Cannot boot from cd/usb to recover forgotten admin pass

[Skitz]

BartPE wouldn't have worked anyway. Because we couldn't boot from any device other than the HD. I put in the CD, booted the computer and entered the boot menu. Then I hit enter on boot from CD/DVD and nothing happened, the system started up as normal.

But, i booted into the Lenovo recovery wizard, which could be booted from the HDD. then from there, i was able to boot from CD, which had Ophcrack on it. It cracked the pass in about 5 mins.

So thank you Raptor, as for everyone else...

I have now got the network of 5 computers, connected to a 16 port switch running, with a file server too. Soon it will be attached to the main network which consists of about 100 computers.

So for being 15 years old, with no practical experience (other than my network at home which has 10 computers), I think i've done alright. Didn't learn anything but it was an experience.

So all is well. without those two other computers, there would have not been much point connecting just 3 computers to the network.

[Skitz]

I had good intentions all long... I was telling the truth, yet no one belived me (except Raptor). So I guess I'll lie next time when something like this comes up I'll have to lie?, so then people don't think I'm going to do anything bad with the information and will just tell me without me trying to con the information.

I should have called this thread "can't boot from CD" instead, would have saved me the trouble, well atleast i sorted it out before it was too late.

[Raptor]

For future reference; how did you access that Lenovo recovery wizard?

[Skitz]

We have like 100 of these computers in the school, but these five were strange, they just wouldn't boot off another device.

I pressed Enter repeatedly (to interrupt normal startup). then it gave me a list. It went something like this:

1. boot from device
2. run diagnostics
3. repair system

Boot from device didn't work, so I selected the diagnostic option (I cant remember the exact name of the option though, it was something more like 2. enter lenovo diagnostics and settings or something along those lines.

So once selecting the diagnostic, it booted up and entered the lenovo diagnostic thing. You could reset the admin password, but you needed to answer 3 security questions. Unfortunately we were unable to contact the admin who left out school, we couldn't reset it. So in the lenovo diagnostics, you can choose to boot from a device, then it asks to restart and you click yes. It will then allow you to boot from a device. I don't understand why you can't just use F12 at startup, those computers were weird. Yet there are many others in the school that allow you to boot using F12.

So I booted up from a CD which had Ophcrack on it. First off I entered the graphical mode, but it lagged, so I rebooted into the CLI mode and it cracked it in about 5 minutes.

Haha, then I had people asking me for a copy of the CD, I'm like "Nope"... then they are like, where can i donload it? - "I'm not telling" ;p

[Raptor]

Ah, thanks. Might come in handy. Well, good job and see you around.