A owns computer. B has for a period of time and (presumably)uses computer. Dell Inspiron / OS Vista Home 64.
A gets computer back. On boot, standard password screen comes up:
username: waldo
pw:
password is unknown
admin password reset via linux program, will not boot after
correct admin pw - get password fail message
upon password fail, popup instructing to insert floppy or usb drive.
when blank usb drive is inserted, computer looks for "F:/public"
Encryption dongle??? Anyone seen this before??
TIA
Techie Question - Vista asking for USB Dongle to boot
Techie Question - Vista asking for USB Dongle to boot
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FlyingPenguin
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It could be someone tried to run a password recovery, or created a password recovery disc at one time. A password recovery requires that you have previously made a floppy or a USB drive with the password recovery data on it. It may be prompting you for that.
In Vista and Win7 you are in a WORLD of trouble if you forget the password or the password file becomes corrupt AND if you have not created another Admin account that you do have a password for.
On any client's PC that they want to use a password, I always create a 2nd Admin account or, better yet, tell Windows to create a master Administrator account (by default Vista and Win7 do not create Administrator accounts). You can Google how to do that. That way, like in WinXP, you can always log in as Admin and reset any other password or - better and safer - use system restore to roll the system back to a date before the password was changed or corrupted so as not to break anything.
I have never had much luck with those Linux password reset discs myself or using Microsoft's ERD disc.
The other problem is that resetting the password via a forced reset (via Linux disc or via the forced reset in the admin account without knowing the old password) will break many things. If the any files are encrypted for instance, they will never be readable again. Any stored passwords will be lost, if you have your mail or Calendar in Outlook encrypted it will be inaccessible, etc.
I haven't run into too many situations where someone is locked out of their PC and I can't back door it through the admin account, but when it does happen I usually put the drive in my bench PC and force ownership of the user folders and backup the data and then reformat and do a clean install. Most people don't encrypt their files. As I said, most of my clients have an admin account if I setup their PC with a password.
If it's not a client I know, and just someone off the street who claims that they're girlfriend changed their password on his laptop after they broke up, I refer them to the big computer store in town. I have no way of knowing if that PC is his or he stole it, and no desire to be an accomplice to theft. I dunno what the big stores do - probably just cover them selves with the legal boilerplate in the contract the customer signs - but I don't need the hassle.
In Vista and Win7 you are in a WORLD of trouble if you forget the password or the password file becomes corrupt AND if you have not created another Admin account that you do have a password for.
On any client's PC that they want to use a password, I always create a 2nd Admin account or, better yet, tell Windows to create a master Administrator account (by default Vista and Win7 do not create Administrator accounts). You can Google how to do that. That way, like in WinXP, you can always log in as Admin and reset any other password or - better and safer - use system restore to roll the system back to a date before the password was changed or corrupted so as not to break anything.
I have never had much luck with those Linux password reset discs myself or using Microsoft's ERD disc.
The other problem is that resetting the password via a forced reset (via Linux disc or via the forced reset in the admin account without knowing the old password) will break many things. If the any files are encrypted for instance, they will never be readable again. Any stored passwords will be lost, if you have your mail or Calendar in Outlook encrypted it will be inaccessible, etc.
I haven't run into too many situations where someone is locked out of their PC and I can't back door it through the admin account, but when it does happen I usually put the drive in my bench PC and force ownership of the user folders and backup the data and then reformat and do a clean install. Most people don't encrypt their files. As I said, most of my clients have an admin account if I setup their PC with a password.
If it's not a client I know, and just someone off the street who claims that they're girlfriend changed their password on his laptop after they broke up, I refer them to the big computer store in town. I have no way of knowing if that PC is his or he stole it, and no desire to be an accomplice to theft. I dunno what the big stores do - probably just cover them selves with the legal boilerplate in the contract the customer signs - but I don't need the hassle.
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MidnightSin
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