Trouble signing onto my laptop; forgot password

[doomspider]

I haven't signed on to my laptop that I bought from former co-worker of mine (really savvy with computers) in a few months and I've forgotten the password to log-in. There was no animosity between us after the purchase - he ended up quitting and getting a job elsewhere. I have a Dell Inspiron 1720 with Windows 7 Professional. All though, as evidenced from the bottom of the laptop, he did upgrade the OS at one point from Windows Visa but I am not sure which edition it was. I downloaded the Password Reset Wizard via from my parents home computer on to a new/unused USB flash drive. I clicked on the appropriate drive, typed in a new password, typed it again to confirm and typed in the password hint. After doing all of that, this error message came up "An error occurred while the wizard was attempting to set the password for this user account." Did I do something wrong? And at this point, I am stumped. I haven't been able to get in touch with the former co-worker. Should I call Microsoft and ask for them to send me a Windows 7 disk, buy it online (saw the cheapest price on Newegg for $139.99) or should I try a Windows password recovery tool? If so, which one?

If there any other questions that you might have in order to assist me further, please ask.

Thank you in advance.

 

[TrainableMan]

The password tool you tried, if it wasn't THIS, then it might be worth it to try.

 

[bassfisher6522]

Hey TM; just tried those links to the referral post of Nib's...all those links are either broken and get the 404 error message.

 

[TrainableMan]

I ran a search and updated the links. please try again.

 

[doomspider]

Is it possible to download a software program on to the home computer (which I've been using) in order to download the Password Reset Wizard on to another USB flash drive so that it will possibly read that its for the laptop and not the home computer? If that's possible, what program should I check out? And if this doesn't work, why? Thanks again.

 

[TrainableMan]

Take WinUSBMaker and use it to create a bootable USB drive with the ISO of Windows Password Remover 7.0 that I listed before.

 

[doomspider]

I did end up trying out both Ophcrack and Offline NT Password & Registry Editor. Ophcrack didn't find any passwords and Offline NT Password & Registry Editor came up with this message. Here is the link to the photo that I took of it:

http://windows7forums.com/attachmen...g-onto-my-laptop-forgot-password-imag0511.jpg

Any suggestions what I can do next? Thanks.
http://windows7forums.com/#

 

[TrainableMan]

I've never used any of the pswd reset tools personally.

The defaults may be trying to write over the 100mb partition and that would be wrong. I can't see it but 2 is more likely what you need to choose there for Disk.

Have you seen THIS tutorial on using the tool?

Have you given up trying to reach the person that sold you the PC?

If you can't figure out any options that work and you can't reach the seller then I don't know what else to suggest, sorry.

You may just have to buy a new license and format and install.