Trouble signing onto my laptop; forgot password

I haven't signed on to my laptop that I bought from former co-worker of mine (really savvy with computers) in a few months and I've forgotten the password to log-in. There was no animosity between us after the purchase - he ended up quitting and getting a job elsewhere. I have a Dell Inspiron 1720 with Windows 7 Professional. All though, as evidenced from the bottom of the laptop, he did upgrade the OS at one point from Windows Visa but I am not sure which edition it was. I downloaded the Password Reset Wizard via from my parents home computer on to a new/unused USB flash drive. I clicked on the appropriate drive, typed in a new password, typed it again to confirm and typed in the password hint. After doing all of that, this error message came up "An error occurred while the wizard was attempting to set the password for this user account." Did I do something wrong? And at this point, I am stumped. I haven't been able to get in touch with the former co-worker. Should I call Microsoft and ask for them to send me a Windows 7 disk, buy it online (saw the cheapest price on Newegg for $139.99) or should I try a Windows password recovery tool? If so, which one?

If there any other questions that you might have in order to assist me further, please ask.

Thank you in advance.

Have a look here and see if that might help. Resetting Windows Password

Is it possible to download a software program on to the home computer (which I've been using) in order to download the Password Reset Wizard on to another USB flash drive so that it will possibly read that its for the laptop and not the home computer? If that's possible, what program should I check out? And if this doesn't work, why? Thanks again.

Originally Posted by doomspider

Is it possible to download a software program on to the home computer (which I've been using) in order to download the Password Reset Wizard on to another USB flash drive so that it will possibly read that its for the laptop and not the home computer? If that's possible, what program should I check out? And if this doesn't work, why? Thanks again.

Trouble's link answers all those questions. (Yes, you put the software on a flash usb), did you not click on his link?

Originally Posted by doomspider

And if this doesn't work, why?

First try it. If it doesn't work, ask us again and we'll look into it.

Originally Posted by Trouble

Have a look here and see if that might help. Resetting Windows Password

I used that and I didn't work for me. This message came up. I took a screen shot of it.

I am not sure what to do from here. I also tried Ophcrack but that didn't work either. Any suggestions what I can do next? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

That message is telling you what to do. Press 1 and ENTER to select the first disk (I see that 1 is your boot disk) and then it says that usually you can press ENTER through the questions.

Read what it says - it's pretty self explanatory. Most important is what is says: "Don't Panic!" :-)

Originally Posted by zvit

That message is telling you what to do. Press 1 and ENTER to select the first disk (I see that 1 is your boot disk) and then it says that usually you can press ENTER through the questions.

Read what it says - it's pretty self explanatory. Most important is what is says: "Don't Panic!" :-)

I tried it again and watched the tutorial video again, the same error message popped up. Did exactly what you suggested. I attached another photo. It entails a message that I got but didn't show up in the tutorial video that I watched. Maybe it will clear things up:

Your "friend" might have had a previously windows installations on the system, labelled as windows.old and .000 etc and it might be trying to find the wrong Windows folder, hence it can't find the booting one.

It might not be a simple way to explain what to do from here since you might have to boot into a virtual Windows (or Linux) environment to check the above but lets first to use some other reset password tools and see if it helps:

7 Free Windows Password Recovery Tools

Originally Posted by zvit

Your "friend" might have had a previously windows installations on the system, labelled as windows.old and .000 etc and it might be trying to find the wrong Windows folder, hence it can't find the booting one.

I believe I mentioned that in the OP. Thanks though.

Although you can use password recovery software. But as they are paid, so Please tell me which operating you are using, so that i can tel you possible solution.