Old laptop help.

[userzero1]

I have an old laptop which I updated to Windows Vista some year ago but want to upgrade back to Windows XP, but I have a few problems -

1. I don't remember the password anymore but I have game files and other things on there that I don't want to lose. Is it possible to reset the password? I am thinking of dual booting this so I can preserve my old things.

2. I don't have the recovery disk and it's not available for download and I don't want to buy a copy. Is it possible to back up or copy my drivers before installing Windows XP fresh ISO to a partition?

 

[tech3475]

I would first just image the whole drive, a contemporary utility would be something like Norton Ghost or maybe something like clonezilla.

If restoring to a modern system, I know Macrium Reflect free can bypass any passwords, but you need to find an old free version.

There are ways to backup drivers and reset passwords, although I don't know the names of anything off the top of my head, maybe medicat has something on it?

Of course the Vista drivers are unlikely to work with XP.

That said, when I have a system with missing drivers, I usually use PCI databases to try and discover what the hardware is and Google for drivers, helped with an old Windows ME system I installed 98SE on.

Did you wipe the original OEM recovery partition by any chance?

Edit:

The OEM may also still have a copy of the original drivers.

 

[yankii]

I have an old laptop which I updated to Windows Vista some year ago but want to upgrade back to Windows XP, but I have a few problems -

1. I don't remember the password anymore but I have game files and other things on there that I don't want to lose. Is it possible to reset the password? I am thinking of dual booting this so I can preserve my old things.

2. I don't have the recovery disk and it's not available for download and I don't want to buy a copy. Is it possible to back up or copy my drivers before installing Windows XP fresh ISO to a partition?

Pre-7 Windows is hilariously insecure. There's an unsecured admin account that you can access while booting, iirc, so look that up.

As for the drivers, I have no idea. Maybe they're on the C drive in some folder? Just back the whole thing up.

 

[Latiodile]

you could also probably boot into a windows install environment and do the trick where you replace the accessibility EXE with CMD and reset the password from the login screen, or boot a windows PE image and do it easier

 

[VincentC]

https://www.hirensbootcd.org/ has tools to remove the password on all windows accounts.

Alternatively, you could boot into another OS and copy the files off that way, or do as yankii has said.

 

[wamble]

1. I don't remember the password anymore but I have game files and other things on there that I don't want to lose. Is it possible to reset the password? I am thinking of dual booting this so I can preserve my old things.

http://www.chntpw.com/download/
Both CD and USB installs are possible.

It might also be a decent idea to have a linux distro on-hand which could allow access to the files by booting it 'live', such as Linux Mint, MX Linux, etc.

2. I don't have the recovery disk and it's not available for download and I don't want to buy a copy. Is it possible to back up or copy my drivers before installing Windows XP fresh ISO to a partition?

Several available. Search for "freeware untility to back up windows drivers before format and reinstall" or similar. It's been a while since I've tried one of these.