Locked Out

[threebs]

Hi Guys still around out of hospital now. I am locked out of my ship image laptop, a

Toshiba Satellite P855 G32, won`t read dvds or usb to reinstall windows even after

going in Bios to tell it to read Windows 10 install USB first etc, disk is

partitioned so majority of ship images are saved on D drive partition. Anything I try

it is asking for a password to my Microsoft Account, but I do not have one as I

originally registered with local account. So any programs/hacks out there to force it to

reinstall windows 10 ? Thanks Guys.

[tugfan]

Hi threebs, glad to hear you're out of the hospital. Hope you're feeling better.
Sorry I can't help you. My knowledge of computers limits itself to turning it on and off it a few simple things between that.


Ton

[threebs]

Cheers tugfan, no change in diagnosis but coping at the moment with the breathing.

[Makko]

Hi Threebs,

Good to know that you are out of hospital! Follow the indications from your doctors and look after yourself and eat well. Even though everyone else has forgotten about them, use a facemask when you have to go out, say to a doc's appointment (after all, sick people go to doctors!).

I am no expert with your problem but......... If you have a hotmail account, you can use those credentials. Even gmail accepts a hotmail account (much to my surprise on my wife's Android phone). I am not sure about Facebook accounts, but hotmail worked for me with my new, personal, Win 11 laptop. I think that it may be something to do with the "cloud" storage, but I am no techie, and have never been, when it comes to Windows.

As has been said before, Win 11 gives problems when connecting some "old" external devices. I bought an update for my GPS, but have so far been unable to connect it to install. My daughter just arrived from Italy, so I will give it a try with her computer later. Having said that, my previous printer was incompatible a couple of work laptop changes a while back. However, I had planned to get a new one and that installed fine (the old one was hauled off to Italy by my daughter).

Best Regards and good luck with everything.

Dave
Mexico City.

[Malcolm G]

Hi Threebs,
Likewise happy to hear you are home again, take care and follow orders.

Re the Windows password - I have in past successfully used a password cracker - Owner of laptop deceased and access needed.
It might be worth a try:
https://www.4winkey.com/password/win...key-crack.html

Otherwise one can try removing the hard drive and connect it directly via a USB cable to another machine. You can usually read the files directly because you are not going through a locked operating system.

[YM-Mundrabilla]

Good to hear that you are home from hospital. Take care and look after yourself.

Bloody computers can sense the most inconvenient moment to play up. I prefer hot oil and steam - at least you can usually see what is wrong ...............

As Makko has said wear a mask at every opportunity. The YMs and I do; both of us being long past worrying what others may think.

As I said on another thread this morning don't worry about duplicate photos everyone here will enjoy a second helping I am sure. They might even elicit some additional comments.
Geoff

[threebs]

Malcolm G Cheers for that, can you lead me through connecting drive to USB, I assume drive has USB

male/female connector ? Toshiba laptop is 10 years old would it even have a USB port on the hard drive ?

[John Rogers]

I'm pretty sure it does not, however there may be an adapter that could do the job.

[threebs]

Hi Malcolm G, I have taken the hard drive out and no USB connection,

there is a 4 pin connector, a 7 contact and a 15 contact connector. Looks like

I need an old fashioned wire connector, right ?

Many thanks, threebs.

[threebs]

thanks John. Trouble is I have been banned from driving, my wife has a broken ankle and
cannot drive to go searching for a cable etc. I wonder if there are any members in my area Bridgnorth, Shropshire to visit me and possibly get a cable maybe from PCWorld or computer shop. My Wifes laptop is only 2 years old and doubt it would have a connector for an old fashioned connector cable.

[Malcolm G]

Oh dear sorry, I didn't think.
In my den I have cables and adapters to connect just about anything together - 'Normal' people probably don't!
If you are going that route then you have a SATA hard drive, basically one set of contacts is the power the other is the input/output. The four pins are for shorting 'jumpers' so ignore them.
What you need is a SATA to USB adapter cable which you can either get on ebay, or your local computer shop, or your local neighbourhood geek!
The adapter will have a straight female socket which goes over all the contacts.
If you are using a desktop PC then a front panel USB socket will not have enough power to run the HD, you need to plug the USB into the back. A laptop USB should be OK.
When you plug it in the HD will spin up - you will hear it running. The host computer should then find it and ask what you want to do - You just need to read the files.
If you want to transfer any files then just use 'drag and drop' from the USB dialogue box to wherever you want to put them.

Good luck!

[John Rogers]

If you have Amazon try them as they have loads of adapters, and of course they will drop them off at your door.

[Tony Morris]

I had a laptop die on me last year and removed the hard drive and using a cable bought from ebay and was able to transfer all my files to a new laptop. It is a usb to sata cable, hope the link works.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364016034...mis&media=COPY

[threebs]

I have a Dell Dimension 9200 old Desktop about 12 years old still working, it came with 2 sata drives and I installed 2 more to take the 250,000 or so ship images I have, confined to bed at moment so cannot

get downstairs into study to check, Surely I would have needed to use old type cables to connect these extra sata drives at the time, but cannot remember now so long ago. Is there a good chance that these

cables would fit the old laptop drive ?

[Malcolm G]

It depends whether additional hard drives are connected internally or externally. The motherboard on your PC has 4 + 2 SATA connectors so it could theoretically take up to 5 hard discs, and an optical drive.
If they are connected externally then they would use the rear USB sockets with an adapter but I suspect the former is the case.
A PC will typically use a 3.5inch HD which has separate power and data connectors.
A Laptop will typically use a 2.5inch drive which usually has a combined socket.
What you could do is open the PC case and connect your loose laptop drive into a spare port, you would however need a SATA cable AND a spare power connection so probably not the best idea.
Good Luck, let us know how its going, or not ...

[John Rogers]

One could also use the 3.5 portable case to slide in the hard drive and use the USB cable. I use one as a portable HD from an old PC. On the 2.5 drive the adapter is the best bet.

[Engine Serang]

Bob we need you.

[threebs]

We have Amazon Prime but what is the name of the cable that I am looking for ?

and would it need to have a male USB connector the other end.

the 2 extra Sata drives are mounted internally in the Dimension 9200.

[Malcolm G]

You need a SATA to USB adapter cable for 2.5in laptop hard drive,
Like this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/USB3-0-Adap...s%2C213&sr=8-4

[threebs]

Thanks Malcolm, been ordered, so just connect to old laptop drive and connect usb end to working laptop, read and retrieve Save Drive (D) partition, is that right ?

[Malcolm G]

You don’t want to save or transfer the whole drive, that would include the operating system.
Open it in the dialogue box to read files and then just save, or transfer, the image files to a location on the host machine. Perhaps set up a new sub file to keep them separate.
Simplest foolproof method is to have both the new file window and the usb window open on either side of the screen then drag and drop batches of files over.

[threebs]

I was planning just to save the (D) drive which is partitioned seperate from the (C) drive ?

[threebs]

After successful retrieval can I then format the old drive and reinstall windows 10 ?

[Malcolm G]

Oops, a bit of brain fog there - mixing my drive letters. I should have re-read post #1
Drive C is your local disc of course so, yes, you just need to copy drive D.
In mitigation I can mention that on most Windows systems 'D' is the optical drive and I personally use 'E' etc for my back-up drive or data drive or whatever.

I just dug out and opened an old laptop of my own, running Win10, to see what happened and see if it replicated your issue. On signing on it opened a blue screen dialogue asking my to sign in to my account and then refusing to go on until I did so. If that is what you had then the work round to to click on I/O at bottom right and restart, it will reopen with the regular sign-on screen.

Regarding reinstalling Win10 on your original lap-top. I would suggest trying a totally clean reinstall on a new hard drive. Then you still have all your data on the old disc for the time being. When it is all up and running you can re-use the old disc as a back-up drive.

[threebs]

Cheers Graham. I am expecting cable anytime now, so hopefully I can start retrieval soon.