Hello,

I'm trying to help a friend who's lost her user account in Vista. I know there's supposed to be a way you can boot the computer from the vista installation disc and create an admin account you can later login with, but her installation disc is in Australia and her laptop in London. Is there any other way to get in? Or would it be better to try and access just the harddrive? She's mainly concerned with getting all her data off it.

As for how she lost the account, I'll let her explain in her words. :)

My computer basically got some virus and now is up sh*t creek. it told me i had this cryptic thingy majiggy was missing and then this fake virus told me i needed to scan my computer. SO i tried to do malware thing but it kept shutting my computer down. ANYWAY...now its it will only open up with 'launch startup repair' and has got rid of my settings for logging in and wants me to be 'other user' which i have no password or username for'...so basically im stuffed. This is Windows Vista by the way.

Thanks,

Annelie