My wife's old Toshiba laptop... I drug it out yesterday to use for storage of family photos but when I asked her for her password, it's been so long she doesn't remember, even with the hint she left herself. I prefer not, to 'reset' back to the barebones win it came with, since there's already a lot of her side of the family photos on the machine. AFAK, she did not create a password recovery disc way back when.
Is there any reliable and legal hack/app to allow us to get past the log on screen?
There used to be Linux based disks that you could burn which allowed you to reset the password, but I don't know if they work on Win7. I haven't done that in twenty years.
You might want to take out the drive and copy what you need to another machine.
https://www.passfab.net/pro...ssword-recovery.html I use it on all machines with an unknown password and it works perfect. You can see the user accounts and remove passwords from them. Then reboot the machine and log in without a password.
Resetting/Clearing a Windows PW helps when you Don't use Bitlocker & other whole disk encryption. If have Windows Folder Encryption turned On for any folder then may loose data in those folders but most people never even know is available.
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurassic Park)
Yes, I wouldn't bother trying to retrieve the old password either (for several reasons, even though it's pretty easy to do).
On most laptops it's pretty easy to just take out the drive and put it in an external enclosure and simply use it as an external drive. Flip the laptop over and see if there are any lids. Usually they have a few screws that hold them in place. Unscrew them and see if any has the hdd underneath.
As several others have mentioned, an external drive enclosure might be the quickest and easiest way to go, if you are just interested in preserving the data. They are cheap, usually $10-15, easy to use, readily available and handy to have around. You just need to know what kind of drive you have.
In addition, you could buy a spare drive and use it as a backup drive. SSD's are cheap, nowadays.
In the above picture, the drive on the left was about $22 and the enclosure was about $8. On the right, the enclosure was about $16 and the drive was about $25.
Thanks all. I sure learned something here but in the end, she opted to just reset back to factory settings with fresh install of the OS. (we already got way too many dang family photos anyway)
Along this same vein. Is there a reputable and decent price recovery place? I have 2 Seagate HDD. SATA. They show in BIOS, but won't list any five data. Only old photos, but I'd spend a bit of money to have them back.
I haven't contacted Seagate yet, I figured they'd be the most expensive option. It's only become more of a concern since a recent passing.
Along this same vein. Is there a reputable and decent price recovery place? I have 2 Seagate HDD. SATA. They show in BIOS, but won't list any five data. Only old photos, but I'd spend a bit of money to have them back.
I haven't contacted Seagate yet, I figured they'd be the most expensive option. It's only become more of a concern since a recent passing.
Drivesavers is good, but expensive. usually 2,000-4,000.
do they 'spin up"?
click-a-click? spin up then spin down after about 10 seconds?
Originally posted by maryjane: My wife's old Toshiba laptop... I drug it out yesterday to use for storage of family photos but when I asked her for her password, it's been so long she doesn't remember, even with the hint she left herself. I prefer not, to 'reset' back to the barebones win it came with, since there's already a lot of her side of the family photos on the machine. AFAK, she did not create a password recovery disc way back when.
Is there any reliable and legal hack/app to allow us to get past the log on screen?
This isn't a Data Loss problem. Resetting PW or use disk as external storage will easily get whole unit or data working w/o losing Licensing Bookmarks etc. "Factory Reset" & related makes unit working but loose most or all data so need to mount as external storage to back up before factory restore/reset. Any restore will overwrite many files enough so most things won't recover the old files. (That's even when you didn't use Drive Encryption...)
quote
Originally posted by ls3mach: Along this same vein. Is there a reputable and decent price recovery place? I have 2 Seagate HDD. SATA. They show in BIOS, but won't list any five Live data. (<--- Guessing what you mean...) Only old photos, but I'd spend a bit of money to have them back.
I haven't contacted Seagate yet, I figured they'd be the most expensive option. It's only become more of a concern since a recent passing.
This is Data Loss & Not "Along this same vein." Is a Totally different animal.
Yes, Show up in BOIS or even Win Device Manager but does they Spin?
No? Can try Drivesavers et al but may not get files back either. Depends just why the drive is Dead. Seagate & others has many problems w/ drives sold for "normal" users to be as cheap as possible. I & others lost Black labelled Seagate units that "better" then basic desktop drive but still F'd out. Examples: ● Many have "crash Head(s)" & no data coming off the crash side or whole disk because many files run across bad areas so maybe only get some data. ● If the "board" is dead like spindle motor control section "smoked..." old way was to switch boards of same model but most times that doesn't work & been so for years. Board is "Tied" to the media by "DRM" storing SN & more on the disk that need to match data on the board. Drivesavers et al might know how/where to move a chip or reprogram the board to make that work.
Yes? Often they spin but the heads have problems & then shut down again but not always. If Keeps spinning But little or nothing shows in File Manager? Do Not try to use Windows Disk Manager etc to "recover data" or even look for data. Because MOST users have No Clue & over write data files. Recuva etc software won't help unless can see a valid partition & drive letter in File Man.
If does get a drive letter in File Man... 1. go to hwinfo.com get the tool to look @ SMART data from the drive. If SMART data is Good then 2. SMART data is bad likely have big problems & 2 won't help. 2. Recuva deep scan may help. Scanner entire drive looking for deleted files etc. Works if have "quick reformat" & some other problems but not when you "wipe" the drive or turn on full format in File Man. Recuva does not alter the old drive & need extra drive to save recover data.
Note: Drivesavers etc often work on price per data space... Many people now have TB on a disk & way more expensive to recover. Even working for "Forture 500" companies, in decades of IT I can count w/ 1 hand how many disks ever got sent to them because of cost.
click-a-click? spin up then spin down after about 10 seconds?
I have an older Toshiba (or maybe it's a Lenovo.. ) with win10 that did that. Was barely able just in time to get my photos off of it before it quit altogether. Still boxed up in a closet I think. Always intended to put a new HD in it but never got around to it.
[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 01-08-2024).]
Nowadays, drive space is cheap and machines are fast. I have three copies of everything going back to the '90s.
But that's part of the problem. Because drive space is cheap, you store more and more data making it more expensive (and more difficult) to backup.
I have 18TB of data to backup. I backup most of it (multiple times) but had to spend quite a bit on the extra storage and hardware to even be able to back it all up.
Originally posted by williegoat: I even have a few old Travan tapes and Zip disks tucked away in a closet.
Media is likely ok but finding good drives is often another problem.... Software to write/read QIC later Travan & related is often a big problem too.
Small QIC & Travan are same thing. Travan just added more tape etc to BU more data.
Most tapes were not written by Windows NT BU software & often don't play nice w/ any other software. Even if NT, 2K or XP BU wrote those tapes, Support for tape drives ended for Vista & Win7 to push "the Cloud." IOW You can't see even the drive in Device Man.
Many Zip drives had problems when Brand New, now most Zip & other Iomega drives won't work. I've never trusted Iomega drives after working on Bernoulli Box Drives & dealing w/ the company way before most got con'ed buying Zips in the 90's.
If you have old media & nothing to read them... Destroy Them Now.
