Starting from scratch a Windows 2000 PC

[luisr]

A friend of mine got hold of a PC that was discarded by a company or some other place. Although it is an old PC it is a Pentium II and can still provide some useful life for someone who has no PC at all and is limited on cash. This friend of mine intends to put this PC back into operation to give it to a relative.

The thing is that what is preventing this computer from being usable again is that it has Windows 2000 installed and needs a password. Of course, nobody knows this password and I don't think they can go back to this company telling: "Hey! Remember that computer you discarded? I need a password for it!".

I believe that the solution is to start from scratch. That is, format the hard disk and install Windows XP or some other version fresh and most importantly, legally. For a person who knows nothing about computers at this time (the intended recipient of this machine) Windows XP will be friendlier than 2000 with all these security things enabled.

Is it possible to reformat the hard disk with Windows already there and locked out?

[Markoman01027]

Yup. Just pop in a Windows XP CD. Boot up into SETUP. It will repartition and reformat the hard drive and then you should be all set.

[bailey]

I think you can use a w98 boot disk and run fdisk, to remove any and all partitions, then create a new dos primary partition format it and go from there

[Nuclear Krusader]

I wouldn't install XP in that machine. How much ram does it have?

[Harry]

I have been told that it is easy to hack into such a system though I don't know that for a fact because I have never done it or had the need to do it. I think there is some file in the registry that holds the password and it can be hacked from there. The following Web site should explain more about that:

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/index.html

[jayg]

Saludos Boricua,
It might be possible to crack it but it's a complicated task that I would only do if there was something really important to save. Otherwise, install the OS. If you want to install XP, run a software analisys on the computer first. This sounds like a old puter and XP is a memory hug and can throw up if you try to load it and the hardware is a problem. You more thatn likely can get away with installing 98SE.

May the Force Be With You!
JayG

[Strider]

LC4 is a password hacking program that might work, I don't know the website offhand but if you do a google search you should be able to find it.

[videobruce]

Someone asked about the mamory. There are hardware issues also. You say it is a PII, what speed?

I would recomend 2k. No Fisher Price interface, no product activation to deal with either.

Go with a fresh install, nay problems that were ther will be gone. Find out what MB it is or model pre-built box and get all the updated patches, bios updates, drivers for the cards that are there especially video and SP3 for the O/S.

I sucessfully installed 2k in a PI 233 box with on biard video that I had problems with getting another card to work. The result was a huge improvement over Win 95 that was there from when it was purchased 7 years ago.

[luisr]

Well, there is nothing important there, at least not for the person who has the PC right now or for the intended recipient, nothing is lost on formatting in this sense.

About the hardware specs, I will have to ask but at least I know it is a Compaq Deskpro EN but it is a few years old.

About this LC4 program, will it work on a PC that is locked due to not knowing ANY password for it? Looks like it is something that is used by a system administrator.

[luisr]

Got some info about the PC. It's a Pentium II 400 MHz with 128 MB of RAM. Don't have the hard disk size yet but I am guessing it could be in the order of 10 GB based on the age I think this computer has. I cannot go and take a look because I am in Puerto Rico and my friend lives in the U.S.

[Statica]

Moderator note: While I understand that the information is intend to try to help someone, I urge you to view the FAQ before posting links or information - illegal information cannot be allowed here.
* Hacking information is not something that we allow
* Also remember that just because a person has "found" a computer with an OS doesnt mean that the previously installed OS is a transfer of the license.

[Statica]

liusr:
I would suggest that you (or your friend) do a complete clean and reinstall of a new operating system on that PC.
Not only do you get a brand new working system this way, you also dont inherit the problems the previous users may have had or may have caused. Virii, spyware, corrupted files, general issues, driver conflicts .. whatever.. this gets you a fresh start at things.

Before beginning I would recommend the following
openning it up and taking a look inside, noting the hardware, the mobo info etc. Taking stock of what has been acquired. Then put in the OS. While win2k is great, it would run rather badly with just the 128MB or RAM. Might be a good idea to give it some more memory and then run it.

[luisr]

It is not illegal information and I am trying to do my best for this person to legalize the machine. That's why I am looking into a way of formatting this hard drive in order to get rid of the existing Windows 2000 installation and start fresh with a legal license of Windows, whatever version is best for this machine. Go back and read the very first post of this thread where I said the word "legally" when taking about starting from scratch and getting Windows installed legally.

[glc]

luisr: The warning was not issued to you, what you are asking is totally legitimate.

A P2-400 with 128mb ram will run Windows 2000 quite well. Adding another 128mb ram would make a big difference, but 128 is quite adequate for casual use. I would NOT recommend XP with those specs though.

You do not have to enable all those "security features" - 2000 can have a user account with no password and be set to automatically boot into it without a prompt.

This is a Compaq, and be careful with removing partitions. The bios information is stored in a small partition at the front of the drive on many Compaqs. Boot it with a Win98 startup disk, run FDISK and see what you have before wiping anything out. If you are going to reinstall Win2000, then you can just boot with the CD and clear all the partitions except the "diagnostic" partition, and proceed with partition/format/install. If you are going to install Win98SE (my recommendation as an alternate to 2000), FDISK should be able to remove the NTFS partitions, if not, you can download and use Delpart (do a Google search).

[Iman74]

GLC,
I wouldn't always assume that the BIOS is on the front of all the other partitions. I have said this many times that is an old process that Compaq has stopped doing a long time ago. Also, I deal with CPQ DP EN's on a regular basis and none of ours have that partition, they all have the BIOS on the chip. With that said, I would say it's safe to assume this does not have that bios. Also, if you need downloads of any kind the simpliest way to do it is go to CPQ's website, go to support and using either the model or the serial number you can get all the recent downloads for this desktop.

As far the OS goes. Definetly reload the OS. Assuming you are going to use Win2000, just boot to the CD and there will be given a choice to delete the existing partition and create a new one.

[luisr]

This is the information I have right now as provided by my friend from the setup screen (F10 at startup):

PRODUCT NAME: Compaq DeskPro EN Series
PROCESSOR TYPE: Pentium (R) II Processor 400 MHz
PROCESSOR SPEED: 400/100 MHz
PROCESSOR STEPPING: 652
CACHE SIZE: (L1/L2) 32/512 KB
MEMORY SIZE: 128 MB
SYSTEM ROM DATE: 2/10/99
SYSTEM ROM FAMILY: 686T3
SYSTEM BOARD REVISION: 18
CHASSIS SERIAL NO.: 6926BW420487

Still missing the hard disk size. Is the above enough to know what is the best version of Windows to use?

The computer, although it is four years old, is not as old as I originally thought.

[Iman74]

98 or 2000 will work fine. Depends on what he/she is planning to use it for.

[onyx]

We run WinXP on that model of Compaq, and the hardware is XP-compatible with the following exception--the BIOS version that came with them is not ACPI compliant, so you need to upgrade the BIOS BEFORE installing WinXP if that is the route you're going to go. Once you've installed WinXP, it's too late to upgrade to an ACPI compliant BIOS without reinstalling the OS.

The machines run acceptably if somewhat slowly. I would definitely add more RAM if you are going to install XP.

[Blakhart]

If you run 2k, go and turn off the services you don't need and it'll take only 64 megs for the os. If you use xp, it'll take all the mem you have now. Either os will be fine. I have run xp on slower systems, but more ram, and they were as fast as or faster than the same box on 98/me. Have fun...