Month: November 2008

Bootable ISO to USB Drive

digitaleagle How To, Ubuntu, Uncategorized 3 Comments

I was trying to boot the Trinity Rescue Kit without having to burn a CD.  I never did get it to work, but I did get the Ubuntu ISO to boot.

Method 1 (didn’t work for me)

Step 1.  Download the ISO File.  Save it to a directory where you can browse to it.

Step 2.  Browse to the downloaded file.  Right click and choose “Open with ‘Archive Manager’.  (This is for linux.  You could use 7-zip in Windows, maybe WinZip).

Step 3.  Insert the USB Drive; notice where it mounts the drive.  For me it was at /media/disk.

Step 4.  Extract the ISO file by clicking the Extract button in Archive Manager.  Enter the path where the USB drive was mounted for the destination path.

This didn’t work for me.  I am assuming there is more to it than just copying the files onto the disk.

Method 2

Step 1.  Download  UNetbootin.

Step 2.  You need to make the file bootable.  I ran chmod +x unetbootin-linux-299.

Step 3.  When I ran it the first time, it told me that it needed mtools installed.  This was easy to install with: sudo apt-get install mtools

Step 4.  Run it from the terminal with ./unetbootin-linux-299

Step 5.  Choose the diskimage and pick the iso file.

Step 6.  Then, click OK

This worked on Ubuntu, but not on TRK.  When it booted into Ubuntu, it gave me a UNetBootin boot menu, and then it booted all the way into Ubuntu 8.10.

Resources

.iso to USB

Ubuntu: Installation from USB Stick

UNetBootIn

Recovering Windows Vista Password

digitaleagle Troubleshooting, Uncategorized, Windows Leave a comment

I had a relative tonight forget her password to Windows Vista.  She hadn’t used her computer in three months, which is a shame because it is a relatively nice one.

Here is a walk-through of what I did.  You may want to read through the whole thing before you try it so you don’t repeat the steps that did not work.

Step 1.  I downloaded Trinity Resource Kit.  I tried to copy it to a USB key and boot from USB, but that didn’t work for some reason.  I had to burn the ISO to a physical CD.

Step 2.  At the boot menu, I tried several options before it would work.  I am guessing it had a conflict with the graphics card.  I finally got it to work by choosing the option #14, (Alternate boot 1).

Step 3.  Once it booted I got a command-line.  I typed:

winpass -u Administrator

Step 4.  Then, the command asked me to choose the Windows installation.  This computer had two Windows options.  Possibly, one of them was the recovery partition.  I didn’t know which one to choose, so I guessed the first option.  Apparently, this was a wrong guess because it just took me to a command-line registry editor.  I hit “q” to quit and it took me back to the command-line without doing anything.

Step 5.  I tried the same winpass command again.  This time, I chose the second “Windows installation”.  This time it gave me a menu.  The menu was different than my instructions, and so, I just hit q for quit.  I could have reset the administrator account, and that would have solved them problem, but I would have had to logon as the administrator and sorted out the account information.

Step 6.  I noticed in the winpass output (before the menu) that it displayed a list of usernames.  I knew which one my relative used, and I substituted the actual username for administrator:

winpass -u <username>

Step 7.  At the menu, I chose 4 to unlock the account — just in case.  I wasn’t sure that it was locked, but they had tried many guesses before I got the computer.

Step 8.  I ran the whole winpass command one more time, and at the last menu, I chose option 1 to blank out the password.

Step 9.  I typed reboot at the command-line to restart the computer.  It ejected the CD before it restarted, and I removed it to let it boot into Windows.  When it started, it bypassed the login screen and logged in automatically.

Problem solved!

Resources