Computer Hope

Microsoft => Microsoft Windows => Windows Vista and 7 => Topic started by: placeholder123 on July 17, 2020, 10:55:41 PM

Title: Need to recover information from old HP laptop, every option a dead end
Post by: placeholder123 on July 17, 2020, 10:55:41 PM

My mom has an old Hewlett-Packard Pavilion g7 laptop, running windows 7. She's long since forgotten her password for it, and there's important information on the hard drive that we need to recover, but can't access. There's only one user account, the administrator account seems to be disabled. The original boot disk, if we ever had it, is long since lost. Trying to boot from a flash drive hit a dead end when the installer said we'd need an .iso file and the Microsoft website where I tried to download that file said we'd need to contact the manufacturer. Trying to boot up in safe mode with a command prompt also hit a dead end, because instead of a command prompt, it sends us to the login screen. I did find a program that's supposed to be able to change the password from a flash drive, but can't afford it.

Title: Re: Need to recover information from old HP laptop, every option a dead end
Post by: strollin on August 31, 2020, 08:09:26 AM

Since her machine is running Windows 7, if you attach the drive to another computer and attempt to access data from the drive, you will probably be told you aren't authorized to access that data, only the owner can.  If that happens, you will need to take ownership of the folders/files you wish to access.  https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/quick-tip-take-ownership-of-files-and-folders-in-windows/ (https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/quick-tip-take-ownership-of-files-and-folders-in-windows/)

Title: Re: Need to recover information from old HP laptop, every option a dead end
Post by: patio on August 31, 2020, 05:22:54 PM

Nice catch strollin... 8)

Title: Re: Need to recover information from old HP laptop, every option a dead end
Post by: strollin on September 01, 2020, 09:12:41 AM

Yeah, only because I've encountered that a few times myself!

Title: Re: Need to recover information from old HP laptop, every option a dead end
Post by: patio on September 01, 2020, 09:40:12 AM

Ditto...
Good to seeya again.