So about 7 months ago someone broke into our house and stole Danielles laptop. About a month ago they actually caught the dudes who did it and recovered her laptop. We got it today and it works but the only problem is the asshole changed the admin password and disabled pretty much everything. Does anyone have any tips on how I can find a way to bypass the password prompt? It's the "home edition" of Vista. She had a TON of pictures, papers for school and work on there so she's hoping the idiot didn't erase them. I'm trying to crack it, any help would rule. Thanks you guys!

No Windows expert, but check this out.

I posed your question to our IT guy. He says...

You will need a second computer to assist you in recovering your files. To recover all of your data files from the laptop drive, he suggested purchasing an external drive case (approx. $25), and popping out the laptop hard-drive, and place it in the external drive case (this is pretty easy to do). You can then connect the external drive (with a usb cable) to the second computer, and then copy all of your files onto the 2nd computer (or another external hard-drive you might have to back up your present system).

Once you've recovered all of your data files from the laptop hard-drive, place it back into the laptop. You'll have to re-initialize the hard drive, and re-install the operating system and then all of your software. Your laptop should return back to normal operation.

He did say that there are some services and hacks out there that might be able to fiddle with Vista, but it's a weird operating system. Sorry to hear about your troubles

Thanks for the info you guys!

I had to try a few things out, some brute force password crackers that didn't work but I eventually got it. Sadly NONE of Danielles stuff was on there. The only good thing is there are pictures of more stolen stuff so we are going to take it back to the investigator tomorrow. Although not what we were hoping for maybe it's more helpful to the case to put him away for longer. They found tons of stolen electronics at his house so he's going away for a while.

good thing that you got the laptop back hank
have had many friends laptop stolen and never seen the light of day
(stupid ass kids probally that take pic on stolen comps of the shit they have stolen to)
anyway best of luck thiefs piss me off hardcore

Sorry to hear that they deleted your daughter's stuff . Have you tried recovery software? If the HD hasn't been written to numerous times, there is still a chance to recover "deleted" files.

You might be able to use a data recovery program to get back some of the pictures and documents lost from the computer.

I've used one before and has worked quite well.