Ask Me Help Desk - How do I get into my old laptop to retrieve past e-mails without password?

How do I get into my old laptop to retrieve past e-mails without password?

Have forgotten my password to get into my old laptop.

How do we really know its yours?

Which password is it?
BIOS (power-on) password?
Windows account password?
Email account password?

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeedKarma

Which password is it?
BIOS (power-on) password?
Windows account password?
Email account password?

User name to log in laptop. It has my last name there but for the life of me cannot figure out the correct sequence of letters/numbers/symbols that we used to set that user name. It was changed several times when we got a virus.
Please help, need very important e-mails from there

Quote:

Originally Posted by smoothy

How do we really know its yours?

Well Mr smarty pants, the user name is there, my last name, however cannot remember the correct sequence of numbers/letters/symbols for password to log into laptop

Quote:

Originally Posted by wtb123

Well Mr smarty pants, the user name is there, my last name, however cannot remember the correct sequence of numbers/letters/symbols for password to log into laptop

Well, since YOU chose to get cocky...

And people try to hack in to other peoples laptops or accounts all the time and come here to ask for help to do it... how do I know you aren't hacking into a stolen laptop. Or your room mates laptop, or your parents laptop?

I after all, I know how to do it... and being called "Mr. Smarty pants" makes me reluctant to tell YOU how to do it. Shows you are young... likely very young.

Quote:

Originally Posted by smoothy

Well, since YOU chose to get cocky....

and people try to hack in to other peoples laptops or accounts all the time and come here to ask for help to do it...how do I know you aren't hacking into a stolen laptop. Or your room mates laptop, or your parents laptop?

I after all, I know how to do it....and being called "Mr. Smarty pants" makes me reluctant to tell YOU how to do it. Shows you are young....likely very young.

Thanks for nothing man, I am 53 yrs old, have owned my own biz for 25 yrs, just needing some help. My last name is on the screen for God's sake dude, so you know its mine

Hey, just saying we get kids mostly trying to hack into other peoples email accounts all the time... etc. And there are policies against assisting it if we suspect that happening. If you had taken the time to look into rules etc of the site you would be aware of all of that.

Now, WHAT operating system... and if it was Vista what version... and did you have Bitlocker enabled.

I have a CD with password removers but that is for IT techs. You can try if you feel your skills are up to it: Offline NT Password & Registry Editor

Quote:

Originally Posted by smoothy

Hey, just saying we get kids mostly trying to hack into other peoples email accounts all the time...etc. And there are policies against assisting it if we suspect that happening.

Now, WHAT operating system...and if it was Vista what version...and did you have Bitlocker enabled.

Thanks man, running Windows XP on a Toshiba Satellite laptop. All I have on the screen is my user name(last name) then the window to put in password. We got a virus in the laptop from traveling in different hotels. My partners cousin had us change the password several times & I have forgotten the right sequence of numbers/letters/symbols to get in to no avail. REALLY important e-mails for a lawsuit in there from early this year

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeedKarma

I have a CD with password removers but that is for IT techs. You can try if you feel your skills are up to it: Offline NT Password & Registry Editor

Not THAT computer savy... but may have help now Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeedKarma

I have a CD with password removers but that is for IT techs. You can try if you feel your skills are up to it: Offline NT Password & Registry Editor

That one works for XP and Windows 2000, but you need a different one for Vista, and I think Windows 7, ( I recently had to do this on a Vista machine I was fixing for someone that forgot to leave their password and were out of town) if you have bitlocker enabled you might be screwed. That encrypts everything and I haven't tried to reset the password yet in THAT situation to know how it would handle it.

THere are several others out there too. Are you computer savy enough to know how to burn an image file to a CD. All of the utilities require operation from a boot disk due to how the operating system functions. And it will be comand prompt type work. Semi-self explanitory... but not completely intuitive and certainly not fully automated. Its is similar to working in MSDOS, but is actually in Linux.

Quote:

Originally Posted by smoothy

That one works for XP and Windows 2000, but you need a different one for Vista, and I think Windows 7, ( I recently had to do this on a Vista machine I was fixing for someone that forgot to leave their password and were out of town) if you have bitlocker enabled you might be screwed. That encrypts everything and I haven't tried to reset the password yet in THAT situation to know how it would handle it.

THere are several others out there. are you computer savy enough to know how to burn an image file to a CD. All of the utilities require operation for a boot disk due to how the operating system functions. and it will be comand prompt type work. Semi-self explanitory...but not completely intuitive and certainly not fully automated. Its is simular to working in MSDOS, but is actually in Linux.

Ok now you lost me! A buddy suggested the same thing but using my Windows XP install disc or something. I'll keep asking or wait until we return home to try it the long way. In hotel for the next 5 days THANKS

Quote:

Originally Posted by wtb123

Ok now you lost me!! A buddy suggested the same thing but using my Windows XP install disc or something. I'll keep asking or wait until we return home to try it the long way. In hotel for the next 5 days THANKS

I would not recommend trying to do it with the install disk. You may wipe all the data off your drive if you do that then you will be screwed (but yeah it CAN be done IF you know what you are doing every step of the way), because recovering data is far harder than reseting a password. And if THAT isn't done before the drive space is overwritten... may be irreversible.

If you have a CLOSE friend or family member that is far more computer literate to give you a hand, its not a lost cause yet. An alternative is finding a computer shop that actually has and knows how to use a password reset utility do it for you. They can do it in a matter of minutes. Literally.

Quote:

Originally Posted by smoothy

That one works for XP and Windows 2000, but you need a different one for Vista, and I think Windows 7

The site clearly states its for NT/2k/XP/Vista/Win7.

Ok, let me try to say this the simplest way I can think of.

There are several good utilities that are free to download. They however ALL are what are called Image files. They all have to be burned or written to a Floppy disk, CD-Rom, or thumb drive that will make that device a bootable device, the computer will boot to THAT operating system to allow the work you need to do, to be possible. But you have to be able to create the disk from the file you will download.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeedKarma

The site clearly states its for NT/2k/XP/Vista/Win7.

I hear what you are saying. No, I wasn't disparaging that one in any way. I have 5 different reset utilities, I think that is one of them (none are with me right now). None appear to work on every machine every time. None worked on Vista until I got a Vista Specific one. That worked. I'm not a software Guru, but I do understand what files get modified, and how it has to happen. And no I can't understand why some work and not others depending on the machine. That is admittedly over my head.