Win10 new install - Password reset

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waveform

waveform

PCHF Member
Oct 31, 2023
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Hello
I resolved my issue, but I'm posing to better understand what happened. I'll try to make this is short as possible, but this is really difficult to explain.

Last year I installed Windows 10 Pro from a USB flash drive. Yesterday I decided to replace my OS drive with an new SSD so I reinstalled my copy of windows. Same computer, new hard drive. The installation went well, but a few things threw me off: And I've been doing this for over 25 years, got A+ cert in 1999
  • 1st, Somehow my old LOCAL user account (from the old install) was created for me on the new drive, even though this was a clean install, maybe because I walked away from the installation for a few minutes, and the MS servers read my mac address or something on my hardware because I was connected to the internet. But they never carried over my password. Normally I would expect to be prompted to create my account name and password during an install of windows as in the past. But it did it for me, which was fine I guess.
  • But then after installing the chipset drives, I rebooted - but then was presented with a change password prompt that would not except my password (the one I've always used) because I had not created a password the first time in windows.
  • I somehow was able to get back into windows by unplugging the ethernet cable and hitting the enter key a few times, without even specifying a password.
  • Once back in windows I immediately created my old password in the user accounts settings, which by the way said, "this account has no password". It's odd, MS created my old account for me, but never carried over the password. Again, I've never had a Microsoft account. I've always had local accounts.
I guess my question is: When you're plugged in to the internet on a machine that is getting a copy of windows 10, what password is Microsoft looking for? It made an account for me the same as my old installation on the old drive but would not accept the local account password. What password was it looking for?
 
Sorry about the typos, I'm horrible with proof reading, I always miss stuff. I really wish there were an edit button on these forums.
I think the edit button got removed on the first post because I was logged back out when I was in the middle of posting the post above.
 
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I use a Microsoft account so am not up to date with local accounts but I have a question.
Is there a reason why you clean installed Windows on the new SSD rather than use imaging software to clone or image the old drive to the new drive?
 
in my experience, never have the PC connected to the internet when installing Windows.
not only will it try to perform updates which can take ages, but it also wants you to setup a MS account.
without the network connected, you are only prompted for a local account.
on Win11 installs it doesn't even give the option to create a local account if the internet is connected, you have to use your MS account then once Windows is install, create a local account and remove the MS one.

can't say I have ever seen the old local account from the current install come over to the new install.
only thing I can think of - where did the USB image used to reinstall came from, and did you 'really' do a fresh install.
plus, when installing Windows I always take the opportunity to remove all current partitions when that windows pops up. but that choice is only given (I believe) when you use the USB image to boot from, not when used from doing the Reset this PC option from within the current Windows you are trying to replace.
 
@Bastet
Just wasn't sure what clone software was good. I've used Clone zilla in the past, but didn't always have success. And since the SSD probably uses a different driver, I thought an image might be problematic if the image installed a controller driver for the the old drive. But since I'm not changing any hardware at this point, I would like to make an image of this copy, I have tons of extra hard drive space on my none SSD SATA drives, Any ideas of how to do this the easy way?

@Bruce.
I think you're right. If I had it unplugged, it would have just giving me the option for the local account. And it probably didn't help that I walked away from the installation for a few mints during the initial setup. I remember in the past, if you walked away, windows would go into an "Unattended install."
But it kind of through me off how it created the same account again on the new drive. it must have read my hardware and mac address. The idea of the unattended install was always a bad idea on MS's part IMO.
 
sounds like @Bastet has had more luck with cloning they me.
I used to clone Windows from a HDD to a SSD when upgrading and they went smoothly, but a few also didn't work, probably 60% good, 40% bad, so I gave up and now just clean install every time I want Windows reloaded - for whatever reason (clean install, or new SSD, or what have you).
 
I'd like to know how to make a recovery drive like when you buy a new computer, you can access a menu at boot that lets you restore to the factory. I would love to do that on my machine.

By the way Bruce, is there any way the mods could make the edit post feature last longer? Like for a few days? Sometimes I look back on my posts and I realize I could have explained things better. 5 mins it too short of a time.
 
not a Mod thing, but a Manager thing.
I'll ping @jmarket and @veeg and they can give you the reason. :)

as to making a recovery drive, I use Macrium Reflect (see my signature) to clone my SSD to an external drive.
while it CAN be used to whack in my PC when its boot drive fails and I'm up and running, I really do that process purely because I'm anal about backups, and the cloned external drive is just another medium of my backup process.
 
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waveform said:
By the way Bruce, is there any way the mods could make the edit post feature last longer? Like for a few days
Click to expand...
Should be longer than 5 minutes yet no cannot make it that long. To many people were changing their post to something totally different after the responses were made. Some were even replacing the original post with responses to the post, so the information then was NULL.

Why we put a time limit on the being able to change post. Thought was at the most 30 minutes will have to look into that.

As far as anything having to do with user password refer to the Terms and Rules that you agreed to.
 
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waveform said:
@Bastet
Just wasn't sure what clone software was good. I've used Clone zilla in the past, but didn't always have success. And since the SSD probably uses a different driver, I thought an image might be problematic if the image installed a controller driver for the the old drive. But since I'm not changing any hardware at this point, I would like to make an image of this copy, I have tons of extra hard drive space on my none SSD SATA drives, Any ideas of how to do this the easy way?
Click to expand...

I usually use Macrium’s ‘Fix Boot’ feature after swapping the drive.
I’ve upgraded to a SSD from a HDD with no problems, just booted with the Macrium recovery media & restored the Image.
I would try Macrium Reflect.
 
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I appreciate the reference on backup software. Thanks (y)
On a side note: for the time being, In windows 10, there's an option to create an image with the built in Windows7 utility, the only downside is that it only lets you burn a DVD for the recovery boot startup-drive. I did the image, but then I used the newer windows 7 recovery to create a boot able USB stick. I wonder if I can restore that image using the USB recovery stick? Like maybe somewhere in the windows recvery will let me point it to the ISO I created with the Win7 image applet. Again, this is all in Windows 10 Pro.
 
waveform said:
I appreciate the reference on backup software. Thanks (y)
On a side note: for the time being, In windows 10, there's an option to create an image with the built in Windows7 utility, the only downside is that it only lets you burn a DVD for the recovery boot startup-drive. I did the image, but then I used the newer windows 7 recovery to create a boot able USB stick. I wonder if I can restore that image using the USB recovery stick? Like maybe somewhere in the windows recvery will let me point it to the ISO I created with the Win7 image applet. Again, this is all in Windows 10 Pro.
Click to expand...
The inbuilt backup feature is deprecated so I wouldn’t recommend using that to create a boot usb. The Windows installation media can also be used as a boot drive to access troubleshoot menu or restore an image create with Windows own backup.
Many find they cannot restore their image when they need it.
 
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Closing - no activity.
To request a re-open, go to Members > Staff Members, click a Staffer then Start Conversation and quote thread name.
 
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