pasqo83

Hey I really need some Tech knowledge to help me out here.

Basically, my friend bought a computer, it has a CD slot, hard drive.. etc... for the first time in over a year, he needs to do a clean boot as he was planning to sell and start again, he formated his hard drive, however he has no idea what the bios password is which means I can't manipulate the BIOS to use the CD rom.

He has a computer with no information on the hard drive as he formatted it completely. So what's my question??

How do I install XP onto a hard drive so I can put it back into the computer and it starts to Install XP?

The first part of my idea was to put the XP onto the hard drive itself, but how do I make the hard drive bootable or what is the best option to do this?

Thanks

A.Nonymous

I'm not sure what your problem is. You boot off a CD and what happens?

SUroot

have you tried accessing the boot menu (often F12) at the bios splash screen? This should give the option to boot from CD. Usually CD is set in the biod to already be in this menu. If not, how about USB? is that in the boot menu? There are apps to take a windows disk and construct a bootable usb installer.

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lunatic59

If you can identify the motherboard model there is usually a jumper that will reset the BIOS and clear the password. Then you can set it to boot from the CD ROM first. Alternatively, you can hit a key at the bios splash screen (usually F12) to bring up the boot menu and then select CD for the boot volume.

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johnlgalt

Correct on all counts. As long as the BIOS is not antiquated enough so that hte PW protection extended to the boot menu as well.

If it does you'll need to figure out the model so you can figure out how to reset the BIOS.

Other methods for entering the boot menu are [CTRL] + [S], [esc] and [F2] keys.

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9to5cynic

Didn't know about the physical reset

Yeah, sounds like someone set the BIOS password and forgot it... that'll happen (the only reason I haven't set a bios password myself ).

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pasqo83

Hi All, I think you missed the vital part, my friend cannot remember his BIOS password which I mentioned. He is not even comptuer literate, why the hell would you do that. lol


Thanks Lunatic59, I will give that a go :-)

SUroot

Eh?

All our replies to your post are in response to the fact that the BIOS password is unknown so not sure where you're getting that idea from

All our responses are either geared to avoiding the bios password or possibly resetting it. Please try the things that have been suggested.

Everyone who responded here is an IT Tech

pasqo83

Sorry I may have mis-read the post's above guys (and girls) :-)

I am unable to access the BIOS or alter the boot system so at the moment it's hard drive boot only.

lunatic59 mentioned something about a physical BIOS reset, so I will give that a go, I currently have the hard drive in my hand, just wanted to see if there was anything extra I can do on my side as well, saves me travelling backwards and forwards.

SUroot

what we needed to clarify is this:

You alter the boot order and what appears in the boot menu via the bios.

However, where you would normally press F2 or Del to get into bios, you should be able to press F12 to access the boot menu, regardless of bios access. What happens when you do that?!

pasqo83

Its been a while since I checked myself, I will double check and let you know the results tomorrow.

IOWA

Easy solution. Just disconnect all power to the mobo, and pull the battery from the mobo. Be careful of capacitors because they generally still hold a charge. Leave the battery off and all power disconnected for 10 min or so and youre good to go.

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SUroot

Its been some time since the bios password was stored on flash memory that lost its settings when power was removed. Flash memory hasn't needed power to retain data for years

IOWA

Been a while since I had to reset a BIOS xD

johnlgalt

The jumper that lunatic referred to is how you reset your BIOS to factory defaults.

Read this and you'll understand what we all meant by resetting your (his) BIOS:

How to Reset Your BIOS - wikiHow

The section about running debug in a cmd prompt window will not work on Windows 7. However, one of those password may work.

And this particular post (which pretty much says the same thing, but also mentions software that can help you do it - How to Reset Your BIOS - wikiHow

I'd try the BIOS PW reset software last.

Finally, another way would be to go to the OEM's (Original Equipment manufacturer's) website and download a newer / latest BIOS for that machine and flash it - it should reset b/c it physically deletes and writes over the old BIOS and then writes the new BIOS (but if the actual settings are stored in a different area than is written, the settings may not actually be reset, and you'll be right back at square one).

In order of safety, manually resetting via jumpers is the safest, then flashing a new one, and finally the software mentioned in the second link is the least safe.