Norton Ghost System Restore...Simple Question

plainman007 · 07-30-2009, 12:39 AM

Hi,

I wanted to restore my system to an older image i had saved of my C drive.
But what if ive forgotten the windows user password i had then. Its a year onld image i think and im not sure what password i had then for the welcome screen. Is there a way to restore without being stuck by the password ?

I mean theres an option in the restoration menu which has a toggle button to "Restore MBR (master boot record)" will deactivating this let me enter without my password ?

Thanks

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**ctal** · 07-30-2009, 09:16 AM

Hi Plainman,

The MBR has nothing to do with it, or with anything that is "within" Windows. If logging on as an administrator, or as a user with administrative privileges, is password protected, you may be out of luck. Perhaps this article will help:

How to log on to your Windows XP-based computer if you forget your password or if your password expires

Also, the MBR contains the partition table for the drive, and points to the partition which contains the operating system, thereby starting the boot process. In general, you do NOT want to restore the MBR to the state it had at an earlier time, because the partition structure and even the drive itself (and its size) may have changed between then and now. Basically, what you are trying to do is to restore the Windows partition, regardless of whether or not that is the only partition on the drive.

Regards,
-- Al

traveler · 07-30-2009, 02:19 PM

My questions:

Are you trying to pull what you want from a Ghost image using the Ghost Explorer?

Are you using a Ghost boot disk or Ghost installed on the hard drive to do this?

As ctal mentioned, the password is set in the image and is part of the restored image.

I suggest: One. Create a current Ghost image. Two. Restore your old image and try out what you think the password is. Three. If you succeed - Great! If you fail - Restore the current image.

__________________
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plainman007 · 08-01-2009, 01:43 AM

Ctal > Hi, Thanks for the pointer about the MBR. I will leave it off the next time i do a restore.

Traveller > Yes, trying to do a system restore. Not just pull files out. If it were file extraction, i would just do an extract using the norton image browser.

I think i have no other alternate than to restore and then try various passwords...

.

07-30-2009, 12:39 AM	#1
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 437	Norton Ghost System Restore...Simple Question Hi, I wanted to restore my system to an older image i had saved of my C drive. But what if ive forgotten the windows user password i had then. Its a year onld image i think and im not sure what password i had then for the welcome screen. Is there a way to restore without being stuck by the password ? I mean theres an option in the restoration menu which has a toggle button to "Restore MBR (master boot record)" will deactivating this let me enter without my password ? Thanks
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07-30-2009, 09:16 AM	#2
ctal Eschews Obfuscation Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Connecticut, USA Posts: 1,996	Re: Norton Ghost System Restore...Simple Question Hi Plainman, The MBR has nothing to do with it, or with anything that is "within" Windows. If logging on as an administrator, or as a user with administrative privileges, is password protected, you may be out of luck. Perhaps this article will help: How to log on to your Windows XP-based computer if you forget your password or if your password expires Also, the MBR contains the partition table for the drive, and points to the partition which contains the operating system, thereby starting the boot process. In general, you do NOT want to restore the MBR to the state it had at an earlier time, because the partition structure and even the drive itself (and its size) may have changed between then and now. Basically, what you are trying to do is to restore the Windows partition, regardless of whether or not that is the only partition on the drive. Regards, -- Al __________________ "I didn't say I didn't say it. I said that I didn't say that I said it. I want to make that very clear." -- George Romney, in 1968, while campaigning for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. Last edited by ctal; 07-30-2009 at 09:28 AM..
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07-30-2009, 02:19 PM	#3
traveler Where to next? Join Date: May 2001 Location: South Florida Posts: 18,589	My questions: Are you trying to pull what you want from a Ghost image using the Ghost Explorer? Are you using a Ghost boot disk or Ghost installed on the hard drive to do this? As ctal mentioned, the password is set in the image and is part of the restored image. I suggest: One. Create a current Ghost image. Two. Restore your old image and try out what you think the password is. Three. If you succeed - Great! If you fail - Restore the current image. __________________ Asus X48 Rampage Formula / Intel Q9450 2.66 @ 3.2 / 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 / Asus Radeon HD4870X2 Tri-Fan 2GB graphics card / 24" DeLL Ultrasharp 2408WFP monitor / Western Digital Raptor X Hard Drive / Two Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5001ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives / Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 / Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speaker System / Lian Li 343B cube case / PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Crossfire Edition / IOGEAR GCS1782 GCS1782 Dual-Link DVI KVMP switch with 7.1 audio
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08-01-2009, 01:43 AM	#4
plainman007 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 437	Re: Norton Ghost System Restore...Simple Question Ctal > Hi, Thanks for the pointer about the MBR. I will leave it off the next time i do a restore. Traveller > Yes, trying to do a system restore. Not just pull files out. If it were file extraction, i would just do an extract using the norton image browser. I think i have no other alternate than to restore and then try various passwords....
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