Old Computer Passwords

[ColchesterFC]

During our recent house move I found an old Acer laptop. I've tried starting it up but it's password protected and I can't remember the password I used. Is there any way to get round it so I can get into it as I want to check if there are any old photos on it before I bin it.

 

[Duckster]

During our recent house move I found an old Acer laptop. I've tried starting it up but it's password protected and I can't remember the password I used. Is there any way to get round it so I can get into it as I want to check if there are any old photos on it before I bin it.

Have a look at downloading "Hirens Boot Disc". There's a little part of that which will remove any passwords. Take a bit of reading up on.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

if its an old one, start tapping F8 as soon as you hit the power button, choose Safe Mode, and select the Administrator account, you can change or reset user passwords from therein the control panel

works with all windows from 7 backwards.

:thup:

 

[FairwayDodger]

if its an old one, start tapping F8 as soon as you hit the power button, choose Safe Mode, and select the Administrator account, you can change or reset user passwords from therein the control panel

works with all windows from 7 backwards.

:thup:

Nice security feature that was! :rofl:

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Could you not stick the laptop hardrive in a caddy and plug it into your new pc to see what’s on there?

 

[PhilTheFragger]

Could you not stick the laptop hardrive in a caddy and plug it into your new pc to see what’s on there?

You can provided you have a caddy to hand ( might be an IDE drive) and also the ability to dismantle said laptop, if it’s working, use the PW bypass

 

[Bunkermagnet]

You can provided you have a caddy to hand ( might be an IDE drive) and also the ability to dismantle said laptop, if it’s working, use the PW bypass

Of course...would be foolish to not try the easy way

 

[ColchesterFC]

Well thanks for all your advice. The Hirens Boot Disk option seemed a bit too technologically advanced for my limited knowledge. And I've no idea what a "caddy" is. So those were a no go. I did the tapping F8 thing that Phil suggested and that worked - sort of. I managed to select Safe mode but then couldn't find the Administrator account to select it. I ended up using a manual brute force attack and after about 60 attempts managed to guess the password I had been using back then. :thup:

 

[Tripod]

Nice security feature that was! :rofl:

If you can get physical access to a machine it can be compromised in around 10 seconds. Regardless of any “security” features.

 

[Captainron]

You can provided you have a caddy to hand ( might be an IDE drive) and also the ability to dismantle said laptop, if it’s working, use the PW bypass

I bet you get all the girls with talk like that

 

[PhilTheFragger]

I bet you get all the girls with talk like that

I couldn’t possibly comment 😎😎

 

[ScienceBoy]

If you can get physical access to a machine it can be compromised in around 10 seconds. Regardless of any “security” features.

That’s where encryption comes in, but I doubt many home users have that.