Admin Profile Deleted?

[peterv3]

Hi, I installed windows 2000 on a pC and did not set up any other accounts at that time. The individuals who went in as administrator stated that they set up accouns and possibly deleted the Administrator account. Is it possible to do that? Also if so, and they do not knw the passwords or account names that they set up, how would I get them logged in? Do I have to re- install the OS of Windows 2000?

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[memorable]

hi
Hope that this help

Eventually i think you may have to try the administrator account in hope that it is not deleted orelse you will have to reinstall the whole win 2k in that computer unless you can crack the username and password of one of the account that had been created.

 

[Kart00n]

Hi There
From my understanding it is not possible to delete the admin account as it is this account that W2K. Try getting in as the admin if you have forgoten your password you will need re install W2K. RE =using your other accounts it wont be possible unless the other account have admin privledges.
You can keep you dat be doing a windows repair or reinstall without formatting.
Good luck with it.
Cheers

 

[kev01]

Hi there,

If you have forgotten the password of the administrator account and can't login to your machine, you don't need to re-install W2K.

There is a work-around to re-set the admin password by deleting the SAM, which is the database that contains the local user accounts and their passwords.

Take a look at this link:

http://www.firewall.com/dcforum/SECURITY/90.html

Hope this helps,
Kev

 

[wolluf]

faq96-2866
Try Administrator with no password.
Repair reinstall (boot from 2k install CD, choose new install, it will find your installation and offer repair. Take offer - reinstalls, offering you new Administrator password setup - but preserves data, settings, apps (just looses windows updates).

PS. The deleting SAM file (\WINNT\system32\config\SAM) can be done from win98 boot floppy if you were using FAT32 filestore. If NTFS you would need third party software (costs) to get access from boot floppy or mount drive as slave in another NT/2k/XP machine.

 

[mattjurado]

Try this if you can't get it, it works best if you reset the password to be nothing (null).

Matt

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/