstalling Windows?

If it's just the files you want and there's no TrueCrypt or something, plop the hard drive into another computer. And hell, if it's Linux with NTFS support, it doesn't give a damn about permissions (or so people tell me).

Yup - that would be the easiest solution. There is no problem backing up the files using Linux or Solaris. I was just stupid to say that I could reset the password thinking that he was still running XP. We had made the barter arrangement for him to change the sparkplugs in my Sienna (NOT a fun job) and now I am on the hook for this. Next time I will keep my mouth shut!

And even if you're running Windows, it doesn't really care about another install's ACLs as much. Just change the permissions of the folder with all the files so that you have full access.

And I believe the recovery mode console also doesn't really care. But this is just me going on the belief that I deleted an XP Mode user folder in recovery mode because Windows itself wouldn't let me change the permissions (somehow System wasn't included in full control...)

Read this, it is about ophcrack, I know you tried but read this anyway.

http://www.wintuts.com/Retrieve-your-Wi ... h-Ophcrack

Download this copy:

http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/downloa ... e=ophcrack

Try following the instructions to the letter and let us know how you made out.

Nasty

Thanks! I most certainly give this a shot tomorrow!

OK - as I sit here I am getting the message "No tables found."

Am I correct in assuming that this is not good?

If you have two cd-roms or more unplug all but one and try the cd again.

Nasty

Thanks - will do.

Well I checked for to see if there were extra DVD drives in the computer.... unfortunately there is only the one that I used to run Ophicrack. I was really hoping that would be a quick and easy solution. Then Murphy and his damn law had to show up. Any suggestions or alternatives?

I take it plugging the HDD into another computer or an external enclosure is out of the question? The worst that would happen on a Windows machine is that Windows thinks you don't have access rights to the user folders (which is changed by going to the properties and changing who owns it).

Sounds like a possibility! Thank you!

It won't boot because you will have the wrong chipset drivers. If it does, it will mess up the drivers you now have installed.

Nasty

What I'm saying is, if there's important data in there, you can just plug it in another computer as a secondary data drive, grab what you want, and reinstall Windows on that drive. And if there's any Windows file permissions making that part hard, you can change them as an Admin. OP already can't log in anyway, so there's no point in plugging it in as a boot drive.

Yes, you can do that as a secondary hard drive...didn't quite sink in what you wanted to do...

Nasty

You can get the Ultimate Boot Cd here
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Under Data Recovery, you can use Offline NT Password and Registry Editor
read this tutorial
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

Problem resolved! It turns out that were two issues conspiring against me. First, the DVD-Rom was at the point of failing and any password recovery methods would not work. Once that was replaced, the whole process went along further, but still would not work no matter what application I threw at it. At the end I tried the password recovery DVDs on another PC I had laying about and all of them worked. It was only after I was given the password (long story) that I discovered that the whole Windows installation was fouled up beyond all repair. Thankfully the recovery disks did manage to restore teh beast, but not before it was a huge pain in the ass.

....so next time before your buddie pisses off the girlfriend, hide the machine.

Nasty

3 Words. Hirens Boot CD

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/files/Hiren ... D.15.1.zip

In one of the options you will see a utility for

Offline NT Password

Here is how to use it

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofth ... -guide.htm

Thanks for your efforts and suggestion, but unable to open your suggested link..is it working fine...
pls suggest me... its important reference ...help me out.