boot from vista cd`

jonevin

hi this has probably been done to death but can someone please tell me how i can boot from a vista cd from the diagnostics menu

i remember doing it before and i deleted everything formatted a new part and started again

cant do that now

my nephew changed password on his dell inspiron1525 laptop and when you go to reset password it says u need a floppy disk usb which i dont have till payday

si is this the only option and how do u do it again

JonathanAnon

Turn PC on with CD in the drive.... should come up with prompt "press any key to boot to CD.. " assuming your BIOS is set up to do so...

jonevin

my bios must not be because it just comes back to the same screen again

Fysh

jonevin wrote: »

hi this has probably been done to death but can someone please tell me how i can boot from a vista cd from the diagnostics menu

i remember doing it before and i deleted everything formatted a new part and started again

cant do that now

my nephew changed password on his dell inspiron1525 laptop and when you go to reset password it says u need a floppy disk usb which i dont have till payday

si is this the only option and how do u do it again

If you need to wipe/reset a password, you're much better off using this tool. (You'll need to download it and burn it to CD).

If you need to boot off your Vista installation disk on a Dell laptop, put the DVD in the drive, power on, hit F12 to go into a once-off boot-menu, select CD/DVD drive. You may be prompted with a "press any key to boot from CD" option, I can't recall - hit space if you see it. You'll be prompted to select a language and keyboard layout - once you've done so you can choose "repair your computer".

JonathanAnon

another option would be to use loginrecovery.com but they have started charging for this ... it used to be free.. .. it also requires you to boot to CD.

i have had a few scary experiences with those password blanking tools.. sometimes they need to be run a few times to work... not sure why.

Fysh

JonathanAnon wrote: »

i have had a few scary experiences with those password blanking tools.. sometimes they need to be run a few times to work... not sure why.

It's always risky to tamper with an account's details through anything other than the OS built-in tools, but then again you should only need to use them in a pretty bad situation to begin with.

JonathanAnon

Had a real bad experience with a server a few years ago... Was meant to be moving from an XP workstation (which had been doing the filesharing) to a new server .. of course the lad who knows the password is out and un-contactable... and I have the boss looking over my shoulder, and watching the clock.. under pressure I bit the bullet and ran the blanking program...

As soon as I rebooted, the guy who knows the actual password rings in and gives me the password... I then try logging in with the blank password and it doesnt work.. then I try his password and it doesnt work either... I could feel the blood rise that day.. it eventually blanked the password after a few goes, but I did panic for a while.

Ever since, I have used loginrecovery.com to recover passwords, as it only reads the SAM, it doesnt write to it... They used to give you the option of
i) getting the password immediately and paying them 25 dollars, OR
ii) you could get it free after 24 hours..
Unfortunately now you have to pay for it either way.. looking up my last transaction it came to €29.10 on my credit card, which I spose is not too expensive if it's a server..

If anybody has a better option, I would certainly be interested.