Forgot Logon ID at startup of XP......

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rebell

recently purchased a new HP computer with Vista (about 3 months back),
upgraded and/or transferred my programs from my old computer with XP to new
at that time. My old computer has set in my office ever since unused.

However, now I am in need of checking some very important, old, archived
emails I KNOW are still in my old computer but I neither have nor remember my
old logon ID. I am LOCKED OUT! Spent two hours last night re-entering every
possible logon ID combination I have ever used to no avail.

Is there anyway I may access my old files on my mothballed computer?!

Thanks in advance!

ReBell
 
"rebell" wrote in message
news:6D87EA4C-9F9A-4A60-9F2F-FC3144B9E460@microsoft.com...
> recently purchased a new HP computer with Vista (about 3 months
> back),
> upgraded and/or transferred my programs from my old computer with XP
> to new
> at that time. My old computer has set in my office ever since
> unused.
>
> However, now I am in need of checking some very important, old,
> archived
> emails I KNOW are still in my old computer but I neither have nor
> remember my
> old logon ID. I am LOCKED OUT! Spent two hours last night
> re-entering every
> possible logon ID combination I have ever used to no avail.
>
> Is there anyway I may access my old files on my mothballed
> computer?!


Attach the old drive to your new computer. Boot your new computer and
logon under an admin-level account. Then take ownership of the files
on your old drive.
 
"rebell" <rebell@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6D87EA4C-9F9A-4A60-9F2F-FC3144B9E460@microsoft.com...
> recently purchased a new HP computer with Vista (about 3 months back),
> upgraded and/or transferred my programs from my old computer with XP to
> new
> at that time. My old computer has set in my office ever since unused.
>
> However, now I am in need of checking some very important, old, archived
> emails I KNOW are still in my old computer but I neither have nor remember
> my
> old logon ID. I am LOCKED OUT! Spent two hours last night re-entering
> every
> possible logon ID combination I have ever used to no avail.
>
> Is there anyway I may access my old files on my mothballed computer?!
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> ReBell

There are a number of ways.

If your old system was XP Home, try the Administrator account, available in
Safe Mode - this usually has no password. Reset or remove your old user
password via Control Panel / Users, and you can then log in to that account.

If it's XP Pro, you can try the same thing, but the Administrator account is
not restricted to Safe Mode.

You can also find password reset CDs that will just clear the passwords.

However, if it's XP Pro, you *must* consider whether you protected your data
with encryption. If you did this, you *must not* reset the password from
outside the account. Doing so, in most cases, renders the encrypted data
permanently inaccessible.

You can also simply attach the old drive to the new system with a USB2 drive
case, and locate and copy the files. At most, you'll need to Take
Ownership of the files to gain access.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

Since these are emails, you can copy the files to your local drive and open
or import them depending on the requirements of the email client.

HTH
-pk
 
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