Admin/Password issues...

[Ellegon]

OK...here's the deal. I have an old Pentium III/Windows XP Home Edition comp
that I have replaced with a newer Dual core/Vista comp. My girlfriend asked
me to set up the old comp for her to play games on. The problem is that when
I boot-up and it gets to the welcome screen, I can't remember the username
and password that I used to use. Its been over a year since I used this old
comp. I tried rebooting in safe-mode and entering "administration" in to the
username box, but before and/or sometimes after I click on "ok", the comp
reboots automatically and it won't stay in safe mode. What gives? I have
tried every solution that I can find listed within this forum, but can't find
an answer to fix this issue. Do I need to re-format the hard drive? If so,
can I do that without opening Windows? Can I do it with the XP installation
disc? Do I need to use this comp as a boat anchor? Its a good comp and I
can't see junking it just because I can't get "into" it. It seems that with
so may people offering advice on issues, there has to be someone that can
help me resolve this problem. If anyone needs more info, please reply and I
will provide all the info that I can. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

Ellegon wrote:
> OK...here's the deal. I have an old Pentium III/Windows XP Home
> Edition comp that I have replaced with a newer Dual core/Vista comp.
> My girlfriend asked me to set up the old comp for her to play games
> on. The problem is that when I boot-up and it gets to the welcome
> screen, I can't remember the username and password that I used to
> use. Its been over a year since I used this old comp. I tried
> rebooting in safe-mode and entering "administration" in to the
> username box, but before and/or sometimes after I click on "ok", the
> comp reboots automatically and it won't stay in safe mode. What
> gives? I have tried every solution that I can find listed within
> this forum, but can't find an answer to fix this issue. Do I need to
> re-format the hard drive? If so, can I do that without opening
> Windows? Can I do it with the XP installation disc? Do I need to
> use this comp as a boat anchor? Its a good comp and I can't see
> junking it just because I can't get "into" it. It seems that with so
> may people offering advice on issues, there has to be someone that
> can help me resolve this problem. If anyone needs more info, please
> reply and I will provide all the info that I can. Thanks in advance
> for any help.

Go to http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ . There you will find
zip files that will let you create boot floppy disks or bootable CDs
that will enable you to reset any system password on an NT class
operating system.

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

How to install or upgrade to Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316941

Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html