i have done about 3 forums on this quetion, either i get told to reinstall windows or to use a program to delete my windows password, and others give me alot of responces and say they will help but no luck. I need help on my windows log on password, i have lots of info needed of my notebook, i currently have a IBM Think Pad and has no cd rom nor a:drive, i can use USB but dont really know how to use it. I can reallly use the help on how to get a command promp at start up then from thier useing USB or PCM use a A: drive to delete my SAM witch will delete my log on password. I hope this is not confusing.

Chris-

Your problem:

1. you don't have your W2K password
2. Aside from a KB & mouse, you don't have any input devices

An explanation of reality:

If you have no drives, you do not have any way to input media. If you had access to the operating system, then you would have more options for getting into it. For example:

you could set up a Direct Cable Connection to another PC, log onto a network or dial up to an ISP but you would have to configure the operating system to accept these connections and since you are locked out of the computer you cannot do that.

It is NOT possible to just plug a USB cable or any other kind of cable into two random computers and have them see each other, if it WERE possible, anyone who ever wanted to get information from any computer anywhere would just have to carry a cable around in their pocket and they would never have invented CD-Rom or Floppy drives. As I mentioned above, Direct Connections between two computers are possible but they have to be configured just like any other connection.

Your Options:

You will have to re-install W2K. To do this, you are going to have to either buy a drive or borrow one. Your best bet will be to get a USB CD-Rom drive, then boot to it and re-install Windows.

A Recap:

1. you're locked out
2. you have to get back in
3. you have to provide an input device
4. right now you own a 5 lb paperweight

Post back when you find a CD-Rom rive and we will help you

Cleo

Cleo,
i understand u but im alil confused on this one question. If i got a cdrom that could hook up via USB wouldnt i need windows in order to run it through USB, if im going to install a diffrent version of windows this might become a problem.

my friend has a sony vaio, can i just remove the harddrives and put mine in his sence his has a a drive and get into dos and boot from the disk i have to clear the password. Would this work?

been there--done that...overandoverandoverandoverandover!
Save yourself some grief and frustration
accept that you have lost everything on your computer... because you have to reformat and reinstall.

command promt/adrive wont help(it's made that way!)
i know, i know, you keep reading things and keep being told things that give you hope! forget it...you will find, after it is all over with and you are back up and running that you should have done it to start with...
but in the process you will somehow learn a lot about how your computer works etc. that is the only benefit! THE password programs and services might work...i never tried those myself. but if what you have on the computer is really that valuable you would have already paid your money and you would be telling me whether they do or do not work.
i agree with cleo except use diskettes.

now, do you know how to reformat and do you have a boot diskette ? command prompt will not get you by the security unless you are one of the "lone gunmen". Dont pay to have your machine reformatted--that can be accomplished. I wouldn't waste my time calling tech support etc either.

You got to learn to back up!! soon as i reformatted and reinstalled i promply got locked out again-- i just entered and confirmed a new password (while riding in a
car) and the battery went down!! I was panicking and worrying that the shutdown migh cause the machinge to "forget" the brand new (STRONG) password...needless to say it wasnt the comp that forgot!

after you reinstall keep two administrator accounts open, one with an easy password like maybe your name or something and one strong. use the strong account for at least two weeks to do everything untill it is impossible for you to forget the password(eh, one more thing--dont start making passes for other accounts/files/programs etc that are similar to your 2k pass...i have also been locked out for two days because of getting mixed up over one pass symbol and this was after i have been using the pass for 2mos on a daily basis)
K>I>S>S> keep it simple stupid. back-up. and remember--everything can be replaced...except 2k prof password!

So true, so true Barry!
The reason I advise Chris to get a USB CD-Rom is because he has a laptop that can only have ONE drive attached at a time- either a CD-ROm or a Flopy but not both.

If he only gets an A: drive and starts the install from floppys, he will at some point be asked to switch to the CD portion of setup and he'll be $%^# out of luck.

Even if he got a USB Floppy AND a USB CD-ROM drive, he'd still have to try to hot swap them in the middle of the install which doesn't work because hot swapping is not supported by the Thinkpad BIOS and even if it was, USB hotswapping is most definately not. You see?

Now, Chris to answer your question- you do not need an operating system to run a CD-Rom or floppy drive, these drives are part of the basic configuration and are normally recognized by the computers tiny little brain (called the BIOS) before an operating system even comes into the picture. The situation that you ae in is a little tricky though, because your hardware was not initially configured with any drives. Not only that but you are going to be using a USB drive which makes it even harder because now not only does your BIOS have to be able to recognize a CD-Rom drive, it also has to be able to recognize a USB connection before it can even get to the drive.

As far as your question about putting your hard drive into your friends laptop. Of course you can always try but you probably will not be able to do that because even though they are removeable, the IBM hard drives are model specific, meaning your connectors and casing won't line up properly in a case other than the one your drive was made for. Sometimes you can use the same kind of battery and even external drives in different models but you normally can't swap hard drives. BUT- even if you could put your drive into his case, your hard drive was still electronically made to attach to a laptop that did not include an external drive floppy drive and might not understand commands sent from the BIOS of a computer that was configured with a floppy drive by default. Confusing, I know but do you understand?

In a nutshell what you are going to have to do is set your BIOS to enable USB support as well as enable booting from a CD-ROM drive, then boot to a W2K disk and re-install the operating system. This is going to be a job in itself because you may have to update the BIOS to the latest version to support USB boot and in order to do that you will probably have to have a floppy drive to boot to the update utility disk. Because laptops don't use the standard CD-Rom drivers or support that is included on the windows install disk, you are also going to have to create a couple of custom system files in order to keep your CD-ROM drive from being shut out during the installation.

Normally, it wouldn't be this hard but you are using an odd little laptop with proprietary configuration requirements. It's quite overwhelming, I know but it can all be done and I will help you. My advice to you now would be to go to the IBM website, look up your model and start downloading every update file you can find. You can try your little password hack in your friends laptop first, but I have to say that I totally agree with Barry, I've never once heard of that type of thing working but you never know.

Cleo

-miss cleo
i think i could hook up both, now that i look at my notebook theres a USB and some other kinda connection that shows a lil a: drive next to it. My question this time is, in another forum i posted i was told i could buy an adapter that could hook my harddrive up to my desktop useing the secondary IDE, is this possible??

Hi Chris,
You would be able to do that with a normal PC hardrive but laptops are totally different, the hard drive does not use an IDE connection, for one thing.

I hate to keep shooting you down but you have to remember that laptops don't function the way PC's do in a lot of ways.

Post back when you have faced the facts and I will be waiting for you

Cleo

thats what i figured. Anyway im downloading Windows XP Pro. Final from Kazaa right now because i only have a copy of Windows 98 SE or the new Linux, and i hate to drop the value of my labtop because i have to put Windows 98 or something of that nature on. Will i be able to put it on disk and install it that way?

Sure you will,
in fact, if you wanted to, you could install W98 then upgrade to XP or 2K with no harm done. Post back & let me what you decide.

Miss Cleo

ok, well as soon as the download finishes ill put it on disk and let u know so you can help me out. I have instaled OS on desktop computers but never on a labtop because they make it to hard for me to figure out, once again thanx for all your help and support on getting my labtop back to where it should be, being used.......
-Chris