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BIOS Boot, I need help.

OfficialSheep64OfficialSheep64
edited July 2015 in Hardware
Quick little backstory, so basically years ago my dad got me a computer and he created an administrator password for his own account and my account. Since then about a few years after that my dad sadly passed away. I moved a few times and still held on to that computer and recently I set up the computer again just for the heck of it.

For some reason when I turned on the computer again after all these years a lot of the settings are messed up and they require the admin password to fix. So I then looked online on how to crack my password and I found software that could help so I put it on a USB but I don't know how to boot it... I can get to the BIOS screen but I don't know how to change the boot order from the options listed to boot the password cracking software.

Note: I am running this on Windows XP Professional.

This is the general idea of what my advanced BIOS features look like.

CMOS Setup Utility-Copyright (C) 1984-2002 Award Software
Advanced BIOS Features
__________________________________________________
| First Boot Device [CDROM] |
| |
| Second Boot Device [Floppy] |
| |
| Third Boot Device [HDD-0] |
| |
| Password Check [System] |
| |
| CPU Hyper-Treading* [Enabled] |
| |
| Full Screen LOGO Show [Enabled] |
| |
| Init Display First [AGP] |
|_________________________________________________|

Note: I didn't put in what was on the side or bottom because that wasn't important.
Note: Those aren't my current exact settings.

I am assuming that I want to put the first boot device to what I want but I don't know which one will boot up off the use stick.


Here is a list of the possible boot devices:

Floppy
LS120
HDD-0
HDD-1
HDD-2
HDD-3
SCSI
CDROM
ZIP
USB-FFD
USB-ZIP
USB-CDROM
USB-HHD
LAN
Disabled




I really hope someone can help me out with my problem.

Thanks,
- Sheep64

EDIT: Here is what the CMOS looks like along with the Advanced BIOS

http://imgur.com/SCCY9JQ

http://imgur.com/FdAxzjY

Comments

  • BlueSunBlueSun
    USB-HDD is generally what you need to boot off a USB flash drive. So try setting the first boot device to USB-HDD. Also, most BIOS's these days provide some way of entering a boot menu so you can temporarily override the default boot order. Usually F12 or F11.
  • SomeGuySomeGuy
    Normally, I'd expect "USB-HHD" to do the trick. As far as software is concerned, spinning hard drives and flash drives usually look the same.

    There is the possibility that your computer is old enough it might not know how to properly boot USB devices, even it says it does. (Some lacked that ability even in to the Windows Vista era)

    In that case, you should look the Plop Boot Disk (I think that is what it was called). Basically, you just boot from a floppy disk, and then the software on the floppy disk performs the USB bootstrapping - no changes to your bios needed.

    Hope that helps.
  • OfficialSheep64OfficialSheep64
    BlueSun wrote:
    USB-HDD is generally what you need to boot off a USB flash drive. So try setting the first boot device to USB-HDD. Also, most BIOS's these days provide some way of entering a boot menu so you can temporarily override the default boot order. Usually F12 or F11.

    Okay, so I tried setting the first boot device to USB-HDD and it still booted to WinXP.

    More info I'd like to state is that I download the password cracking software from Wimware http://www.wimware.com/download/ and I got the Windows Password Recovery Personal Free Trial and I burned the files from the software to a USB.

    Now I also tried burning the files from the software to a 700MB CD-RW disk and I tried using the CDROM option to boot it but it didn't work but it did say that Windows XP was reading the disk but after that it just boot up normal WinXP.
  • SomeGuySomeGuy
    You can't just make a USB device or CD bootable by copying files in to it.

    For CD-ROMs you must burn a pre-prepared ISO image. (note, if you wind up with a single "iso" file in the root of the CD directory, then you did it wrong).

    For a USB device, there should be some tool included to write the boot data.

    Oh, and if the USB port happens to be on a PCI expansion card, the BIOS might not know about it. But the Ploop boot disk should help in that case.
  • OfficialSheep64OfficialSheep64
    SomeGuy wrote:
    You can't just make a USB device or CD bootable by copying files in to it.

    For CD-ROMs you must burn a pre-prepared ISO image. (note, if you wind up with a single "iso" file in the root of the CD directory, then you did it wrong).

    For a USB device, there should be some tool included to write the boot data.

    Oh, and if the USB port happens to be on a PCI expansion card, the BIOS might not know about it. But the Ploop boot disk should help in that case.

    Oh, for the CDROM thing I did I just followed what was http://www.wimware.com/how-to/boot-from-cd-dvd.html
  • calvinbcalvinb
    SomeGuy wrote:
    You can't just make a USB device or CD bootable by copying files in to it.

    With EFI, you can create bootable images just by copying stuff to FAT32 disks nowadays.
  • procyonprocyon
    ampharos wrote:
    SomeGuy wrote:
    You can't just make a USB device or CD bootable by copying files in to it.

    With EFI, you can create bootable images just by copying stuff to FAT32 disks nowadays.

    I don't think this was EFI
  • TCPMetaTCPMeta
    When ever I hear EFI I just want to laugh.
  • birdybirdy
    If your having trouble with booting up a usb on a computer you could write a PLop image to a cd or floppy disk. It has worked for me with my dell desktop which doesn't support usb boot...
    Here's a guide to using PLop: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16822/boot-from-a-usb-drive-even-if-your-bios-wont-let-you/
  • TCPMetaTCPMeta
    Beware though, the latest version is flaky and at times doesn't like USB mice.
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