I can't figure out my dad's microsoft word password! Please help!

My dad passed away this past March, and he left his computer to me. He was a paraplegic so he spent most of his time on this computer. He has some journal entries in Microsoft Word, some are password protected, others are not. I would really like to see the ones that are password protected, but my dad was super smart when it came to passwords. It's probably going to be something like: bt9*3#%@iloe)234Tuyhe. Seriously, that's how he did his passwords! He left the comp to me because he figured if anyone could figure it out, i could. But I can't. He taught me a lot about the comp, but now I can't figure this out. Can anyone help me? I am trying to see if he left me a personal letter or maybe a personal letter for my mom. He passed suddenly, or he surely would've changed it over so we could see. Thanks for any help!

Misty

 

Hi Misty.
Sorry to hear about your dad.
You probably need a moderator to deal with this issue, as there are site rules about what can be discussed along the lines of cracking passwords. It may be that you haven't had a response because of the time of year. Hang on and maybe someone will see this.

 

I use this other site called google to find answers too

http://www.petri.co.il/word-password-recovery.htm

 

Thanks foogoo - I wasn't sure if such things were permitted. rolleyes

 

Thanks Halo. Got it now.

 

I can completely understand that. I wish there was some way to prove that what i'm saying is the absolute truth. My dad was a computer genius, he kept all of his personal info (bank accounts, combos to the safes in the house, journal entries, etc.) password protected. But he left a couple of clues for my mom as to what the passwords may be. She gave me the computer to try and figure it out, but alas. She does not know the combos to the safes in the house, and she wants me to figure out the journal entries to see if he left any personal messages for her. He knew he was dying, he was a quadraplegic for 17 years and he just knew it was getting close. He left a couple of desktop entries, but the rest of it, I just can't figure out. Now there is a virus on this comp and I'm terrified that it will delete any info that i'm supposed to be figuring out. If you would please look at my entry in the malware forum and help me with this virus, I would greatly appreciate it. I have attached links to all of the stuff i did in the sticky on that post but no one has responded. Thank you for any info you can give me for either one of these issues. I think this is the best website for helping us "little" folks figure this stuff out and the fact that you do it for free is amazing. Thanks again!

Misty

 

Have you tried to talk with your mom to decipher the clues he left her?

 

Better yet - tell US the clues. We can get a community think tank working on them!! :confused

 

Misty, don't you have any computer repair services in your community? I think that if you search, you should be able to find someone who can work on your dad's system and, if it is at all possible, be able to figure out how to get into the files.

Having said that, just a word of caution that TimW may be right --- perhaps the fact that you dad didn't just give you the passwords should tell you that there is a very good chance that, for whatever reason, he didn't want you to have access to those password protected files.

 

If your afraid of things going wrong with the data, make a backup! Get Ghost and another drive (USB) and make an image. I always make imgs of anyone's system prior to trying to fix a virus or malware infection, sometimes fixing them causes other problems, so I can always go back.
You have to be careful taking this system to a store to get fixed - they usually have you sign an agreement that allows them to wipe it out and reload.
Be cautious not sorry.

 

Thanks for everyones replies. I have seen something called "ghost" here on dad's computer, I just didn't know what it was. I'm telling you, my dad spent everyday on his computer. He preached about backing up everything and how important it is. He scanned every family picture we ever took into his computer, for instance, and saved them to 4 different hard drives giving one to each of us to keep in our homes in case one home caught on fire, we would always have our pictures. I have all of his computer stuff which is A LOT. There are several different boxes (hard drives I guess) that came with his stuff. I'm not sure what to do with it all. It's very overwhelming! There is a lot of equipment that I'm not sure what it does. I'm sure he has made a backup of this comp, just not sure which box that would be. If I wanted to make a fresh one, exactly how would i do that? Do I need a hard drive? I don't know how to do Ghost. Thanks for any replies. BTW, I went to the suggested link above for recovering passwords for Word and it worked! It only gave me a partial view of the document and it says I have to pay like $90 to view the rest, so I was able to give my mom that info and she is looking forward to coming over here and doing that. Thanks for that. One of the memos my dad posted to my mom on the desktop said, "most of my documents are password protected, two of the main passwords I used are ***** and *****, for any other password protected document, you can do a search for password recovery programs, there are some good ones out there you can use...." So i'm certain he wouldn't mind us looking into what he had to say. I just didn't know which program to trust and I knew you guys would know. Thanks again!

Misty

 

Ghost is a program that creates backups - anything from a few files to a complete system. I wouldn't advocate you devote any time to it though, as it isn't going to help at all with the main issue of accessing the password protected stuff.

Unless you can somehow discover the passwords I really think that you are going to need local access to professional level skills to crack this. Your story does make me wonder how my wife would fare if anything unexpectedly happened to me

 

You should be able to find some free password recovery programs, such as here:
http://www.freewordexcelpassword.com/index.php?id=download

 

i wonder what will happen if you try to open a document in google docs or openoffice

just wondering

 

This from OpenOffice... sounds like it can't be done.

3.7. Why can't I open Microsoft Office password protected files?
The algorithm used to password protect those files were proprietary, and cannot be legally used. There are tools on the Internet that will help you break the password protection (most are Windows based).