Re: Debian on a laptop....
On Thu, Jul 08, 2004 at 10:26:26AM +0100, Clive Menzies wrote:
> On (07/07/04 18:31), Bill Gladney wrote:
> > hello...I'm trying to remove the remnants of Debian....but it is
> > password protected....not my machine...a friend of mine asked me to
> > get it all off....or format it .....and install a copy of Win XP that
> > she could use and understand....she bought this computer from another
> > person...who lost the password....and now I'm faced with the project
> > of formatting the hard drive....but cannot by-pass the flash page
> > which comes up .asking me for user ID and password....I wonder if
> > there's a way to do this without actually taking the hard drive
> > out....and throwing it as far as I can.....or is there a solution to
> > this problem..short of getting a new hard drive.....thanx....
If its the bootloader/debian password, you need to just pop in the
windows cd and configure the bios to look for a system on the cd
first instead of the hard disk.
If its a bios password, you need to find the specs to see how to reset
the bios (probably take it into a lab), or open it up and find which
jumper you need to short circuit in order to reset the bios, maybe
removing all batteries and power and letting it stand will work, but I
don't think so.
Possibly downloading a bios upgrade to floppy and then boot of that (if
that isn't disabled in the bios) will work.
BTW, personally I understand debian much better then XP, but there are
also some broken people out there who seem to prefer the all
controlling methods of M$.
> FWIW she'd be a lot better off running Debian or something similar ....
> reduced threat of viruses, better control over operating environment,
> access to thousands of packages at the end of an internet connection,
> etc.
>
> Burn the latest copy of Knoppix and boot from that to let her try it,
> perhaps?
>
> If however, your blandishments are to no avail, you need to get into the
> BIOS on boot (it varies but pressing Del or F8 usually does it) and then
> change the boot order to boot off CD first. Then insert your
> exhorbitant Wndows XP disk (80% profit to MS), format and install from
> there.
>
> And when she's overrun with viruses and related problems, this is not
> the place to find solutions ;)
>
> Regards
>
> Clive
>
> --
> http://www.clivemenzies.co.uk
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>
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