Lost admin password - have xp CD/key but broken CD drive

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tlynnec Posts 10 Registration date Wednesday December 24, 2014 Status Member Last seen January 13, 2015 - Dec 24, 2014 at 03:34 PM
Ambucias Posts 47356 Registration date Monday February 1, 2010 Status Moderator Last seen February 15, 2023 - Jan 13, 2015 at 05:15 PM
Hi all,

I'm in a bind. We have an old XP SP3 machine on which I need to install a program in order to keep using an old piece of special-purpose hardware that does not play well with Win7/8. I can log on to the machine, but only through a heavily restricted account. The admin password has been lost (or changed intentionally by a fired employee...) and the default hidden administrator password has also apparently been changed. I've worked my way through all the suggestions found here: https://ccm.net/forum/affich-57873-no-xp-pro-disc-and-lost-admin-password but I keep hitting the same blocks - "System Error 5 - Access denied". I have a valid XP CD and I'd be willing to wipe and reload, but the CD drive is broken. My past experience with reloading XP from USB is that it usually doesn't work as the USB drivers are often missing, which means that even using an external CD driver will probably not work. Does anyone know any possible way to either get admin access to the machine or reload XP?

Thank you in advance!
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2 responses

Ambucias Posts 47356 Registration date Monday February 1, 2010 Status Moderator Last seen February 15, 2023 11,168
Dec 24, 2014 at 04:16 PM
Hello

I am pretty sure that this Kioskea How-to will help.

Please read all of it.

https://ccm.net/computing/windows/843-create-a-bootable-usb-drive/

Good luck
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tlynnec Posts 10 Registration date Wednesday December 24, 2014 Status Member Last seen January 13, 2015
Jan 8, 2015 at 07:24 PM
I appreciate the info. Unfortunately, I'm stuck at making the USB! (I swear nothing can go right on this project...)
The WinSetupFromUSB.log file follows. I would really appreciate any assistance possible. Thank you in advance.

2015/01/08 16:15:43- WinSetupFromUSB 0.2.2 started
2015/01/08 16:15:43- OS: WIN_VISTA Architecture type: X86 ServicePack: Service Pack 1 OS Language: 0409
2015/01/08 16:15:43- Getting USB drives information
2015/01/08 16:15:43- Found USB Physical Disk: SanDisk Cruzer USB Device -- \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1
2015/01/08 16:15:43- Found USB Disk Partition: Disk #1, Partition #0
2015/01/08 16:15:43- Found USB Logical Disk: G: File system: NTFS Bootable: -1
2015/01/08 16:15:43- Target drive selected- G:
2015/01/08 16:15:43- Drive letter of the active partition in selected disk- G:
2015/01/08 16:15:43- Total target size avialable- 3783 MB
2015/01/08 16:15:43- Checking sizes...
2015/01/08 16:15:43- Total source size- 0 MB
2015/01/08 16:15:43- Target space available- 3783 MB
2015/01/08 16:16:12- Checking sizes...
2015/01/08 16:16:13- Total source size- 538.5 MB
2015/01/08 16:16:13- Target space available- 3783 MB
2015/01/08 16:16:13- Windows source selected- D:
2015/01/08 16:16:13- Source version- Windows XP Professional
2015/01/08 16:16:13- Service Pack- Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3
2015/01/08 16:16:13- AMD64 flag- 0
2015/01/08 16:17:43- Removing TEMP folder
2015/01/08 16:17:43- Checking if grub4dos is installed properly
2015/01/08 16:17:43- grub4dos BS/MBR and files are NOT installed properly
2015/01/08 16:17:43- Installing grub4dos BS/MBR and files
2015/01/08 16:17:43- Backing up MBR of disk #1
2015/01/08 16:17:43- C:\WinSetupFromUSB\files\grub4dos\grubinst.exe -s=mbrdisk1-20150108-161542.dat -t (hd1)
2015/01/08 16:17:45- Backed up MBR of disk #1
2015/01/08 16:17:45- Backing up BootSector of disk #1 partition #0
2015/01/08 16:17:57- grubinst.exe could not make a backup of bootsector of disk #1 partition #0
2015/01/08 16:17:57- ---------------------------------Program quited-----------------------------------------------
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Ambucias Posts 47356 Registration date Monday February 1, 2010 Status Moderator Last seen February 15, 2023 11,168
Jan 9, 2015 at 06:48 AM
Now, you have me confused because of this line:

OS: WIN_VISTA Architecture type: X86
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tlynnec Posts 10 Registration date Wednesday December 24, 2014 Status Member Last seen January 13, 2015
Jan 9, 2015 at 11:14 AM
Yeah, that line confuses me too. I have a win xp pro sp3 disc which i'm trying to put on USB for the old machine with the broken optical drive. I'm making the USB key on a Win7 pro machine... so there's no vista anywhere.
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tlynnec Posts 10 Registration date Wednesday December 24, 2014 Status Member Last seen January 13, 2015
Jan 9, 2015 at 11:32 AM
So I reformatted the USB for 6th or 7th time (I've lost track) using the windows format function instead of the format tools included in WinSetupFromUSB 0.2.2. This time it worked. It's currently in the process of creating the usb bootable key and my fingers are crossed.
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tlynnec Posts 10 Registration date Wednesday December 24, 2014 Status Member Last seen January 13, 2015
Jan 9, 2015 at 12:39 PM
I can't win... USB key created successfully, but blue screen occurs during XP install part 1.
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Ambucias Posts 47356 Registration date Monday February 1, 2010 Status Moderator Last seen February 15, 2023 11,168 > tlynnec Posts 10 Registration date Wednesday December 24, 2014 Status Member Last seen January 13, 2015
Jan 9, 2015 at 04:20 PM
What is the message on the blue screen including the ox codes?
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tlynnec Posts 10 Registration date Wednesday December 24, 2014 Status Member Last seen January 13, 2015 > Ambucias Posts 47356 Registration date Monday February 1, 2010 Status Moderator Last seen February 15, 2023
Jan 13, 2015 at 12:49 PM
BOSD: *** STOP: 0X0000007B (0XF79C7524, OXC0000034, OX00000000, OX00000000)

I appreciate the help!
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