Lost Local Administrator pwd...way around it?

[MaestroG]

I have an older NT 4 workstation and no one can come up with a local administrator password for it that works. The machine is unable to obtain an IP lease from the DHCP server. I've been through a lot of troubleshooting and I'd like to give it a static IP until I can do more extensive investigating, but I can't get in the machine as an administrator.

Is there a way to get in? The only thing else I know to do is try a repair from the ERD, but experience has told me that usually doesn't work and often causes more problems.

There are no local accounts setup besides administrator.

Got any ideas?

 

[lchiasson]

You can boot the machine using a boot disk that has NTFSDOS on it, copy the sam file and then crack it using a program such as L0phtcrack.

 

[MaestroG]

Yeah...good idea. The SAM is corrupt though. I'm giving up and installing a second instance of NT and restoring SAM from backup.

Another forum expert linked me to this utility which I found very nice (if your SAM isn't corrupt).

Check it out:

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

Thanks anyway! :-(

MaestroG