Help reformating hard drive

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.configuration_manage (More info?)

Short story: I have an XP Home install with a corrupt registry. It has many
problems, including rebooting randomly. I would like to format the hard
drive and start over.

Because of issues, I need to format it (to NTFS) without knowing the
Administrator password. If this can be done, that answers my question. If
not, read on.

I tried to boot from the "Reinstallation CD" Dell provided, and went to the
recovery console. It asked for the Administrator password. Believe it or
not, I know what it is.
The problem is, I entered the password and it says it's the wrong one. I
booted back up, and didn't see Administrator in User Accounts. I booted in
Safe Mode, and it still wasn't there. Very strange.
Anyway, I went to Start, Run, "control userpasswords2" (without the quotes)
and reset the Administor password. (I am able to do that because I have a
second admin account.) It still wouldn't let me in to the recovery console.

I booted in Safe Mode with Command Prompt, and I saw the welcome screen with
my main user and the (hidden) Administrator user. I clicked Administrator,
entered my password and it let me in to the command prompt.
I couldn't format from there because the C: drive was in use.

Any ideas?

Matthew

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.configuration_manage (More info?)

If by "Reinstallation CD" you mean it's an OEM Windows XP
installation CD and not some kind of "Recovery" CD then you might
want to try this. The following assumes you want to wipe out all
the files.

Boot from the CD and instead of entering the recovery console,
start the XP installation. You should be given the option of
deleting, creating and formatting partitions there.

Nepatsfan
"Matthew" <turn.deletethis@alltel.net> wrote in message
news:O$CXWp37EHA.2012@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Short story: I have an XP Home install with a corrupt registry.
> It has many problems, including rebooting randomly. I would
> like to format the hard drive and start over.
>
> Because of issues, I need to format it (to NTFS) without
> knowing the Administrator password. If this can be done, that
> answers my question. If not, read on.
>
> I tried to boot from the "Reinstallation CD" Dell provided, and
> went to the recovery console. It asked for the Administrator
> password. Believe it or not, I know what it is.
> The problem is, I entered the password and it says it's the
> wrong one. I booted back up, and didn't see Administrator in
> User Accounts. I booted in Safe Mode, and it still wasn't
> there. Very strange.
> Anyway, I went to Start, Run, "control userpasswords2" (without
> the quotes) and reset the Administor password. (I am able to
> do that because I have a second admin account.) It still
> wouldn't let me in to the recovery console.
>
> I booted in Safe Mode with Command Prompt, and I saw the
> welcome screen with my main user and the (hidden) Administrator
> user. I clicked Administrator, entered my password and it let
> me in to the command prompt.
> I couldn't format from there because the C: drive was in use.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Matthew
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.configuration_manage (More info?)

That worked perfectly.

Thanks!

Matthew

"Nepatsfan" <nepatsfan@SBXXXVIII.com> wrote in message
news:N-SdnQ3S1pUBV0jcRVn-hA@comcast.com...
> If by "Reinstallation CD" you mean it's an OEM Windows XP installation CD
> and not some kind of "Recovery" CD then you might want to try this. The
> following assumes you want to wipe out all the files.
>
> Boot from the CD and instead of entering the recovery console, start the
> XP installation. You should be given the option of deleting, creating and
> formatting partitions there.
>
> Nepatsfan
> "Matthew" <turn.deletethis@alltel.net> wrote in message
> news:O$CXWp37EHA.2012@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Short story: I have an XP Home install with a corrupt registry. It has
>> many problems, including rebooting randomly. I would like to format the
>> hard drive and start over.
>>
>> Because of issues, I need to format it (to NTFS) without knowing the
>> Administrator password. If this can be done, that answers my question.
>> If not, read on.
>>
>> I tried to boot from the "Reinstallation CD" Dell provided, and went to
>> the recovery console. It asked for the Administrator password. Believe
>> it or not, I know what it is.
>> The problem is, I entered the password and it says it's the wrong one. I
>> booted back up, and didn't see Administrator in User Accounts. I booted
>> in Safe Mode, and it still wasn't there. Very strange.
>> Anyway, I went to Start, Run, "control userpasswords2" (without the
>> quotes) and reset the Administor password. (I am able to do that because
>> I have a second admin account.) It still wouldn't let me in to the
>> recovery console.
>>
>> I booted in Safe Mode with Command Prompt, and I saw the welcome screen
>> with my main user and the (hidden) Administrator user. I clicked
>> Administrator, entered my password and it let me in to the command
>> prompt.
>> I couldn't format from there because the C: drive was in use.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>> Matthew
>>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.configuration_manage (More info?)

Glad to hear that helped. Thanks for the feedback.

Nepatsfan
"Matthew" <turn.deletethis@alltel.net> wrote in message
news:OIN8cxJ8EHA.2552@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> That worked perfectly.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Matthew
>
> "Nepatsfan" <nepatsfan@SBXXXVIII.com> wrote in message
> news:N-SdnQ3S1pUBV0jcRVn-hA@comcast.com...
>> If by "Reinstallation CD" you mean it's an OEM Windows XP
>> installation CD and not some kind of "Recovery" CD then you
>> might want to try this. The following assumes you want to wipe
>> out all the files.
>>
>> Boot from the CD and instead of entering the recovery console,
>> start the XP installation. You should be given the option of
>> deleting, creating and formatting partitions there.
>>
>> Nepatsfan
>> "Matthew" <turn.deletethis@alltel.net> wrote in message
>> news:O$CXWp37EHA.2012@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>>> Short story: I have an XP Home install with a corrupt
>>> registry. It has many problems, including rebooting randomly.
>>> I would like to format the hard drive and start over.
>>>
>>> Because of issues, I need to format it (to NTFS) without
>>> knowing the Administrator password. If this can be done,
>>> that answers my question. If not, read on.
>>>
>>> I tried to boot from the "Reinstallation CD" Dell provided,
>>> and went to the recovery console. It asked for the
>>> Administrator password. Believe it or not, I know what it
>>> is.
>>> The problem is, I entered the password and it says it's the
>>> wrong one. I booted back up, and didn't see Administrator in
>>> User Accounts. I booted in Safe Mode, and it still wasn't
>>> there. Very strange.
>>> Anyway, I went to Start, Run, "control userpasswords2"
>>> (without the quotes) and reset the Administor password. (I
>>> am able to do that because I have a second admin account.)
>>> It still wouldn't let me in to the recovery console.
>>>
>>> I booted in Safe Mode with Command Prompt, and I saw the
>>> welcome screen with my main user and the (hidden)
>>> Administrator user. I clicked Administrator, entered my
>>> password and it let me in to the command prompt.
>>> I couldn't format from there because the C: drive was in use.
>>>
>>> Any ideas?
>>>
>>> Matthew
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

 

[cp]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.configuration_manage (More info?)

I am trying to disable agp440.sys via the recovery console. However, I can
not bypass the "enter admin password" prompt. I didn't remember setting a
password some 2 years ago and have tried various options including blank.

Since my machine won't boot - even into safe mode - I can't use the tool
from Nepatsfan. Any suggestions?

-CP

"Nepatsfan" wrote:

> Glad to hear that helped. Thanks for the feedback.
>
> Nepatsfan
> "Matthew" <turn.deletethis@alltel.net> wrote in message
> news:OIN8cxJ8EHA.2552@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> > That worked perfectly.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Matthew
> >
> > "Nepatsfan" <nepatsfan@SBXXXVIII.com> wrote in message
> > news:N-SdnQ3S1pUBV0jcRVn-hA@comcast.com...
> >> If by "Reinstallation CD" you mean it's an OEM Windows XP
> >> installation CD and not some kind of "Recovery" CD then you
> >> might want to try this. The following assumes you want to wipe
> >> out all the files.
> >>
> >> Boot from the CD and instead of entering the recovery console,
> >> start the XP installation. You should be given the option of
> >> deleting, creating and formatting partitions there.
> >>
> >> Nepatsfan
> >> "Matthew" <turn.deletethis@alltel.net> wrote in message
> >> news:O$CXWp37EHA.2012@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> >>> Short story: I have an XP Home install with a corrupt
> >>> registry. It has many problems, including rebooting randomly.
> >>> I would like to format the hard drive and start over.
> >>>
> >>> Because of issues, I need to format it (to NTFS) without
> >>> knowing the Administrator password. If this can be done,
> >>> that answers my question. If not, read on.
> >>>
> >>> I tried to boot from the "Reinstallation CD" Dell provided,
> >>> and went to the recovery console. It asked for the
> >>> Administrator password. Believe it or not, I know what it
> >>> is.
> >>> The problem is, I entered the password and it says it's the
> >>> wrong one. I booted back up, and didn't see Administrator in
> >>> User Accounts. I booted in Safe Mode, and it still wasn't
> >>> there. Very strange.
> >>> Anyway, I went to Start, Run, "control userpasswords2"
> >>> (without the quotes) and reset the Administor password. (I
> >>> am able to do that because I have a second admin account.)
> >>> It still wouldn't let me in to the recovery console.
> >>>
> >>> I booted in Safe Mode with Command Prompt, and I saw the
> >>> welcome screen with my main user and the (hidden)
> >>> Administrator user. I clicked Administrator, entered my
> >>> password and it let me in to the command prompt.
> >>> I couldn't format from there because the C: drive was in use.
> >>>
> >>> Any ideas?
> >>>
> >>> Matthew
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
>