Cannot log on

Hello most gracious people! Can someone please help me? I am using Windows XP Home on a HP laptop. I turn it on and it boots up fine, but when the Welcome Screen comes on it doesn't show any user names. I tried using Alt+Ctrl+Del, and the screen popped up to log on, but when I entered any of the user accounts and passwords, it wouldn't accept them, including Administrator. I tried restarting in Safe Mode using F8, but the same thing happened. I then tried the Last Good Configuration option, but still had the same problem. The owner of the laptop does not have a backup disk, despite there being irreplaceable data on her PC. What else can I try short of wiping it and starting over? Thank you for your time.

Have you tried logging in as admin but leaving the passsword blank. How did the owner loose her password ? it does sound strange !

Ah! Thank you for your prompt reply! I did try logging in as Administrator and leaving the password blank, but it didn't work. The owner's user account is also classified as an Administrator account, and it is password protected. She didn't lose her password, but it won't accept her password to log on, or the last two passwords she had set. I also tried logging on under her Guest account, which is not password protected. I left the password blank for that as well and it also did not work. The problem seems to be that the user accounts have either been deleted or someone has changed all the passwords, but I have absolutely no idea how that could have happened unless someone has managed to get remote access. Is there any way to get to the User or Settings folder without going through the Welcome screen?

The only thing I can suggest, although it may take a while to achieve, is that any important data is backed up to floppy/s through a windows recovery console and the machine is wiped clean, then, windows can be reset and reloaded onto the computer. There is a known backdoor into certain PC's, but unfortunatly, I am not willing to disclose such sensitive information here in the forums for obvious reasons. (or anywhere else for that matter) You may be able to take it to a computer shop who may be willing to do this for you once you have proved ownership of the computer in question.

Hi there. I would suggest that you re-boot the laptop and press F8 as it is booting up. This will take you to Safe Mode. From Here you can go to control panel and create an account. Now re-boot the PC again and hopefully you should see a log-in screen. Let me know if it works

Oh yeah… of course you have no way of knowing if I am just trying to break into someone else's computer or not. Sorry, wasn't thinking about that. We were just trying to avoid taking it into a shop, since that usually costs an arm, leg, and firstborn child, and with Christmas coming up… I'm not familiar with the other process you described (recovery console?), but I'd be willing to give it a shot if you think it'll work. Could you give me more details? Thank you very much.

Hmmm just thinking on, you will also need an admin password to access the recover console so that option is a no go for you unfortunatly. The only otherway that I know of is to boot from a cd such as hirens boot disk which is an all in one Dos Bootable CD. This will have tools that will allow access the main ntfs partition - Once you have access to the data then you can start and back it up to floppy disk

Hi trance,
Sorry to hear of the problem with "getting in" to the laptop and I can understand how annoying and down right inconvenient this can be.
By following the advice given by the others members in this thread you stand a reasonable chance of gaining access to the computer.
However if you are still having problems then the following notes may help (I had to deal with someone else on this forum, who had a similar problem earlier in the year and the following is how I responded to their request.)

"Check the following before going further:
1 Has anyone had the opportunity to use your computer other than yourself? If so you need to quiz them as to if they have entered any passwords or typed in any passwords at any time or attempted to make any changes.

2 Have you tried to recall and use every password that you have entered previously remembering that upper case and lower case characters need to be exactly correct?

3 The next steps involve a fair bit of work, but I will set out the alternatives as I see them in no particular order of importance.

4 Check that your copies/back ups of all important data files/settings drivers etc are readly to hand, (don't forget everything in the "My Documents" folder, all photos and other important stuff) if they are not you will need to do this and the easist way is to remove your hard drive, change the jumper to "slave" and install it in another working computer and copy files accross. An alternative is to fit your hard drive in an external USB case or even just use a suitable cable (USB/IDE)

5 Reformat your hard drive (This will usually wipe everything) and you will lose all your programmes, data, settings, files etc. and reinstall your operating system, programmes etc. However some HP computers have a non destructive reinstall facility and if this is available to you then try it first! (Check with HP against the model number)

6 Use a parallel operating system E.G. boot into Linux and change/retrieve the password from there. This will need a bit of expertise on your behalf including an awareness of the limitations imposed if EFS (Encrypted File System is used on your system. (It's actually what we do for our customers who are in a similar predicament to you. We do however make exhaustive enquiries, identity checks and validate the information by two independent means before we are willing to proceed.)

7 The following site on which I can give no guarantees offers a free password recovery service and takes approximately 48 hours to complete.

http://www.loginrecovery.com/

8 If you have a competent computer technician local to you it might be sensible to get them to take a look.
Hope all this helps"

trance, as in your particular situation a laptop computer is involved, it can be tricky to fit your laptop hard drive into another computer as a slave so the above link to the loginrecovery website or the external case(about £15 UK or $25 USA or UCB/IDE cable (about £5 UK or $9 USA) is the route to go.

I hope this helps, and if you have a moment, please let us know how you get on.
Regards
paws

Jeez…oh, well. I knew there probably wouldn't be an easy solution. I'll tell the owner her options as you've all laid them out and see what she wants to do (which will probably include a sledgehammer and/or copious amounts of lighter fluid). I'll also keep checking back in case someone thinks of another option. Thanks for all the help and I'll let you know how it goes!

Just wanted to thank you all again for your help- my friend's parents heard about her problem and said they would pay to have it fixed as her birthday present. Gack! What a waste of our time. I guess some people just have all the luck.

Hi there, you have killed your SAM entries in your registry. there is NO way to rectify this using windows. You need to use a standalone bootable GUI repair program. A good on is "Winternals ERD Commander 2005" Run the programe and you can run its own system restore app. it will roll back your changes and reinstate the SAM data for all your missing accounts. two minute job :-) programme cost abit tho' so best of luck.

Some days ago, i just got a windows password recovery tool Link Removed: LDT
which can bypass windows password easily,and it can be burnt onto a cd as recovery disk.If you need,then get it.

killytu, you just replied to a 4 year old, very dead, thread.

I think this is nothing but problem with some of the files. Better go out to some hardware specialist and get some backup. After that format it and everything will be fine.