Forgotten XP Pro password, tried everything, please help!

keylimepie

Ok, i've started again and worked in line with the instructions on the site and I think there may be some sort of problem. One of the first steps it tells you is:

¤ Step ONE: Select disk where the Windows installation is
=========================================================

Disks:
Disk /dev/sda: 42.9 GB, 42949672960 bytes

Candidate Windows partitions found:
1 : /dev/sda1 40958MB BOOT

Here it has found one disk with one partition
Please select partition by number or q = quit d = automatically start disk drivers m = manually select disk drivers to load f = fetch additional drivers from floppy / usb a = show all partitions found l = show propbable Windows (NTFS) partitions only Select: [1]
Here you select one of the partitions listed above (in this case there is only one) or one of the letters from the menu.
Floppy users may need to do 'f' to load in more drivers from another floppy.
The 'd' option will re-run the PCI scan and start relevant drivers (they must already be loaded from floppy with 'f' option)
The 'm' for manual load will present a list of all the drivers with short description if available, and allow you to specify which to load. (Dependecies are handled automatically)
Here we only have one partition, so we just press enter to select it.
Selected 1 Mounting from /dev/sda1, with filesystem type NTFS NTFS volume version 3.1.It was an NTFS filesystem, and it mounted successfully.

Only when I select option 1 at this point it says the following:

FAT: Bogus number of reserved sectors
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT file system on dev sda1
mount: Mounting/dev/sda1 on / disk failed: Invalid argument
ERROR: Mount failed! Try select again or another?

I don't think it likes me!

fwor

keylimepie wrote: »

Only when I select option 1 at this point it says the following:

I may be misunderstanding what you've said, but prior to this quote above you have already pressed enter to select the only partition shown, and it mounted successfully. What then prompted you to select option 1?

keylimepie

Right. in the end I abandoned the Linux boot disc thing as it was driving me up the wall. I used my recovery disc instead and the laptop is now taking me through windows set-up. Unfortunately, I now have another problem; the reason my daughter has the laptop in the first place is because it was given to her with a broken screen - no problem, we've hooked it up to an external monitor. the only trouble is, that the link to the monitor gets dropped when the windows set-up pages appear. This means that I can only see part of the screen and so am unable to answer the questions and set the damn thing up!

anyone any suggestions?!

(never rains does it eh?!)

HoofeHearted

Go to the pub before it closes and re-visit the PC tomorrow.

Mine's a pint:beer:

fwor

There should be a function key that will switch between laptop screen/external screen/both. On mine it's F4, but may be different on yours. Does that work? Perhaps not in Setup though....

keylimepie

fwor wrote: »

There should be a function key that will switch between laptop screen/external screen/both. On mine it's F4, but may be different on yours. Does that work? Perhaps not in Setup though....

Yeah, it's Function and F5 and works - right up until the Windows set up page flicks on, then I get the picture on the laptop screen and the cursor arrow on the external monitor! it must be something to do with it being the initial windows set-up i guess.

I reckon I've got two options now - either try and replace the laptop screen, or find a website, or somehow obtain screenshots of the set up pages, so that I can navigate the arrow/cursar to the correct place and click...

Don't suppose anyone knows where I can find said screenshots?!

fwor

No - had a quick look but couldn't find the screen-by-screen level of detail that you would need.

Probably best to bump the thread again tomorrow when you're more likely to get some more sober suggestions!

culpepper

Is it XP ?? this site has screen shots if so..

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp

HoofeHearted

Morning:hello:

As an alternative, you could try using this Emergency Boot CD
http://ebcd.pcministry.com/
One of its capabilities is to change the password.

keylimepie

HoofeHearted wrote: »

Morning:hello:

As an alternative, you could try using this Emergency Boot CD
http://ebcd.pcministry.com/
One of its capabilities is to change the password.

afternoon! The above link looks promising, but can I still use that now that I've already used the recovery disk that came with the laptop?