Dead PC - password retrieval

My rather ancient Vista based PC has finally given up the ghost - was going to upgrade in next few months anyway prior to moving to France. What I'd like to port to my new machine is my chrome / Firefox /outlook passwords - recently backed my machine up to an external HD plus pretty sure it's the motherboard that has died so could potentially put current HD in new machine when I buy it.

So how do I find where my passwords are stored - or is there some software that will do the job - or a local company that does this sort of thing?

"Chrome" - you can view your passwords from within Chrome... but you need access to the machine, so you can load up chrome, so if it's dead you have no chance (however, if enabled chrome saves to the cloud, so reinstalling Chrome, and logging into ur google account SHOULD remember any website passwords any way)

"FireFox" - i'm not sure about, but i'd imagine it has a similar thing to Chrome, if not, then I don't know...

and Outlook, is just the password you use for your email, if you can't remember it, then you might have to do a password recovery, where ever your email is hosted...

You cannot just plug in a HDD and view passwords, or read them from a backup...

For Chrome take a look here:

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/chromepass.html

For Firefox:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/Firefox-Password-Recovery-Tool.shtml

And this free utility from NirSoft may help you with Outlook.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/pst_password.html

NO GUARANTEES!

For Chrome take a look here:

 

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/chromepass.html

 

For Firefox:

 

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/Firefox-Password-Recovery-Tool.shtml

 

And this free utility from NirSoft may help you with Outlook.

 

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/pst_password.html

 

NO GUARANTEES!

Don't they require you to be able to actually use the machine though? - the OP stated the PC doesn't even turn on...

Don't they require you to be able to actually use the machine though? - the OP stated the PC doesn't even turn on...

With regards to Chrome Pass it states:

" It allows you to get the passwords from your current running system, or from a user profile stored on external drive. "

So guessing if he put it in a Caddy it might work? Another potential opportunity would be to run Zorin 12.2 on a stick in live mode on another machine, install Wine 2.0 in live mode, download the .exe's in live mode of Zorin 12.2 and run from there? No guarantees with the Zorin mode but if Wine 2.0 is now supporting Office 2013 then it might work?

In respect of outlook: "This utility can recover the PST passwords of Outlook 97, Outlook 2000, Outlook XP, Outlook 2003, and Outlook 2007. You don't have to install MS-Outlook in order to use this utility. You only need the original PST file that you locked with a password. "

So that could be accessed with a live GNU/Linux CD and saved to external device.

In respect of Firefox: "As installation is not a prerequisite, you can drop the executable file to any location on the HDD and just click it to run." so again I would assume if placed in a Caddy and the hard drive has not been affected it should work.

Outlook recovery article on Nirsoft here:

http://www.intelliadmin.com/index.php/2011/04/recover-outlook-passwords/

Get the hard drive out. Get an external usb caddy for the hard drive. Plug it into any PC that is capable of booting from USB. Boot from that hard drive. It won’t be pretty but should be able to boot into Windows or via safe mode at the very least. Run your web browsers and retrieve your passwords. Job done.

Safe mode doesn't work web browser isn't?

In future use a password manager That way it doesn't matter if this happens.

Don't boot the drive in another new machine. Best way as I see it would be to get your new PC and put the drive in it as a spare or get a caddy and do it that way. You will then be able to see the programs where they are stored on the drive and maybe find the files needed, possibly copy and overwrite, but will need to do a bit of googling first.

Don't boot the drive in another new machine. Best way as I see it would be to get your new PC and put the drive in it as a spare or get a caddy and do it that way. You will then be able to see the programs where they are stored on the drive and maybe find the files needed, possibly copy and overwrite, but will need to do a bit of googling first.

Do you have any idea what you are talking about?

His PC is dead and all that he wants is retrieve the passwords which he can’t do without running the web browsers. So why shouldn’t he boot the extracted hard drive via a USB caddy? Windows is smart enough to notice the change in hardware and load the appropriate drivers and get windows to run. Like I said it won’t be pretty but enough to get his passwords. Absolutely no damage will be done doing this.

As always, your posts are total garbage. Stop giving bad advice. Thanks.

Do you have any idea what you are talking about?

 

His PC is dead and all that he wants is retrieve the passwords which he can’t do without running the web browsers. So why shouldn’t he boot the extracted hard drive via a USB caddy? Windows is smart enough to notice the change in hardware and load the appropriate drivers and get windows to run. Like I said it won’t be pretty but enough to get his passwords. Absolutely no damage will be done doing this.

 

As always, your posts are total garbage. Stop giving bad advice. Thanks.

For god's sake stop talking rubbish and stop targeting me with your constant abuse as you have shown many times before that you have been wrong with your advice.

But.. This will be a major change in hardware and windows may not play along also not forgetting this is a Vista install. The safest way would be to do as suggested by me and others.

For god's sake stop talking rubbish and stop targeting me with your constant abuse as you have shown many times before that you have been wrong with your advice.

 

But.. This will be a major change in hardware and windows may not play along also not forgetting this is a Vista install. The safest way would be to do as suggested by me and others.

actually, he's correct..

if the PC is dead, but the drive is intact, he can put it in an external caddy, boot from said caddy and said windows install and then recover any data and passwords - it may reboot a couple of times, and may not find all the correct drivers (as he said above) - but it should work enough for the required task..

Have done such (and similar) things since Windows XP (SP2) days, without a problem...