Dad lost his password for a flash drive

[aethyr]

Can the password be retrieved or is formatting the thing the only way to go?

[chiyio]

not going to get any replies because there isn't enough information. what brand of flash drive, what kind of security. was it truecrypt, or some kind of built into the drive thing? Just not enough info to give you any replies.

[aethyr]

I don't use flash drives myself and don't know much about them.
If I had to guess, I'd say it must be a built into the drive thing. I'll ask for more details. Thanks though!

[Mellema]

If he is like most older people when using a computer, he probably use's only a couple different words as passwords. Have him try the most likely 5 words again. If that doesn't work, have him hit the caps lock button and try them again. If no luck with those, look at his words and think of possible typos he might have entered.

[Yabby]

Is his porn really that important?

[Siniroth]

Get an old laptop you don't need, set it to bruteforce it :D

[aethyr]

He's a bit of a writer and decided to work on his latest book while at work. Decided if he was going to goof off, he better hide it on a flash drive. And I already got him a new laptop... And installed GoToMyPC so I can help him with it from out of state. >_< Can't help him with a password he forgot though. Pretty sure he was out of luck, but you people usually amaze me with your craftiness so I thought I'd ask.

[Icari]

there is one last option.... depending on the encryption on the device you could try to see if a linux live cd is able to view the files on it, and then copy the files off the drive and format it.

[Kerberoz]

Is his porn really that important?

Not if his collection is small enough to fit on a flash drive.