Forgot Administrator password

[MavrickStl]

Guys,

I can't remember Administrator password to logon to Win2000 professional or any other password & UserId. Is there a way to reset the Admin Password ?

Thanks,

Mav

 

[drumdip]

Not a good thing....

We normally suggest a complete re-install of OS. However you may be wanting to capture or recover lost data?

Do you use Ghost or similar imaging software? If so, suggest botting to server and saving image of drive for data recovery later. Also, try to find a NTFS DOS Bootable diskette, browse file system and recover individual files. (Will not work if encrypted)

Once that is done..

Hold on to your hat. Use a bootable device and W2K install CD. Attempt to overwrite system files, without damaging personal data. If successful, you will be able to change Admin Pswd.

Keep in mind, this is not a great technique...it may buy you some time to recover data, however, I would suggest re-imaging

 

[grshopper]

Is the pc in question a member of a domain? If so, a domain admin should be able to log into the machine and reset the administrator password. ---------------------------------------
A+, MCP
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[wolluf]

Could try here

http://www.securiteam.com/tools/6T00D0A35S.html

 

[b5passat]

This was one of the insecurities of Windows NT 4, I don't know if you can still do this in Windows 2000. You used to be able to just install NT right on top of itself into the same folder (default C:\winnt), which is essence is treated as a new installation thereby allowing you to set the password to whatever you wanted. You could give that a shot, if you trash it, you aren't any worse off since you can't access it anyway.

Another option is to use a password cracker like LOphtCrack. We tested this on our domain and cracked 85-90% of all passwords, prior to enacting a strong password policy. Matt