How can I erase a hard drive on a notebook that I don't know the log on password to.?

yeah there is. ill give you two possible ways.

1 - Using safe mode. when you boot the computer up, tap the key that allows you to run windows in safe mode. for most computers this is the F8 key. If not, just continuously run your finger over all of the F keys during the boot. when the safe mode menu pops up, choose a safe mode option, just not the command prompt one. you will be taken to the windows logon screen and the "Administrator" option should be available. most people dont know about this, so they dont set a password for it. if they did not set the password then you can log on and change the other passwords, create your own account. once you do one of these, restart the machine and carry on with reformatting the drive.

2) Booting from CD. This is the best way to reformat, but may take a little more work figuring out things. Compaq does a pretty good job of screwing up standard methods of doing things, so bear with it. make sure your windows cd is in the drive. next you have to enter the BIOS. if it doesnt tell you on the compaq boot screen which key to press then it is usually F1, F2, or the Del/Delete key. you press this at the boot screen (the screen that shows first. it probably says "COMPAQ" or something). once you are in the BIOS, find the "Advanced Setup" section. if there is no such section in your BIOS just look for something along the lines of "boot order" or "first boot device" when you find that, change the option so that the cd or dvd drive boots first. save the changes and exit the BIOS. now the computer will reboot on its own and if all works well a menu will come up confirming if you want to boot from the cd. choose yes. the XP install process will take you through a series of steps. one of these steps will be about partitions. make sure you delete all of the current partitions on the hard drive. then create a new one using the maximum size allowed. you should format it using NTFS, or FAT32 if NTFS is not available. now your set. once you have finished installing windows, back into the BIOS and change the first boot device to be the hard drive. this method almost always works, but with all the machines iv worked on, there has been one that wouldnt let me boot from the cd. hopefully this will not be the case, and if so, give method 1 a try.

Will have to reload XP for a second time to do this properly. Go download a program called HDD Wipe Tool is a freeware program for low-level hard disk erasing

HDD Wipe Tool is a freeware application for low-level hard drive erasing. Then reinstall XP again

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This freeware HDD Wipe utility will erase and re-certify a SATA, IDE or SCSI hard disk drive with any size of up to 281 474 976 710 655 bytes. Will work with USB and FIREWIRE external drive enclosures. Low-level erasing of Flash Cards is supported too.

HDD Wipe Tool will clear partitions, MBR, and every bit of user data. The data cannot be recovered after using this utility. The program utilizes Ultra-DMA transfers when possible.

examine and spot in the adventure that your computing device has a restoration factor on it. once you first boot it up save hitting F12 if it brings you to the restoration menu you are able to set your computing device returned to production facility default which will do away with the password. in case you do not have the restoration factor then you definitely will could get a clean problematic rigidity which wont be locked because of the fact it does not have something on it.

refer to the link:

How to Change a Windows XP NT 2000 Password Without Knowing the Original Password?

http://www.wikihow.com/Change-a-Windows-XP-NT--200...

Ya there is a chance......First take the back up of ur data........then insert XP cd choose as 1st Bootable device during the choose path delete all partion and recreate ur partition and install ur Windows Xp

There are several rescue cd's you can use to remove that password, but I would just reformat the system since it has old data on it. Here's a tutorial for doing a fresh install of xp:

http://www.hollandpcservice.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.p...