Need help getting back into my school laptop.

[Shaina]

As the title says, I need help getting into the laptop I use for studying.

Basically, the other night I was fiddling around with Windows Remote Desktop Tool settings and kind of messed up. The laptop is a part of a domain my school uses, and I think I cut my PC loose from said domain. (By going Control Panel > System > Remote Settings > Computer Name > Network ID, and changing the network ID from being part of a domain to being private). In doing so, my laptops password changed, without me actually changing it, and I can't get back into it now.

In other words, all I basically need is help getting back into my laptop so I can access all my work and files etc, the rest I can handle myself.

Couple of things worth noting:
- My access on the laptop is very limited. I possess very little administrator rights, and I do not have access to the administrator p/w so I cannot enter through safe mode.

- There are no system restore checkpoints that I can go back to.

If there's anything else you need to know, please let me know, and thanks in advance.

[vesseblah]

You can access your work and files by booting the laptop with Linux live CD unless the laptop is encrypted with BitLocker or some other disc encryption software. Then plug in USB stick or USB HDD, and copy your files to a computer you can use. If the laptop's settings are very insecure you might be able to access and use the files in safe mode also, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Before the admins at your school restore the network settings and passwords, there's nothing else you can do.

Btw, did you try to log in with empty password, or as user/empty?

[Shaina]

Yep, I did. I also tried logging in with an administrator account (the one I used to access Remote Settings in the first place) but none of it worked. Thanks for the suggestion anyway - I'll try it out.

---------- Post added 2010-10-24 at 05:24 PM ----------

Hmm, I made my USB stick into a bootable Linux OS but when I got in I couldn't find any of my files. I could however find a folder named BitLocker, I guess it's safe to assume it is encrypted then?