Backing up installed software before doing a recovery to Factory settings ?

MikeHar

Hi,

My laptop is borked so I'm going to recover the OS (Win7) to factory settings. I have backed up all my user data but I don't know if MS Office was included when the machine arrived from Dell or if it was installed separately afterwards. So, is it possible to create some sort of backup image of the current install of MS office before reverting the OS to the factory state ?

Thanks,

Mike.

Unfortunately not. What version of Office is it? Depending on the version, you might be able to retrieve the product key and download the install files.

MikeHar

Karsini wrote: »

Unfortunately not. What version of Office is it? Depending on the version, you might be able to retrieve the product key and download the install files.

Hi Karsini, its Office 2007 and I have managed to extract the product key, so I should be able to download the installer direct from MS, however I am now faced with another hurdle, I dont actually know the admin password for the machine! I though my account was an Administrator account but I dont see my own account as an option after choosing 'Repair Your Computer' from the F8-interrupted boot menu. So now it seems that just resotring the machine to its factory settings will be a challenge.

PropJoe10

MikeHar wrote: »

Hi Karsini, its Office 2007 and I have managed to extract the product key, so I should be able to download the installer direct from MS, however I am now faced with another hurdle, I dont actually know the admin password for the machine! I though my account was an Administrator account but I dont see my own account as an option after choosing 'Repair Your Computer' from the F8-interrupted boot menu. So now it seems that just resotring the machine to its factory settings will be a challenge.

What you want there is something like <snip> Boot CD, and use the password reset function to reset the administrator password.

Fysh

Don't use that particular boot cd, it's full of unlicensed/pirate copies of commercial tools.

Use NTPasswd, it's a freely-distributed tool that can achieve the same function.

FanadMan

I was going to suggest the same as PropJoe but I got pulled up for it a few years ago

MikeHar

Fysh wrote: »

Don't use that particular boot cd, it's full of unlicensed/pirate copies of commercial tools.

Use <NTPasswd>, it's a freely-distributed tool that can achieve the same function.

Before I try NTPasswd, can anyone tell me if the process listed here w_w_w<dot>wikihow<dot>com/Break-the-Admin-Password-in-Windows-7
can work for 64-bit Win 7 ?
I get as far as the step 11 where I am trying to replace utilman.exe with cmd.exe, however the command
cd windows\system32
fails, which I suspect is because my OS is Win 7 64 bit rather than 32 bit, is there an equivalent command for 64 bit ?
When I type 'dir' on C: it lists no files or dirs but I do notice that the volume is 'BDEDrive' rather than 'OSDisk', could this be the problem and if so is there any way to get back to OSDisk so I can continue the steps ?

I would rather use the steps in the 'How To' guide simply because it involves no external software, which could potentially be malicious.
But if this cant be done then I will try NTPasswd

Thanks,

Mike

unkel

Yes that works, MikeHar.

You are selecting the wrong drive letter in the command prompt (BDE Drive is a reserved windows partition). Have a look in windows explorer what drive letter your windows partition is (or just try a few different letters in command prompt, you'll probably get lucky. Try E: F: etc.)

BTW the system32 subdirectory of windows is always called that even if your installation is 64-bit

Irish Steve

Based on MUCH pain over many years when recovering systems that have thrown their toys out of the pram, if at all possible, CLONE the entire disc before doing a factory reset, as there are a number of applications out there that put folders in the root directory, and if you lose them, it can be a PAIN to get them back, the 2 that spring to immediate mind being the Revenue ROS application, and some versions of Banking on line from Bank of Ireland. If the folders for those applications are lost, it can mean a re registration process, involving delays with An Post delivering paper form versions of security log in information.

I've had another hassle this week here when trying to recover an old Vista laptop that won't boot, when trying to copy rather than clone, using a W10 machine as the host, it failed, because our wonderful friends at Microsoft think it's clever to use file names that are so long, they won't copy unless the destination is in the root folder, and the directory name is about 4 characters, so trying to copy to something like F:/WD_Disc/Clone/Drive_C/ won't work, as the overall length is too long. When I then look at the filename in the original folder, it's an absurd thing that can't even come close to being justified by anyone other than a complete nerd geek that's never had to do anything serious with a computer in their life.

And yes, be VERY careful about using password crack or hack programs, there are a lot out there that are riddled with all manner of malware and adware and the like that could end up causing more problems than they solve. The same caution also applies to using downloaded ISO images of operating systems, while there are some sites that have clean versions, many of them will have insertions that can and do compromise the integrity of the machine, and result in it being used as a remote bot to assist with denial of service attacks, and we've seen in recent weeks on this site just how disruptive that can be.

MikeHar

unkel wrote: »

Yes that works, MikeHar.

You are selecting the wrong drive letter in the command prompt (BDE Drive is a reserved windows partition). Have a look in windows explorer what drive letter your windows partition is (or just try a few different letters in command prompt, you'll probably get lucky. Try E: F: etc.)

BTW the system32 subdirectory of windows is always called that even if your installation is 64-bit

Thanks Unkel, it was the rather than the C: and I have now managed to regain access to the Administrator account however the saga continues. So I was following a Dell guide as to how to revert my OS to factory settings. It said to select 'Repair Your Computer' from the F8-interrupted boot menu, then log in as admin (which I can now do) and then 'Click Dell Factory Image Restore' etc. My problem now is that I dont see any 'Dell Factory Image Restore' Icon or option !
I just assumed that as it was a Dell laptop there would be a Factory recovery partition on it (in fact that is what I assumed the BDEDrive was). So now it seems there is no recovery partition, so I'm wondering what to do next. I believe I can borrow a Windows 7 pro OEM installation disk, and I have my license sticker on the laptop so I hope (?) that these can be used in conjunction to do a fresh install after nuking the drive. I'm wondering though is there any precaution I should take before nuking the drive in case this doesn't work. Specifically I am thinking that it should be possible to create, from the existing installation, a DVD or indeed recovery partition which would be guaranteed to work with my license key, shouldn't it ? I see an option to create a 'System Image' but this doesn't look like what I want as it would just replicate the exact current setup with all its bugs. The other option I see is create a 'Repair Disk' but it doesn't look like this will allow me to do a fresh install if I completely wipe the disk, will it ?

Thanks,

Mike

Capt'n Midnight

Irish Steve wrote: »

Based on MUCH pain over many years when recovering systems that have thrown their toys out of the pram, if at all possible, CLONE the entire disc before doing a factory reset, as there are a number of applications out there that put folders in the root directory, and if you lose them, it can be a PAIN to get them back

One trick when upgrading an old machine is to make a VM on the new one and have shared folders so you can move more and more off and uninstall apps off the VM until just the empty husk is left.
mklink is very handy - move a directory and leave just a shortcut
Disk2vhd and use .vhd format instead of .vhdx so you can use on virtualbox

And yes, be VERY careful about using password crack or hack programs, there are a lot out there that are riddled with all manner of malware and adware and the like that could end up causing more problems than they solve.

It's one of the reasons The Charter says No Warez / No Crackz

And besides people reuse passwords so cracking a password gives too much information.

The NT password reset disk means you need to have physical access in the first place and you don't get the password (and EFS encrypted files stay encrypted)