Dementia, so password forgotten, most attempts to repair failed.

ThrashZone · 05 Dec 2016

Hi,
Yep there are a couple other linux recovery methods
Lucid Puppy way to recover files from a non-bootable computer

Emergency Kit - save your files from a dead OS

AddRAM · 05 Dec 2016

You just put the usb stick in a usb slot, if it has black 2.0 slots use them.

Then you bring up the one time boot menu, could be F9 but the screen should show you which key to push to bring up the boot menu (this is not the bios)

When you have the boot menu up, you simply choose the usb stick and let it do its thing, after a bit you will come to a window that will say Try Zorin or Install Zorin, just choose Try Zorin

It`ll move on til you get to its desktop, then you can explore his windows drive and any other drives on that PC.

Trapper · 05 Dec 2016

Hi. AddRAM.
Downloading Zorin Core as I type, been going for around 1 hr 25mins with 1.3 of 1.5gb downloaded.
Once downloaded and saved do I just copy this to a USB stick and put it in my brothers PC? or is there something else I need to do?
I am wondering where does 'Rufus' come into play?

Apologies for probably dumb questions but I need to get this right, I have not come across either Zorin or Rufus and I do not want to mess up my PC, or his, by getting it all wrong!

Trapper · 06 Dec 2016

Couldn't find how to transfer to USB drive so burned to a DVD, that worked. I'll look later for how to transfer to USB. In the meantime I will see what I can find.
Can you delve deeper into the files structures as you can with Windows?

Megahertz07 · 06 Dec 2016

You transfer the Linux iso to the USB flash disk using Rufus Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way
As you already have it booting from the DVD, you are now able to reset the password.
Read this post Installation disk problem resetting admin password.
If you follow the instructions on that post you will reset the password in 15 minutes.

Trapper · 06 Dec 2016

Megahertz07 said:

You transfer the Linux iso to the USB flash disk using Rufus Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way
As you already have it booting from the DVD, you are now able to reset the password.
Read this post Installation disk problem resetting admin password.
If you follow the instructions on that post you will reset the password in 15 minutes.

Thanks Megahertz07, I am making progress, sort of two steps forward and one step back.

Using your link above and playing with Zorin a bit I found the Utilman.exe file in System32 and renamed it as Utilman.exe.org. After managing to copy cmd.exe as a new folder instead of a file I then managed to do the copy properly and had the correct files in System32.
I then tried to boot into W7 from the Harddrive, this brought up the message 'Boot Manager Missing'

I have no idea how this happened, but hope this can be found and reinstalled somehow.

I then booted from his W7 disk and got to the desk top

Clicked 'Ease of Access' and found the command prompt, more progress! I then typed:
net user <hisname> <newpassword> and hit Enter
This brought about the following message:
'The System cannot find message text for message number 0x234a in the message file for Application'.
Oh Great!
I exited cmd the re-opened it, this resulted in the message:
'The System cannot find message text for message number 02350 in the message file for Application'.

And below that:
'Not enough storage space is available to process this command'

Any suggestions? I'm at a bit of loss here!!

Megahertz07 · 06 Dec 2016

When you're asked to log in, you have your brother name where you click and then on the log in you put the password (that you don't know).
You have to fill up the command: net user <hisname> <newpassword>
Where <hisname> = your brother log in name (don't put < or >)
<newpassword> = the new password

For example, if your brother log in name is Trapp and you what to replace the unknown password to mypass, the command will be:

net user Trapp mypass

Trapper · 06 Dec 2016

Megahertz07 said:

When you're asked to log in, you have your brother name where you click and then on the log in you put the password (that you don't know).
You have to fill up the command: net user <hisname> <newpassword>
Where <hisname> = your brother log in name (don't put < or >)
<newpassword> = the new password

For example, if your brother log in name is Trapp and you what to replace the unknown password to mypass, the command will be:

net user Trapp mypass

That might explain it :) I included all the <<<< & >>>> as well

what an idiot!! Made me chuckle after all the frustration of the last few days.

I'll have another go....

Trapper · 06 Dec 2016

Well, a new error message:
"The user name could not be found"

His user name was the one on screen so typed that in as his user name together with a new password. There was a space in his name: like John Doe so I added a space in between.

OHPS, new message: (Hope I get his right)
NET USER
{username {password| *} {options} {/DOMAIN}
username {password |*} /ADD {options} /DOMAIN}
username {/DELETE} {DOMAIN}
username {/TIMES: {times| ALL}

Not sure if its a { or a [, think I need a visit to the opticians..

No idea what the above means, only that it is not good news

Megahertz07 · 06 Dec 2016

lets do another approach:
lets activate the administrator account. Type:
net user administrator /active:yes

Reboot and you will see the administrator icon to log in. Log in (no password required)
Go to control panel - Accounts and delete your brother log in password.

When you finish, reboot and see if you can log in as your brother account.
If successful, open a command prompt as administrator and type:
net user administrator /active:no