I lost my password list and need find a way to open / read the windows "pwl" files to retrieve the data, any suggestions on this topic....Thanks Also I know that most data thats been "deleted" really is'nt deleted until more or additional data is loaded on the HD and takes the space ocupided by the delete data, how can this data be retrieved? Burt

Win95 and Win98 have a utility called pwledit.exe In win98, it's located on the cdrom under tools/reskit/netadmin/pwledit. As far as recovering data, There are third party software packages made for just that purpose.

Drive Rescue is a free program that should be able to help you undelete files..... Even downloading and installing Drive Rescue could overwrite the areas. But you can try: http://home.arcor.de/christian_grau/rescue/

Pwledit.exe (Password List Editor) allows you to view a list of passwords you've saved, and delete any that aren't working. You can't see the actual password, but deleting a password's existence allows you to re-enter the correct password the next time you log on to that particular resource. Pwledit.exe is available on the CD-ROM of Windows 95 and 98, but it isn't installed automatically. To install it under Windows 98: Click Start, Settings, Control Panel. Run the Add/Remove Programs applet, click the Windows Setup tab, then click the Have Disk button. Browse to the folder X:\tools\reskit\netadmin\pwledit (where X: is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive). Select the information file Pwledit.inf and click OK. In the Have Disk dialog box that appears, turn on the check box to select Password List Editor, then click Install. The utility will appear on your Start menu under Programs, Accessories, System Tools To install the utility under Windows 95, follow the same steps but browse to X:\admin\apptools\pwledit. If you can't find your Windows 95 or 98 CD-ROM, you can download a self-extracting file from support.microsoft.com/download/support/mslfiles/pwedit.exe. Password List Editor will work only for the particular user who is logged on. For more on this and other information, run the Resource Kit help file \tools\reskit\help\rk98hrlp.chm from the Windows 98 CD-ROM. Search for "pwledit," display the topic "Passwords," and scroll down to read "Using the Windows 98 Password Cache." Unfortunately, Password List Editor may not solve your particular password problem. Here are some other tricks suggested by Microsoft Product Support Services that you could try for such problems. In serious cases, you may need to close all applications, then rename the file C:\Windows\Username.pwl (where username is your log-on name) and restart Windows. This eliminates all of your passwords, which you'll need to re-enter. But it may clear up a problem with a corrupted password list file. If you're still having problems, rename the file C:\Windows\Rna.pwl (if present), which may clear up passwords related to remote network access. An old or bad password may also be stored by a Web site as a "cookie." In this case, use Windows Explorer to select all files in your C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files folder and delete them.