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I've long forgotten my password for an old laptop still running windows 7. And at this point I'm desperate to at least know if there's anything important in it.

Obviously, I've been trying any password I can recall, and haven't found anything y'know. I'm also not remarkably tech-savvy. I don't know more than one language half-well.

How can I recover my files? I'll use a wikileaks vault 7 release to break back in if I have to... the system is indeed old enough for that to be possible.

Sgt Stacker
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    Did you use Bitlocker? If not, you can copy your files pretty easily by booting into a live OS – MechMK1 Apr 17 '22 at 02:36
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    Nope! I've never heard of what that is. And definitely not back when I got that laptop. – Sgt Stacker Apr 17 '22 at 03:43
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    I'm not sure if this is the appropriate sub for this question, but either way a solution is to get an ubuntu live disk onto a USB, plug it in, boot your laptop, follow the prompts and run it in live mode (don't install it), open a terminal, figure out the identifier of the disk in the laptop (eg sda1) plug in some external storage larger than your disk, figure out the identifier of that disk (eg sda2) and dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sda1 bs=4M status=progress. You can find tutorials for each of those steps online, this is just an overview. – belkarx Apr 17 '22 at 05:16
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    cont. Once you've dd'ed the data onto your external disk (which should be empty as you run the risk of overwriting data otherwise), you can plug it into or otherwise connect it to another computer and view the contents. Alternatively to all those steps, you can remove the hard-disk/SSD from your laptop and access it from a working Windows install. – belkarx Apr 17 '22 at 05:18
  • Thank you you guys are awesome. let me try that when I can – Sgt Stacker Apr 22 '22 at 05:38

3 Answers3

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Windows 7: Use your Windows Password reset disk or USB drive

  1. On the login screen, click on Reset passwords.
  2. Plug in your USB key (or floppy disk). Click Next.
  3. Type in your new password and a password hint. Click on Next. 4 .Done!
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When your PC is running Vanilla Windows 7 (without any data encryption etc), then this might be helpful

You just have to somehow, like by starting windows in Startup repair mode, get access to your system files, go to C:\System32 and copy and rename cmd.exe to sethc.exe, then just open the ease of acess center by clicking its icon to open cmd and reset your password by typing "Net user <username>*" (without" and your username insted of <username>)

UndercoverDog
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This will only work if you have a different PC to connect the Hard Drive.

You have to unplug your hard disk from the laptop.

Connect the hard drive to a USB/SATA/IDE port on a different PC (using an adapter, if necessary). Older, larger external hard drives may also need to be connected to external power.

Wait for Windows to identify the hard drive. This process may take several moments.

A notification will appear asking what you'd like to do with the hard drive. Select Open folder to view files.

Hope this helps and provide as a last resort method.

Chia Wei
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