Create a Vista password reset disk using a USB flash drive

If you were an early adopter of USB flash drives, you may still have a 128 MB or a 256 MB USB flash drive in the back of your desk drawer. Even though the dusty drive may seem too small to be of any real use, you can put it back to work as a password reset disk for Windows Vista.

In this edition of the Windows Vista Report, I’ll show you how to create and use a password reset disk in Vista using a USB flash drive rather than a floppy disk.

The USB flash drive

First, let’s take a moment to talk about the USB flash drive. The reason that I’m spotlighting your old small-capacity USB flash drive is that it is really too small to be of much use in today’s world due to that fact that portable storage needs are now reaching more towards the GB range. However, that’s not to say that you couldn’t use a 1 GB USB flash drive for a password reset disk. Some might consider that to be a waste of disk space because the password reset file only weighs in at 2 KB, but flash drives are inexpensive — you can pick up a 1 GB USB flash drive for under $20 or a 128 MB USB flash drive for under $5.

Creating a password reset disk

Follow these steps to create a password reset disk:
1. Insert your USB flash drive and wait for it to initialize and receive a drive letter.
2. Once the drive is ready to use, click the Start button and type User Accounts in the Start Search box.
3. Press [Enter] or click User Accounts in the Results panel. Either way, you’ll see the User Accounts dialog box. You will need to locate and click Create A Password Reset Disk in the Tasks panel.