Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I've recently had an issue with Windows 10 updates. For whatever reason, the most recent update failed. And Windows also failed to undo the update changes. Somewhere along the line I was signed out of my account and don't remember the password/pin. Not even sure if it needs a Windows Password or a Microsoft password. I was able to change my MS password. But now, it's nearly impossible to find a way to signin. Even Microsoft live support was no help. They suggest a factory reset. I also considered using the Creation Tool to reinstall Windows while saving all my apps, data and settings. But I need a bootable USB to do that.

I've tried the recovery mode with no success. I was able to get into safe mode, but that was no help either. My ultimate goal is to either find my old password, create a new one or disable password/pin prompts altogether. I need to be able to access the data on my HP laptop. A reformat will be an absolute last resort.

My questions are:
* Can I use Puppy Linux to discover/retrieve my current password, create a new one or disable passwords?
* Can I use PL to retrieve the data and a list of apps?
* Is there a way to access/change my password using a command prompt?

Any suggestions on how to access my laptop would be very helpful.

Thank you,
Dean R.

@Rokitman

to the Kennels (forum)!

Yes it is possible to retrieve all of the data and apps using Puppy Linux. Booted from USB or CD/DVD ROM you should be able to access all of the drive partitions and copy them to another storage location.

It might be possible to recover the password.

Does the Windows 10 boot at all? You mentioned being able to start in the safe mode.

to the Forum.

Fleshing out what rockedge wrote, what you'll need is somewhere to store the data you recover: depending on the amount of data maybe a DVD or CD, maybe a 2nd USB-Key or an external drive. Almost all the Data will be in Window's User folder unless you've moved it.

Having booted into Safe Mode, you should be able to follow the instructions here to make use of rufus to create a boot-able Puppy on your 1st USB-Key: https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 522#p40522. The instructions create a 'persistence' partition on the USB-Key. It's primary purpose is so that you can save changes --settings, customizations and additional programs-- to that USB-Key. But that partition can also be used to store data. So with a large enough Key and small enough data to be copied you can use it for copying your Windows data files.

Suggestion, almost any Puppy you choose will enable you to install xfe: Menu>Setup>Puppy Package Manage, type xfe --note there's no 'c'-- in the search box. xfe is a file-manager you can configure to have dual-panes and a tree view. See the 2nd graphic here as an example, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 101#p42101

Makes it easy to navigate and copy files from one location to another.

Friendly-Fossa, from here, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 902#p43902 provides xfe as a 'builtin'. Moreover it has the 'running as root' nag already turned off so you won't have to open Menu>Edit>Preferences>Dialogs and delete the 'x' in "warn if running as root'.

Thanx for the reply. The problem now is I'm having trouble booting Linux from the usb. I tried to burn Puppy Linux to a usb drive using UNetbootin. Attached is a screenshot of the contents of the usb. But even after I change the boot sequence, it doesn't load Puppy Linux. Do I have the right files? I can't burn the iso to cd because my desktop doesn't have a cd drive. My only option is to boot from usb. I'm trying to
use the creation tool to create a bootable usb.

If I'm able to create a bootable usb, will it give me the option to install Windows without losing apps, data and setting?

I'll be using a 32 GB flash drive to recover/save my data. Not sure if that will be enough. If not, I do have a second usb port and a larger usb drive. And I can install the .xfe file from within Puppy? You said it might be possable to also recover my old password? Is this feature in Puppy too?

Thanx for the reply. The problem now is I'm having trouble booting Linux from the usb. I tried to burn Puppy Linux to a usb drive using UNetbootin. Attached is a screenshot

Have you successfuly booted a USB in the past?
I see no screenshot
please describe the steps you took to make the USB in more detail
please describe what happened when you tried to boot it

I specifically provided the link to the discussion of Rufus to avoid problems. You can use Unetbootin: it almost gets it right .

Puppys are designed to 'run-in-ram' from READ-ONLY file-systems copied into RAM from the Storage Media; then create a Linux-Formatted block (SaveFile) on any storage media or a folder (SaveFolder) on some Linux formatted storage media to preserve customizations, settings, User-applications and, as aforesaid, user-created data on that Linux Formatted media. If you follow the instructions for using Rufus it creates not only the boot-loader but a 'persistence' partition formatted Linux Ext3. So it does all the structural work for you. [Keep in mind, however, that it takes some time for any program/application to format 32 Gbs].

Unetbootin does not format the USB-Drive it writes to. A USB-Key formatted Fat32 will remain entirely Fat32. A 31 Gb SaveFile will take forever to write all data to; probably can't hold 31 Gbs of data and is likely to become corrupted somewhere along the line. And the boot-argument Unetbootin writes is for a CD/DVD. Fortunately, that argument is in a text file. See bigpup's post here, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 174#p83174, the gist of which is that the boot argument pmedia=cd must be edited to pmedia=usbflash. If I understand it correctly Unetbootin's boot-loader is syslinux.cfg. So look for that file on your USB-Key and edit it. Warning: Windows use to screw-up when editing text files: the edits would be 'all-caps' while Linux is case sensitive.

But it should be obvious that I suggest you go back to square one and use Rufus.

Telling us you are using Puppy is meaningless. There are over 6,000 Puppys, about 30 actively supported and Unetbootin may not work with all of them. Which Puppy?: be specific, e.g. F96-CE_4 from this thread, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 882#p85882

Puppys by default use Rox-filemanager: actually the best, but involves a learning curve. Which is why I suggested xfe. But why not use Friendly-Fossa which has that alternate file-manager built in.

For your purposes, including the boot-loader, any Puppy will occupy 1 GB of Storage, or less. You're in a better position than we to guess if the remaining 31 Gbs on the Key will be sufficient to hold a copy of all your data files.

To recover your Window's password, you may want to create a Hiren's Boot-CD/DVD or USB-Key. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP3Wda25W1c and https://www.hirensbootcd.org/usb-booting/. See also https://ttcshelbyville.wordpress.com/20 ... -boot-iso/ for using rufus to create a Hirens-USB-Key.

Stop using dark red for the color of text you write.
some of us use dark theme for our display of the forum.
We cannot read dark red text.

Just type the text and let it be the color it needs to be for the forum theme being used..

Your problem sounds exactly like the issue I had with Windows 10.

I had to do a complete install of Windows 10, over the one that was there, to fix it.

I did have a Windows 10 recovery USB stick I made when first got the computer.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... Windows_10

Maybe that note, at top of this Microsoft web page, has something to do with your issue.

Booted with the recovery USB drive and used it to do a complete new install of Windows 10.

I could have used it to install a backup copy of the install, but the ones I had were very old and I did not want to use them.
Should have made newer ones and had them to use.

Only thing I lost was bookmarks in the browsers I had been using.
That is because they are not in Windows 10 and had to reinstall them.
I did find a backup copy of the bookmarks that I used to recover with in the browser I had installed.

All my personal stuff was still there, because during the Windows 10 install process, I was asked if I wanted to keep the old stuff and answered yes.
It made a folder labeled old windows, with the stuff in it.

I did have my passwords written down, so they still worked for me.
In fact, I seem to remember (after the new install) it just booted to the default user I was using before, without me doing anything.
I know my administrator password was still good to use.
So the new install, over the old install, kept the passwords I was using.

bigpup wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 1:54 am

Stop using dark red for the color of text you write.

Funny that you see red. Colors are definitely dark blue and greenish, almost impossible to read.
@mikeslr If you want to put emphasis on words you can make them bold or underline them, but please don't use colors.