Old computer

[Oreocrumbs]

I have an old desk top computer that has been stored in my spare room for 7 years since my Dad died.

I'm having a clear out, and wondered what to do with it.

If it still works, I will take it to work, if not where do I get rid of computers?

Also the more important question is where would I take it to get past the password?

Iirc there are family pictures stored on there, and if possible I would like to save them. There may well be business and financial details on there too- that although I would imagine are redundant after 7 years, would still like to be aware of if they are there.

We don't know the password, so haven't been able to use it, and have just kept it as I've never really known what to do with it . Does anyone have any idea what I should do?

And if so can you explain it in simple terms! Computers and I are not overly compatible .

There are a couple of things you can do.

1. find a live boot disk and a portable hard drive, or large capacity USB stick. (Eg www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-express/ ). You can use these to extract the files from the hard drive.

You can find instructions online or we can talk you through it here. Easier than it sounds!

2. this is harder.... Take the hard drive out of the case and put it in a hard drive reader or dock. Extract the files to another computer.

When you have the files/folders, you can wipe the old drive. Then the drive or the PC is ready to sell or be disposed of safely.

That's what I'd do..... Not sure if anyone knows another way?

There are many tools out there which can reset a Windows password.

This page is one I've used several times ntpasswd

The direct download for a boot CD is here

Burn a CD with the files above then insert the CD and reboot the computer. Follow the instructions. Basically this will eventually show you which accounts are on the computer and you can reset the password to whatever you want.

You may have to change the BIOS to boot from CD first. Cross that bridge if/when you come to it.

Great, thanks both - so by resetting the password, I won't wipe what is already stored - mainly the pictures?

I'm digging out the spare room tomorrow after work, so I shall set it up and see how I get on. I will most likely be back though for some help!

I have an external hard drive 250 gb (95% available) - is that likely to be big enough to store what is on? He only had the computer for a year or so and I'm only expecting pictures from a 1 year period so there won't be many - as for any other files on there I would have no idea.

At that age the PC is most likely an XP box. If so, boot into safemode (hit F8 repeatedly on startup, before windows starts to load) and choose the Administrator account. Highly unlikely to be password protected and it'll give you access to "User Accounts" (via control panel) and as Administrator you can remove the password from his account. Reboot and you're in

At that age, it's highly unlikely that the hard drive is more than 250GB. The first 500GB hard disc shipped in 2005 so unless it was bleeding edge technology at the time you'll be fine. The photos won't take that much anyway, probably a few gig at most.

Hard disk connectors use to be IDE. At some point manufacturers switched to SATA. Assuming that they are compatible, you can put your dad's hard disk into your pc. You can then transfer over the stuff you want. Then you reformat the disk to clear away Windows junk and voila! you have a second disk on your PC