Problem Solution

Lost or forgotten Windows password.


Disclaimer:
       Gaining access to an account or computer that is not yours without permission by using any of the below steps is against the law. This document was created for users who've forgot their own computers Windows password. Additional legal information and policy information can be found on our legal page.
       There are various utilities that enable a user to gain access to a computer they have forgotten the password to, below is a listing of some of the more popular utilities available.

Log into an alternate account

Often many users will leave the administrator account alone or have other accounts with administrator rights. If you're not logging into the computer as administrator or have other accounts follow the below steps to reset your other accounts password.
  1. Reboot the computer into Safe Mode.
  2. When logging into Safe Mode you should be prompted with an option to what account you wish to use. Select the Administrator account. If prompted for a password try pressing Enter on the keyboard for no password. If this does not work, try other passwords you may have used. If you're unable to log into the Administrator account skip to the next suggestion.
  3. Once you've logged into the Administrator account open Control Panel and User Accounts.
  4. In User Accounts select the account you wish to change the password for, click change password and then enter the new password or click remove the password to remove the password from the account.

How to recover missing, lost, or deleted files.

Problem

Lost files can occur because of any of the below possibilities.
  1. File was mistakenly deleted.
  2. File was corrupt and deleted by scandisk.
  3. Another program deleted the file.
  4. File is password protected.

Solution

Before reviewing the below recommendations and suggestions, verify that the files have actually been deleted; in some cases the files may have been moved. You can search the hard disk drive for the files you believe to be missing by running find or search on the computer.
Recover file from backup
If the file has been backed up to floppy disk or other medium it is recommended that the file be restored from that backup if the file cannot be found.
Restore from Recycling Bin or Trash
If you are running Apple MacOS, Microsoft Windows 95, NT, 98, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, or later operating system and the file has been recently deleted it is possible that the file may still be in the Trash or Recycle Bin. If present within this area it can be recovered.
Download freeware program or purchase a program
Below is a list of freeware file recovery programs that can be used freely to recover lost data.
  1. PC Inspector File Recover
  2. Restoration
  3. Recuva
  4. Undelete Plus
  5. FreeUndelete
  6. Photorec
In addition to the above freeware programs there are also several companies who have created programs designed to recover your lost data. For example, PowerQuest makes the utility Drive Image that in some cases can be used to recover data from a hard drive.
Utilize a service from a company that specializes in recovering lost data
Utilize the service of a local data recovery company or an out of state data recovery company. One word of caution is that these services can sometimes be very expensive. It is only recommended they be used if the data is extremely important. Below is a listing of a few major data recovery companies.
  1. Action Front Data Recovery
  2. CBL Data Recovery Technologies Inc.
  3. Doctor Byte
  4. DriveSavers Data Recovery
  5. Lazarus Data Recovery
  6. Ontrack
  7. Virtual Data Recovery
  8. Stellar Data Recovery
  9. DataCent Professional Data Recovery
There are also several companies that specialize in the service of recovering files or documents that are password protected. Below is a listing of some of the companies that provide this service.
  1. Passwordcrackers
  2. Passwordservices.com
  3. Password Recovery software


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