Password problems

[patcy]

Hello,
i have a gateway lap top. cant get past hdd pasasword,admin password or user password. got it from a friend who never knew passwords. short of buying new hard drive what else. tried to put new vista on but it stops at one point with the page fault in nonpaged area error. no matter what windows i try. help.

 

[mhelm1]

ignore this one.

 

[mhelm1]

Can you get into Bios? Is there an Admin Pw for safe mode?
Have you tried to format disk prior to install?