Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Before I assasinate Bill Gates...

This is topic Before I assasinate Bill Gates... in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Bent Tree (Member # 7777) on :

So before I assassinate Bill Gates and destroy every PC in the United States, is there anyone who can help me?

My problem is that I cannot open about thirteen or fourteen documents that I have written on this computer that I have been working on for a while at home. Long story short it is a PC that I got from the restauraunt I opened. It was from the previous owner. It has two user accounts one was for the managers which I have the password for, but the other is that of the previous owner and I do not have the password for. The owner account of course is the administrator.

This is the message that I get when I try to open any of the documents I have created:

quote:
!
The document name or path is not valid. Try one of
these suggestions.

*Check file permissions for the document drive.
*Use file open dialog box to locate the document.
(C:\...\Submitted\Curiosity-MS.rtf)

#1 I do not know where or what the file open dialog box is

#2 I do not know how to check file permissions for the document drive.

#3 I would really like to know how to hack into the administrator password so I can change it and use it. I cannot download programs currently or anything without that Privelege

There are some really important documents that have been cut off from me and I don't really understand why. I have been using them and have been able to open them without incident for about six weeks.

Posted by D2 (Member # 8930) on :

1. The File Open box is what you'd get when you:
- Open Rich Text Editor or Wordpad (whatever you're trying to open the .rtf files with)
- Click File -> Open

It's suggesting you try and open the files through the subsequent prompt instead of double-clicking them in their folders. I'm not sure how much good that'll do you, but if it truly is a weird filename issue (it'd help if you posted the full filename), then it might help.

2. You can check file permissions by right-clicking on a document, clicking "Properties," and then clicking on the (in Vista) Security tab. I don't remember what the tab is called in XP and I don't know what it is in Windows 7, but it'll likely be one of the tabs in the Properties box.

3. Hacking the admin password depends on what version of Windows you're using. Which is it?

[This message has been edited by D2 (edited February 12, 2010).]

Posted by Bent Tree (Member # 7777) on :

The operating system is XP. I tried a hack that I read about on the net, but it didnt work with the particular version of XP.

Thanks for the suggestions I will give them a try and give an update.

Posted by WBSchmidt (Member # 8533) on :

My initial thought is this if you have Microsoft Word. If I think of anything else I'll post.

1) Use File >> Open
2) Navigate to the appropriate folder
3) Select the document you wish to open
4) In the bottom drop down (Files of Type) select "Recover Text from Any File (*.*)," which is usually one of the last options.
5) Click the Open button

You may lose some formatting but it could at least allow you to recover the text. Hope that helps.

--William

Posted by Edward Douglas (Member # 8872) on :

Sometimes computer owners forget to protect their administrator access when the PC is in Safe Mode. Bring your comp up in Safe Mode, if there is an Administrator icon select it, if no password was assigned then you should be able to get in then. Make a new user account while in Safe Mode giving it Administrator privileges, then reboot and try to retrieve the files you are looking for.

If this doesn't work there are sites that you can Google with instructions on how to create bootable CDs that will aid you in bypassing users/passwords. Check for one of those.

Posted by tchernabyelo (Member # 2651) on :

From the message you are getting, I assume you are trying to open them through a shortcut (e.g. the recent documents list, or from the Word list of recently opened documents); what appears to have happened is that the path that route THINKS the documents are down is not the path they are ACTUALLY down. Two obvious main possibilities: either they have been moved, or you are not looking down the path you think you're looking down. The latter would be the case if you had signed on as a different ID, though normally if that were the case you wouldn't even have the access to the list.

I'd use the search function to try and find the documents on the machine and see if it can track them down. Everything you've said indicates to me that it is not a problem with the documents themselves not opening, but a mavigation issue in terms of finding them (I have no idea how you've been storing them - whether you've used the desktop tree or my documents or what, and depending on the multi-user set-up I'm not even going to pretend I can tell you the actual file tree they might live down).