Advice on laptop repair, or buy new laptop or tablet?

novamation

Need some advice on what to do


I've lost the admin password on my 5 year old laptop and haven't done any updates in a few months. I need to do my tax return online by end of Jan, and this laptop may not be secure? I was about to buy a cheap tablet anyway (£150), but am uncertain if I can get my tax return done on it.


Do I buy a tablet and keyboard case and try to do tax return on that,
or
buy another cheap laptop, where I can be certain it will work, (may be a waste of money if I can get current laptop working)
Or
is it time to replace this laptop anyway, so skip the tablet, get a better laptop?


This laptop is 5 years old, a Toshiba satellite, 4gb ram, 300gb HDD, windows 7, Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU M 370 @ 2.40GHz,
so does it need replacing soon anyway? I've actually had no trouble with this laptop over the years, no need for reinstalls, and the disks have been tidied away somewhere, I think. Can't find any CD's to reinstall win 7, don't know anyone with a win7 start-up repair disc (I read you can change the admin password with the repair disk). I deliberately didn't upgrade to Win10, thinking this laptop would probably last out a few more years under Win7 till they stop supporting it. Could I get opinions on how much life is left in this laptop anyway?

And if anyone's got any ideas on recovering/changing password......

Other ideas I had, reinstall with linux (which I'm not used to) or buy Win 10!

bsod

It has life until it breaks or the operating system is so old that third party software stops working, which could be another 10 years or more.

Scratch your head until you remember or open the drawer with the disc in (it it came with one), or do a search for forgotten password, win7 disc, toshiba reinstall/recovery - they've all happened before.

Replacement because of age, linux, windows10, tablets, or worries about security or updates wouldn't even cross my mind in your current minor predicament

windows7 is the most robust trouble free o/s they produced, why change.

googler

Do you need data from this machine in order to do the tax return?

bluesnake

There are you tube videos on this and other sites on how to change forgotten passwords, but this is a good place to start.

http://www.hackcave.net/2015/10/hack-windows-10-login-password-in-2.html

novamation

googler wrote: »

Do you need data from this machine in order to do the tax return?

yes, so I'm doing backups

GunJack

if you can access another machine, download hiren's bootcd (an .ISO file) and install imgburn on it. Use imgburn to burn the hiren's ISO to CD or DVD (can't remember how big it is ITTIMH) and boot the tosh from the hiren's disk. On the main menu is NT Offline Password Reset - use this to remove the forgotten password..... easy-peasy lemon squeezy

bsod

http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?/topic/24468-imgburn-is-has-malware-in-the-installer/?hl=%2Bopencandy#entry159314


http://www.mytoshiba.com.au/support/items/faq/71

NiftyDigits

No need to download Hiren's image when the utility itself will do; http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

As to the laptop itself, plenty of life in that spec. Spending £40 to £60 on an SSD and installing the operating system cleanly to that.... which will also improve the performance considerably. Alternatively, you can just use Factory restore option, as linked to above.

Though the admin password will take a minute to reset once you've created the boot disk. You likely need do nothing else.

GunJack

NiftyDigits wrote: »

No need to download Hiren's image when the utility itself will do; http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

yes, agreed, however I just like having a Hiren's handy for all the other tools that are on it, don't often need much else once you've got one