Windows 7 Password file reset

Hi Guys,

First thing - I'm a Mac guy. No, I'm not an anti Windows type - that fight isa crazy one that I refuse to buy into. I use what I like. Simple.

However, for most of my adult life I have been a Windows guy, up until about Vista. So I know my way around a machine.

Today, I was called in to fix a problem: an employee was trying to hold my friend to ransom by changing his password on his work laptop and refusing to change it back unless his demands were met. It was his last day and there were some disputes. We promptly threw the guy off site and I was handed the laptop and asked to please fix and get data.

I have simply taken the hard drive out of the laptop, attached it to a SATA dock on my Mac and because I have the right software, the drive just showed up and I copied everything across.

I was wondering if there is a way that while I have access to the file system like I do, can I reset or delete the password? There is only the one user.

Your help would be much appreciated!

Liam.

Thank you Solarmystic, but I don't have access to any windows machines here on which to create these tools on. My hope was that there would be a file, or a line in a file in the system folder that I could delete hence deleting the password - I may be thinking too Unix passwd file'ish here.

I have zero access to the laptop beyond the login screen. However, with the hard driv plugged into my Mac, I am able to access and edit anything...

karlsnooks,

It was more just a simple little challenge to see if I could do something at the file level. For example, in a unix passwd file if you delete what is between the 2 "*" on a users entry, it deletes their password. I was just seeing if there was a work around - not cos I was stuck for the data or unable to use the machine, but simply to see if it could be done.

Machine has been restored, data is safe, so thanks for the help. :)