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

[Trapper]

[FONT=&quot]My disabled brother has not used his W7 64Pro PC for some time, as “It isn’t working properly” He now has Dementia as well so I have taken his PC to see if I can find the problem, if there is one.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]However he has forgotten his password so that’s the first problem to overcome.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I checked on YouTube for solutions of which there are many, but most seem to say to turn off the PC resulting in a ‘repair’ then, see the report in notepad, click at the bottom of the list, then ‘open’ where you have access to your C drive and can start the process to change the password. I am sure I am not explaining this correctly but am sure you know what I mean![/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]All today I have been trying to do this, but I do not see the ‘report’ in NotePad, it’s a greyed out scrolled report with no options, so that ends up at the same place with entering the password and not having a reset disk either.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I have his original installation disk and set the BIOS to start with SATA CD instead of hard drive but it seems that his PC does not want to boot from the CD, although it says to press any key to boot from the CD and then reverts back to the HDD asking for the password. I dug out an old CD USB unit and connected that to a front USB port and set it as Boot Drive, it did its normal buzzing but again arrived at the normal desktop asking for a password. It looks like the PC sees the CD but does not boot from it.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I have checked the connections inside the PC to make sure both the two CD/DVD drives were connected and they are, there is power as the draws open and close, but none of the two installed, or my USB drive, seem to want to function although seen in the BIOS. I have used his repair disk 2014 (and my W7 repair disk 2015 before upgrading to W10) and his original installation disk. Nothing seems to register other than the start-up on the HDD.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Now, I am sure in my now fuddled brain I remember something about removing the HDD and putting it in another PC and doing the job that way. But for the life of me I cannot find it again. Is this possible and is there any guidance on how to do it?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]It’s a good PC in excellent condition as he was a perfectionist in most everything he did. Now he asks what the Christmas cards I bought for him are for. This is a really terrible disease, seeing someone highly intelligent go to not knowing what day it is and just gazing out the window for hours on end.I am at my whits end in more ways than one.
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]ANY help appreciated.[/FONT]

 

[Mellon Head]

It's actually forbidden by forum rules to discuss password circumvention procedures. I'm sorry, but I can't be much help to you.

However, you could try these two tutorials that discuss the issue and how to fix it. They are from this forum, and written by users here:

User Account - Reset Password in Windows 7[2]=User%20Accounts

Password Reset[2]=User%20Accounts

Best of luck.

 

[Eric3742]

A question to you is.

Is there any important &or relevant info details in the pc that you are required to access.

If your brother has included such high security in his pc, then maybe should leave it as it is now.
Should there be a need in the future, then you could proceed as mentioned by Mellon Head.



Dementia is a disease that there are no cure and mainly on elderly.

 

[Trapper]

A question to you is.

Is there any important &or relevant info details in the pc that you are required to access.

If your brother has included such high security in his pc, then maybe should leave it as it is now.
Should there be a need in the future, then you could proceed as mentioned by Mellon Head.



Dementia is a disease that there are no cure and mainly on elderly.

He kept a lot of personal information on his PC, exactly what I do not know. Finances, photos etc certainly. I have a lasting power of attorney for Health, Welfare, Property and Finance. My intention was to find any important information, format or remove any such info and get it working. I was then going to donate it to an Alzheimer's charity to be sold or used. A much better ending than a hammer and chisel in the hard drives and a trip to the Council Dump.

I did not realise the rules, but I appreciate the reasons for them. I will keep digging and hope I find a way to overcome the problem.

Thanks for your replies.

 

[Megahertz07]

Have a look to similar post
Installation disk problem resetting admin password

 

[Eric3742]

Since you do have this Lasting Power of Attorney, this is good.
For a start, you may have to search others forums.
Professional to handle the job for you, as the last option if required.
As to why i recommend pro, is that most forum users advice are not much help as this may result in more problems.
Pro fee are not that high and since you have that POA, just in case.
Just like in most police case, pro are called-in to do the job on pc to gather info & details inside.



As i am not expert in this situation, others will able to assist you better.


For more security, it is better to CLONE the whole HDD and use the cloned HDD to resolve your problem.

Clone is necessary, as each sector of the HDD is exactly as it is, including damaged surface.

"Damaged surface" is common in most copyright game disc, as disc copying is not the same as clone.

Just to play safe.


Eric.

 

[Trapper]

Thank you gentlemen. Some more reading for me....
I have two system repair disks and the original installation disk.
I have set the BIOS to boot from optical drives, there are two SATA and one USB drive. I insert the disk (Either of them) and start the system, so far I can use the USB keyboard.
The start up reports to 'Press any key to load from CD' But the keyboard no longer responds!!

A few second later the Windows Error Recovery Screen appears with options including networking and cmd prompt but I cannot access these as the keyboard still does not respond, 20 seconds later and I am back to starting windows normally and arrive back at the password screen.

So, now, how do I get the USB keyboard to stay alive during this period of start up?

Thanks guys, I appreciate your trying to help me, and I sure need it!

 

[Eric3742]

For using USB keyboard and mouse, it is better to be (most probably directly, if nec) connected to a USB 2.0 port.

As by default, it use USB 2.0 port, as more acceptable, outside windows environment /system.

 

[AddRAM]

You can boot into his PC using any version of Linux on a USB stick, or if it`ll fit on a cd.

Zorin is a great Linux OS, you can then copy his data to an external drive or dvd`s etc.

Zorin OS - Your Computer. Better.

Download - Zorin OS

Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

 

[Trapper]

For using USB keyboard and mouse, it is better to be (most probably directly, if nec) connected to a USB 2.0 port.

As by default, it use USB 2.0 port, as more acceptable, outside windows environment /system.

Thanks for the help, I have plugged it in to the MB USB's and the front panel extensions, It's fine in the BIOS and when the W7 login screen appears but not the bit in between .

Not sure if this will work or not, so hopefully you guys can advise me. I am thinking about taking his HDD out and plugging it in to my PC so I can see what is on it, mainly the data that he has added. I can re-install the programs when I get a chance. I do not want to format it in case there is anything on it that might be important. IF that would work it could be a better option.

Thanks AddRAM. I will try looking at the Linux option, but do you just plug it in to any USB socket and make sure it can boot from a 'USB' Would that be called anything in particular within the boot option of the BIOS?

Thinking on it, I have a spare HDD in my PC and an ORICO 6 OS switcher panel currently employed with W7 Pro and W10. It has 4 more buttons not doing anything.........Hmmmmmm......later, later.....

 

[ThrashZone]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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