What would grandma's computer password be... hint: "to golf"

[LakeCleElum]

Originally Posted by motion

Why on earth would you want to get into a stranger's computer?

Years ago (late 80's), the city I worked for sold surplus computers via an auction. I got one for $60. Had come from the Building Dept and the HD had not been wiped.

Found a memo to an building inspector that read something like this:

You are the lead inspector on the new "_________" Office Park project. As we are behind in our anticipated revenue to date this year, you need to ensure the contractors fail more inspections. We need this project to generate more fees to meet our goals.......

[Embraer]

2golf

[dentist90]

going a bit Shakespearean here... "to golf"

"or not to golf"

That is the question.

[Brian 162]

How about " handicap" "caddyshack" or maybe the password is just "password".

[M.D. Holloway]

born

[john70t]

Could it be 'gulf'? As in vacation, boating, of mexico, gulfstream,

[scottmandue]

+1 on wipe the drive and install a new operating system... even if you guess the password it will be a huge can O worm & PITA to work with.

[pavulon]

futile
frustrate
swinging
hellno
meh

[LeeH]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I tried all of them... at least the serious ones. Tried caps, dashes, spaces. I knew the garage sale was going on today, too, so I just took it back to her and explained it wasn't a monitor, but an all-in-one computer that was password protected. Told her to keep the $2 that she charged me since she also sold me her ex husband's Suunto D9 dive watch for $50.

[masraum]

nice!

[porsche4life]

Not sure why no suggested this...


Can't you boot in safe mode and get in to it?

[john walker's workshop]

Hitthelinks.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Not sure why no suggested this...


Can't you boot in safe mode and get in to it?

Safe mode would still protect it... but that link I posted waaay up top on the thread to ntpasswd will work on anything...

Of course, wiping the drive and installing an OS from scratch would do the same (I even have a Win 7 Dell OEM disk I could send you, no license key required since it reads from Dell BIOS)

[LeeH]

Yeah, I thought about running the software from the link. I already had way too much time in this thing. It was probably worth $100 or so. I'll do very well with the watch.

[Seahawk]

Call Granny, do it now. Ask her the F%$##@ password!!!

Then share it with us...I solve puzzles and when I can't Grannies get hurt.

I am willing fly to Phoenix.

[Baz]

To Golf?

Fahrvergnügen

[Nostril Cheese]

Beat me to it ^^

Try Electrical Failure

[cabmandone]

If she was anything like me it would be "wish I could learn..."

[Schumi]

A lot of modern computers have a partition on the hard drive that is a back up OEM OS install. You have to hold down a certain key to get into it on startup. This will allow you to format the hard drive and start clean, and it will usually not have a password associated with it as it has nothing to do with the OS install on the main partition.

If that doesn't work...
Pull the hard drive, stick it in another computer and format it with a base essentials OS, minimal driver install. Then stick it back in the Dell and fire it up, let it automatically download all the drivers it needs (being an all-in-one, this may require some manual digging and loading of the drivers, but it is way easier these days than it used to be).

Screw trying to get into someone's personal stuff, better off not trying.

[creaturecat]

drunk?