[Ruthian]

Alright, i know my way around computers pretty well, and when i cant figure things out it normally takes me five minutes of online searching to find a solution. But this one has had me stumped, even with researching for a few weeks.

I just started for a new company and they gave me someones old laptop. whoever had it last obtained alot of spyware, and setup things wacky. I've been trying to reformat the hard drive, so i can re-install XP. Problem is, i dont have the administrator password. So i logged into safe mode, changed ALL ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT passwords and deleted every other account to avoid confusion. So now i have two administrator account passwords, the original, and one i created. I tried deleting the original with the one i created to no avail, just freezes everytime.

I've tried using windows recovery to re-format, however everytime i select which windows to reformat i get asked for an administrator password. Even though ALL ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNTS have my password as a password, this still does not work in windows recovery. Does anyone know any way to get around this password, or format without using windows recovery. (Standard cmd format c:, doesnt work because "volume is in use")

My head hurts. Please help.

EDIT: As a sidenote, i noticed when trying to log in as "Administrator" at the windows login, it wont let me stating "Account restriction".

Edited by Ruthian, 31 May 2005 - 08:58 AM.

[Advertisements]

Hello and welcome to Geeks to Go! I'm kool808

Do you want to clean sweep that old laptop, I mean really delete everything, reformat then start a new OS on it?

I suggest you put your installer disk, choose start with CD-ROM Support option. Then at the command prompt lets try the fdisk function, this will delete partitions on your hard disk, then we will create a new Primary DOS partition to start with a new one. This new partition then needs to be reformatted, then installed with your favorite OS.

Note: this setup is done just before the boot up, just after P.O.S.T.

Edited by kool808, 31 May 2005 - 09:06 AM.

[kool808]

Hello and welcome to Geeks to Go! I'm kool808

Do you want to clean sweep that old laptop, I mean really delete everything, reformat then start a new OS on it?

I suggest you put your installer disk, choose start with CD-ROM Support option. Then at the command prompt lets try the fdisk function, this will delete partitions on your hard disk, then we will create a new Primary DOS partition to start with a new one. This new partition then needs to be reformatted, then installed with your favorite OS.

Note: this setup is done just before the boot up, just after P.O.S.T.

Edited by kool808, 31 May 2005 - 09:06 AM.

[Ruthian]

Yes i want to clean sweep it and re-install XP. Im going to go explore fdisk a bit, thanks for the lead.

[Ruthian]

Im trying fdisk at the command prompt, its not available. I dont have a choice wih my XP cd to go to command prompt, so i was just using safe modes command prompt.

[kool808]

Was your Win XP installe disk an original one or just a copy? By the way, have you configured in the BIOS setup the boot sequence on CD-ROM, floppy, then HDD-0 for the boot device respectively. When you place the installer disk, what were the only options available?

[Murray S.]

Howdy:

You will need a Win98SE or WinME boot floppy to do this.. You can get one HERE

Download the self-extracting file to your system.. Then , put a clean, preferably new, floppy into the a: drive.. Double-click the download to install the necessary files on the floppy..

Now, make sure the first boot option is set for a: drive (floppy) on the non-working system and using the floppy, boot the system..

Once you get to a:> prompt, type in fdisk and press <enter> You should get about 4 options.. Use the option that states "Remove all NON-DOS Partitions" (This will be the XP partition if it was formatted NTFS).. Once that is done, use the option to remove all Partition or the Primary DOS partition (there may or may not be one)..

Once you are back at a:> prompt, reboot the system into BIOS and change the first boot device to the cd-rom.. remove the boot floppy and insert the XP cd into the cd-rom drive.. Reboot and you should be good to go !!

Murray

[kool808]

Thanks Murray for the tip, I didn't know bout that

[Murray S.]

which one?? I think I posted about 6 or 7 steps there!!

Murray

[kool808]

You will need a Win98SE or WinME boot floppy to do this.. You can get one HERE

I thought fdisk was still in the Win XP installer.