Create a password reset disk in Windows using USB Flash Drive

What is a Password Reset Disk ?

Many who know about it already can skip this part and proceed to the steps in the following section. But those who are not aware of it can read this intro about it as a quick reference. Many a time it happens that we somehow forget our Windows password. We may skip this process by booting windows in the Safe mode, but that doesn’t give us the administrative rights to several actions. This is when a password reset disk proves helpful. If you create one for yourself, it will help you reset your password in case you forget it.

[Also Read : Lock PC With USB Drive]

Create a password Reset Disk using USB

Let us see how to make ourselves one password reset disk. Follow the steps below :

1. Open User Accounts in Windows Vista. To do that you can either open Start menu and type “User Accounts” and then click on the proper search result or you can go to Start > Control Panel > User Accounts and Family Safety > User Accounts.

Vista Password Reset Disk | Start User Accounts

2. Insert your USB drive and wait until it is listed under My Computer (Windows Explorer) with a proper drive letter.

3. Go to the User Accounts window and then click on the “Create a password reset disk”. (Refer Screenshot)

Vista Password Reset Disk | create password reset disk

4. When you see the Forgotten Password Wizard window take a look at the information and proceed pressing Next.

5. In the next step, select the drive on which you are willing to create the password reset disk. In my case, I will be selecting the USB drive “O: HSoumen“. Once you have selected it properly press Next to go to the next step.

6. On this step you will need to enter your current password. Provide the correct password and press Next.

Vista Password Reset Disk | enter current password

7. You will notice a progress bar rapidly moving to 100%. Once it reaches the end (100%) press Next to proceed to the final step.

Vista Password Reset Disk | progress bar

8. Here you will be asked to label the disk as “Password Reset”. You can ignore doing that but it is recommended to do this to make this change so that you can identify the proper reset disk. To rename the USB drive open My Computer, right click on the drive and then rename the label to “Password Reset” (without quotes). You can also rename it into something that may help you recognize it in future.

Vista Password Reset Disk | rename drive

Now that you have successfully created the Password Reset Disk, remove the drive properly and keep it in a protected place because anyone who gets to this drive can break into your computer easily. You can follow the same steps in Windows 7 to create a password reset disk.

Written by Soumen on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010