Recovery Console and CHKDSK

Hello, This is my first post so please bare with me.

Today I encountered a frustrating situation that I hope someone here can
resolve. The patient is a Dell desktop computer running WinXP Pro SP2. The
computer will TRY to boot but eventually ends in a BSOD. It will NOT boot up
in ANY mode (normal, safe, etc).

Using PartitionMagic 8.0 and some other tools I've determined that the
problem is "Partitions Improperly Dismounted". The MS Knowledge base (among
others) claims that the simple solution is to run CHKDSK. However, the
partitions are non accessable.

I tried to run the Recovery Console from the WinXP Pro SP2 CD, but it asks
for the administrators password before I can acquire a command prompt to run
CHKDSK. The computer owner has no idea what the Admin pswd is (we tried
everything he could think of including blank) so we hit a stone wall there.

I've seen the registry hack posted elsewhere in these threads but, again, we
are unable to access ANY files on the partitions.

I NEED to run CHKDSK on this hard-drive to correct the mismounted partions, so
my question is:

1. How can I bypass the admin pswd to access windows cmd prompt?
2. If #1 is impossible, how can I run CHKDSK without file access on
hard-drive (remember, the hard-drive isn't even being recognized by OS even
though data appears intact).
3. How can I do the registry edit without access?

You all are my only hope on this. I've already used everthing else in my bag
of tricks. HELP!

1) Try contacting Dell to get the administrator password. This is THE
system administrator password, not the password for a random person with
administrator privileges.
2) Try running OPHCRACK from its bootable CD to get all passwords (not 100%
successful, but usually runs in minutes, so worth a short)
3) Try resetting the password. Google search will reveal many password
rest tools, some free, usually based on floppy or a bootable CD. Also
available on the Ultimate Boot CD.
4) Try making a BartsPE bootable CD on another computer. This is like an
advanced recovery console, and does not bother about things like passwords.
5) Download the multi-floppy disk set of XP setup files (free from
Microsoft). These can boot into a verison of the recovery console that
might avoid the password problem.
6) Try the Windows 2000 recovery console. I have heard that it is less
fussy about passwords.

"Hardlock" wrote in message
...
Hello, This is my first post so please bare with me.

Today I encountered a frustrating situation that I hope someone here can
resolve. The patient is a Dell desktop computer running WinXP Pro SP2. The
computer will TRY to boot but eventually ends in a BSOD. It will NOT boot
up
in ANY mode (normal, safe, etc).

Using PartitionMagic 8.0 and some other tools I've determined that the
problem is "Partitions Improperly Dismounted". The MS Knowledge base
(among
others) claims that the simple solution is to run CHKDSK. However, the
partitions are non accessable.

I tried to run the Recovery Console from the WinXP Pro SP2 CD, but it asks
for the administrators password before I can acquire a command prompt to
run
CHKDSK. The computer owner has no idea what the Admin pswd is (we tried
everything he could think of including blank) so we hit a stone wall
there.

I've seen the registry hack posted elsewhere in these threads but, again,
we
are unable to access ANY files on the partitions.

I NEED to run CHKDSK on this hard-drive to correct the mismounted
partions, so
my question is:

1. How can I bypass the admin pswd to access windows cmd prompt?
2. If #1 is impossible, how can I run CHKDSK without file access on
hard-drive (remember, the hard-drive isn't even being recognized by OS
even
though data appears intact).
3. How can I do the registry edit without access?

You all are my only hope on this. I've already used everthing else in my
bag
of tricks. HELP!

Hardlock wrote:
Hello, This is my first post so please bare with me.

Today I encountered a frustrating situation that I hope someone here
can resolve. The patient is a Dell desktop computer running WinXP Pro
SP2. The computer will TRY to boot but eventually ends in a BSOD. It
will NOT boot up in ANY mode (normal, safe, etc).

Using PartitionMagic 8.0 and some other tools I've determined that the
problem is "Partitions Improperly Dismounted". The MS Knowledge base
(among others) claims that the simple solution is to run CHKDSK.
However, the partitions are non accessable.

I tried to run the Recovery Console from the WinXP Pro SP2 CD, but it
asks for the administrators password before I can acquire a command
prompt to run CHKDSK. The computer owner has no idea what the Admin
pswd is (we tried everything he could think of including blank) so we
hit a stone wall there.

I've seen the registry hack posted elsewhere in these threads but,
again, we are unable to access ANY files on the partitions.

I NEED to run CHKDSK on this hard-drive to correct the mismounted
partions, so my question is:

1. How can I bypass the admin pswd to access windows cmd prompt?
2. If #1 is impossible, how can I run CHKDSK without file access on
hard-drive (remember, the hard-drive isn't even being recognized by
OS even though data appears intact).
3. How can I do the registry edit without access?

You all are my only hope on this. I've already used everthing else in
my bag of tricks. HELP!

Create a boot CD that allows you to change the Administrator password to a
blank one....

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

To run chkdsk without booting into windows at all, either boot to the
recovery console or use a third party boot disk (BartPE, Ultimate Boot Disk,
Hiren's Boot Disk, etc) that has additional goodies on it. Google will be
your friend there.