repairing windows xp admin password

[dan23]

my hard drive seems to have devoped a fault (on my other pc

windows wont start it says windows xp is stating up then blue screen s an says unmountable boot section

i ve put the windows disc in an selected the option press r to repair exstising copy of windows but it then asks for the adminstrator password ?

[Welsh Dan]

Its usually blank.

If its not, download ultimatebootcd (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/) and boot from it, there are utilities on there that can change the password.

Failing that, plug the hdd into the PC you're using now, then run chkdsk x: /f /r

x being the drive letter assigned to the drive from the other PC.

[dan23]

its not blank i ve tried it

do you mean unplug this hdd an plug the other one in then run chkdsk
as the ide cable only allows one hard to be used

[Welsh Dan]

Kinda. remove the hdd from the 'faulty' PC, shut down the working one, and plug the 'faulty' hdd in using the cables from the cd/dvd drive in the working pc, then run chkdsk.

[twistysnovagte]

i had the same problem on my new dell pc i bought direct from dell themselves,i went into system32 and found i had no control over the computer what so ever,downloading,updating etc,i phoned dell to let them no the problem and they said they have no idea and that i myself must of put a admin password in at some stage and forgot about,i dont think so,so i asked a good friend to come and have a look it took him around 45 mins to blank(format)the computer and put total control of the comp back to me and not dell after this everything is spot on no issues what so ever.

[dan23]

its worked fine for a few years then it did that last week

how do i run chkdsk if i leave it to start up it gives me the usaul options run in safe last good con figaration etc witch dont work

only time its lets me type anything is when it asks for the pasword to the run the repair section of the windows disc

[twistysnovagte]

welsh dan's probaly your man for the technical side of things,;) its just that i got annoyed at not being able to use my comp, of which i paid just under a four figure some,for a few month until i gave in and asked a good mate to sort it out,a couple of bru's later and 20 notes in his back pocket he was happy so was i:) .hope you get around the problem:thumb:

[mikey14sr]

Sounds like something's corrupted the boot sector, the only cure I've ever found when it's been that bad is a full format and re-install.

[Welsh Dan]

if you put the hdd that needs checking in the other pc as a slave, you can boot the 'working' pc as normal, then run chkdsk from the run prompt within windows.

Thats how I fix the same error in work ;).

[dan23]

i am not much good with the technical side once its in the pc as slave an i have booted the machine how do i run windows run prompt ?

will that fix it or just tell me what the fault is ?
i ve been told if i run it ms dos i can remove the boot sector an re install it i have no clue how to do this though

[Welsh Dan]

click on start, go to run, type in cmd and hit enter.

from there enter chkdsk etc...

it should fix it.

[Jack]

If the boot sector is knackered, I seem to recall windows repair console has a rebuild boot sector command.

Another reason not to buy PCs from big companies, they always set the admin password. Then refuse to tell you what it is, whilst accusing you of setting one and forgetting it. Sorry, but if I pay £xxx to buy a PC, I want full control of it. Alex's gran had a PC from some local supplier which not only had a bios password but also an admin account password and all user accounts were just basic users, not one admin user. Nice.

[Welsh Dan]

On a normal desktop PC it takes less than 10 minutes to change/remove the passwords though. I tend to do it that way as its quicker than ringing the customers lol.

[mikey14sr]

Locked out bios's and unknown passwords are 2 of the reasons I build my own, others being you rarely get the proper discs for when it goes completely wrong (if I want an image of the drive I'll make it myself, after I've removed all the crap), and the bit's inside aren't quite what you expected. Dell are buggers for that one, they use their own personal spec motherboards, so although it looks like there's a fancy one fitted, it is in fact an abortion of some kind!

[Jack]

PC Chips motherboards with the labels removed and flashy Dell/HP ones stuck on FTL lol

[dan23]

[quote=Razorjack]If the boot sector is knackered, I seem to recall windows repair console has a rebuild boot sector command.

jack how do i use the rebuild boot sector command ?

[Jack]

Stick the XP disk in, boot off it and once its loaded you should have an option to enter the Recovery Console. From there type fixboot or something to repair the boot sector (type help or ? to get a list of commands).

I've never had to enter an admin password to use that...

[Welsh Dan]

recovery console always prompts for a password, even if its null.

[mikey14sr]

PC Chips motherboards with the labels removed and flashy Dell/HP ones stuck on FTF lol

For The Fail!

[dan23]

right i ve put windows on a small hd an i am running this as master hdd

when i put the other drive as slave it tries to boot from it .the sticker on the drive says no jumper = slave but with the jumper off it tries to boot from it

if i put the jumper on the master position it boots from the smalll drive but doesnt see the other

i ve tried them both ways round on the hdd cable an no difference

[Breeny]

Have you checked the bios settings for the primary and secondary devices?

[dan23]

when i go to bios setting (cmos) it says

primary master none

primary slave fujistu

i want to make the fujistu drive the master an my 120 gig maxtor the slave so i can repair the drive

the only options it gives me for the drives are
auto
manual
none

i ve tried each setting an nothing seems to make it see the drive s
what am i doing wrong