xp password forgotten... is there a way around it?

[Big Black Stilo]

Just booted up my old XP pro machine, (hasnt been booted for 3 years) and i have forgotton the user account password. I have tried to boot into safe mode and I have put on an administrator password, which is an even bigger mystery to what it is.

Normally i would do a clean re-install, however there are files on here i want to keep (old photos and sentimental stuff) that was backed up onto CDRs that no longer read.

is there a simple way around the user account and/or adminstrator password?

Administrator deffo has a password as leaving blank and pressing return doesnt work

 

[dave]

try password for admin

 

[damorgue69]

try ophcrack....should be able to download a cd that runs in linux...all it does is crack the password.....worked for me.....


make sure that you download the right version as there is an xp and vista/7 version...
it cracked my 7 password in 3minutes

 

[Stu DemonD]

Also on Hirens BootCD if you have that to hand.

 

[Big Black Stilo]

cheers folks, will give it a go

 

[colin79666]

Trinity rescue has always worked for me:
http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.p...R_YOUR_COMPUTER&front_id=12&lang=en&locale=en

It doesn't try to crack the password - which can take ages if you had a good strong password, it simply resets it.