Locked out!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ragnar Midtskogen
  • Start date Start date
R

Ragnar Midtskogen

Hello,

Got a nasty surprise yesterday. I was given a laptop with some Alpha Five
source files on it, along with userid and password,
No problem logging in, but I wanted to hook it up to my wireless network, so
I tried running Network Indentification Wizard from My Computer/Properties.
It ran OK, but the machine still was not connected to the network, so I
manually changed the workgroup.
When it rebooted it rejected the password.
The machine is a Dell Latitude D600, running Windows XP Pro. It is
apparently set to not boot from CD, I tried running Windows from a CD, no
luck.
It was probably set up to be used on a corporate network, so it may be
looking for a domain server to authenticate password.
The logon is a user account, don't know what the Administrator password is,
will take several days to get in contact with the owner.
I tried to change the boot sequence, but was not able to get to the BIOS
Setup. Maybe the machine does not have the usual BIOS setup, I know some
newer machines use a different method.

What I really need is to get some Alpha Five source files off the machine,
this is why I wanted to hook it up to my network in the first place.

Any help with this would be appreciated.

Ragnar
 
Ragnar Midtskogen wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Got a nasty surprise yesterday. I was given a laptop with some Alpha Five
> source files on it, along with userid and password,
> No problem logging in, but I wanted to hook it up to my wireless network, so
> I tried running Network Indentification Wizard from My Computer/Properties.
> It ran OK, but the machine still was not connected to the network, so I
> manually changed the workgroup.
> When it rebooted it rejected the password.
> The machine is a Dell Latitude D600, running Windows XP Pro. It is
> apparently set to not boot from CD, I tried running Windows from a CD, no
> luck.
> It was probably set up to be used on a corporate network, so it may be
> looking for a domain server to authenticate password.
> The logon is a user account, don't know what the Administrator password is,
> will take several days to get in contact with the owner.
> I tried to change the boot sequence, but was not able to get to the BIOS
> Setup. Maybe the machine does not have the usual BIOS setup, I know some
> newer machines use a different method.
>
> What I really need is to get some Alpha Five source files off the machine,
> this is why I wanted to hook it up to my network in the first place.

You broke the domain membership. Unless you know the local Administrator
password (which you don't), you can only get in by 1) using a
password-changing utility such as NTPasswd to change the local
Administrator password to a blank; or 2) connecting the laptop drive to
a working install of XP by putting it in a USB drive enclosure or using
a laptop-to-IDE adapter and copying the files off that way; or 3) boot
the laptop with a rescue system such as Knoppix or a Bart's PE and
copying the files that way.

I don't suggest changing the local Administrator password because the
people who lent you the laptop are going to be irritated enough that you
broke the domain membership, but here's the URL anyway:

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Here is how to retrieve the data using Knoppix:

You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw
OR a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an
external usb/firewire hard drive formatted FAT32 (not NTFS). To get
Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast Internet connection and
third-party burning software. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your
bootable cd. Then boot with it and it will be able to see the Windows
files. If you are using the usb thumb drive or the external hard drive,
right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties and
uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it. Note
that the default mouse action in the window manager used by Knoppix
(KDE) is a single click to open instead of the traditional MS Windows'
double-click. If you want to burn CD/DVDs, use the K3b program.

http://www.knoppix.net
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - Bart's PE Builder


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
 
Thank you Malke,

I will read your note carefully tomorrow. Seems like there are more than one
way to skin a cat, but some of them requires to boot from a CD, which I
can't.
If I could boot from a CD there would be lots of possibilities.
But, the boot sequence apparently has the HD first, and I don't know how to
change that except in the BIOS setup, which I can't get to.

Ragnar
 
Ragnar Midtskogen wrote:
> Thank you Malke,
>
> I will read your note carefully tomorrow. Seems like there are more than one
> way to skin a cat, but some of them requires to boot from a CD, which I
> can't.
> If I could boot from a CD there would be lots of possibilities.
> But, the boot sequence apparently has the HD first, and I don't know how to
> change that except in the BIOS setup, which I can't get to.

Then you have no choice but to physically pull the drive, put it in a
USB enclosure, and attach it to a working XP.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
 
Thank you Malke,

Ragnar

"Malke" <notreally@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:O3ngqRgPIHA.1756@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Ragnar Midtskogen wrote:
>> Thank you Malke,
>>
>> I will read your note carefully tomorrow. Seems like there are more than
>> one way to skin a cat, but some of them requires to boot from a CD, which
>> I can't.
>> If I could boot from a CD there would be lots of possibilities.
>> But, the boot sequence apparently has the HD first, and I don't know how
>> to change that except in the BIOS setup, which I can't get to.
>
> Then you have no choice but to physically pull the drive, put it in a USB
> enclosure, and attach it to a working XP.
>
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
 
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