I just acquired a new laptop, but cannot get into it, as the person I got it from did not give me the password. It is a Dell Inspiron. I can't even get to the command prompt without having to log in, so I can't format the thing. I really just want to bypass the windows logon/password prompt, and get into the administrator account, or at least load into DOS but I have no fu**ing idea how to do it. Please help me get into this thing.

ps... i already hit f8 at startup and tried logging into safe mode, and safe mode command prompt, and this did not work, it still asked me for the password.

Quote: Originally Posted by ratt I can't even get to the command prompt without having to log in, so I can't format the thing.

You could just boot to the XP cd and format using XP Setup's intergrated formatter.

Why not ask for the password from the person you bought it from?
Surely you kept some form of contact with the person you "acquired" it from didnt you?, in case the laptop turned out to be crap.

ok, i'll just come out and say it since i dont have any rep points anyway. You stole the laptop. Anyone could just reformat if they didnt care whats on the drive. Sorry

I don't feel the need to explain how I acquired the laptop, so assume what you will. I am, however, interested in what is on the HD, so if there are any OS techies who can help me access the files on the computer, please help out. Thanks everyone for the help so far...

So you stole it? Nevertheless...
Pull the drive out, use a notebook-to-desktop PATA converter to connect it to any normal desktop IDE channel. There you are, access to the files on the hard drive.

wow maybe i should just write a story about how the laptop was acquired. anyhow, thanks tekXoID I will try that out. if you know of any other ways, please share ;l

Three things ...
Is it 2000 or XP?
Is it trying to log into a Domain?
What other boot devices are available on the machine?

repair install, either OS. you foo...........stealing laptops

It's also possible to remove the drive, slip it into a portable USB/Firewire HD enclosure and plug it into another machine.
*I had to do this on a friend's machine to back it up before reformatting a borked OS.

Did you check if the guest account is active?

(Username: Guest ,Pass: (none) )

I will assume you have a CD-Rom drive installed in the laptop computer if not I assume you have a cd-rom drive at least attached in some way.
Get a copy of Knoppix (It's a Linux bootable CD) This will allow you to boot the computer without formating anything on the harddrive. After doing this you will want to find the LMHOST's file and the sam file on the computers hard drive. Generally found in the C:\%systemroot%, you cannot access of copy these while windows is booted but you can if you boot from a cd. You will then need to get a decrypter to decrypt the SAM file.
This will give you the administrator password along with any other password for any existing user accounts on the computer. I will go into more detail when i get home from school this afternoon. Hope this helps.

you just dredged up one hell of an old thread, buddy.

welcome to PR.

well i on the other hand think that is a great post. i didnt know that at all. and now that i do, i am going to have to try it!

Welcome to PR

Good post indeed. Welcome to PR punksk8r...Makes me think of my oldest son, he has a screename sk8rpunk...lol

Quote: Originally Posted by Chrome_Rust repair install, either OS. you foo...........stealing laptops

nah ive even tried that - comes straight back to password login like a good lil OS

A dell inspiron huh? let me get straight your not in the UK are you specificly in Somerset (or you go to school there)? I have a confession whereby I "aquired" a dell inspiron 4100, through too much use of it, the owner simply forgeting about it - well i wasnt gonna fone him up and see if he wanted it back!! .

Fortunatly for me the original acount was passworded, but the seconday account was not, but was in admistrator mode - the rest was egg custard in terms of ease to remove passwords and files etc - it now functions as a laptop would do - mobile freedom.

..or u can just remove the password, tons of em availible on the net..

Punksk8r, hope to see you around more. Welcome to PR.
On the other hand, thieves suck, almost as much as tweekers.

Thanks all and I figured it was an old thread but figured it wouldnt hurt to answer anyway for anyone that currently had that problem or something similar and needed to know. besides, sharing knowlegde is just all around a fun thing in my opinion. :-D