Windows 7 Password Recovery

[DannyM]

Hi folks,

Im in need of some help, my cousin has forgot her password for her laptop, she used a simple password but for some unknown reason it won't work, now she is down at her mums today so I said id have a looh but I'm in work at the moment so I've not had chance to see what's what.

She doesn't have a password reset disk so that seems to be out of the question. She only has one account on the machines which is hers, the most important thing is her files. I know there is software that can try crack the password but is there ones that are better then others?

Also from what I have gathered in the past it is still possible to get files off a Windows system with a distro of Linux but I don't know if that's changed with Windows 7?

Could people please advise ASAP I'd appreciate it! Apologies for any typos I'm sending this from my phone!

[Splash]

<removed>

I was under the impression that discussion of warez was banned here?

If it's only the files you're after stick the disk in another machine, take ownership of the relevant directories, backup and then rebuild. Then make a password recovery disk and setup a backup schedule for when it happens again.

[jim]

UBCD4win has password removal software on there, but I've never used it for that purpose

[zulander]

trinity resource kit might help with this do a google for it - its free just needs burning to a cd

[peterb]

There are tools available, but many of them fall into the warez category, and as such, cannot be discussed on HEXUS.

As for getting the files off, yes, you can use a Linux disk to read NTFS files, provided the files themselves aren't encrypted, or the disk can be installed in another windows machine and the fiiles read that way (as splash states above)

[pipTheGeek]

As mentioned before, you can remove the hard disk, put it in another machine and then get the files off. As it's a laptop this is likely to be awkward and you need a way of attaching the 2.5inch disk to another working PC.
You can boot the laptop from pretty much any linux live CD. This will then allow you to access all the files on the hard disk. I have used the Mandriva live CD previously and it was easy enough to use. There are plenty of others available though, and yes, this still works on Windows 7.
You can use a program to reset the password. Resetting it is much easier than working out what it was. There is a tool I found sometime ago that is a free tool, can't remember the name of it now sadly, and it wan't friendly to use. It was designed for XP but works fine on Windows 7. (It has now become part of the server teams CD collection at work)
You can do a parallel install of windows. By that I mean install Windows but WITHOUT formatting the drive. Then you can get to the files, copy them off and re-install windows normally afterwards. NOTE. I have never done this with Windows 7. I don't know how you do it and if you get it wrong and Windows formats the disk for you then you will have lost the files you want to save.

I would suggest using a Linux Live CD. It doesn't require opening the laptop, and it puts the files at the least risk from mistakes.

Oh, the easy way of course would be to re-install Windows on the laptop and then recover the files from backup. You do have a backup, don't you?

[jim]

hirens stopped doing illegal software a while ago, maybe you should have looked into it before jumping the gun and deleting my post?

I had a quick look after your post to see what the deal was these days.

However, some of the software in the list says "freeware" or "shareware", whilst others just have a dollar sign? Is that meant to be indicating that it's paid software, or what?

Also, they still don't seem to offer any sort of download links, which I thought was always their attempt to stay on the right side of the law.

Not trying to make an argument out of it, genuinely interested to know if they have definitely gone legal. It doesn't seem 100% clear to me that they have.

[DannyM]

Thanks all, I managed to sort it in the end, it was a rather simple mistake, the N key on the laptop isn't working for some unknown reason and my cousin didn't know that it wasn't working, I tried the password a few times and I eventually caught wind that when I was pressing the N key it wasn't working, a rather lol moment and a red face on my cousin

Thanks all!