BleepingComputer.com: Absolutely cannot logon to Windows XP Home

The machine in question is a Dell Inspiron 300m laptop. Old, yes, but it gets the job done on short trips.

The machine was infected with some kind of virus, making internet extremely slow and other processes difficult. I attempted to install Malwarebytes, and rebooted the machine. Upon the reboot, the computer came to the screen where you select which user you would like to logon as. (Remember, this is XP home so it was just the little icons)

Now, this computer has only 1 profile setup and it has never come to that screen before, it normally just logs on automatically.

I click on the 1 profile available and it asks for a password... This account has never had a password... I tried nothing, and a few other random things, nothing worked.

I boot into safe mode and try the Administrator account, same thing (asks for password). Can't log in.

So, I boot from the Windows XP CD and do a re-install of windows (without wiping the drive), and still I get the same things!!


At this point, I just want to backup data and wipe the drive. So I boot into recovery mode, navigate to the C: drive and try to open the Documents & Settings folder: Access is Denied!!!

At this point, what hope do I have of backing up any of this data?? I don't have any way of putting this laptop hard drive into another machine for the time being...

This post has been edited by alkusoittow: 31 May 2009 - 01:10 PM

Hello alkusoittow,

The XP home Administrator account can't be accessed easily due to restrictions. The access denied error you see indicated that you have tried to view files on the computer that are not asociated with the account that you are using. For example user 'a' creates files on the computer; user 'b' tries to view these files, as user 'b' isn't allowed to view the files so is given the access denied message.

There is hope of retrieving your files from the system. To do this we will need a 'liveCD' this will create an operating system that you can use from CD that should allow you to copy your files to an external disk or other removable media. http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Docs & Settings folders/files from a different system...typically need the user to take ownership of those files.

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

It doesn't sound as if you can do that.

Louis