Forgot admin password. How to get in?

[JEDI]

A friend of mine's changed the Admin password, and now can't get in.

That's the only acct on his system.

I'm thinking of booting into DOS and deleting the .SAM file.

If that's wrong, what do you recommend?

THX!

edit:
sigh.. NOT the only acct on system.

He has his own acct, which is admin equivalent. That's the password he changed, and is now locked out of.

And he has NO CLUE what the admin password is

 

[nweaver]

don't just delete the sam file.....

there is a boot disk that will change the p/w from cli....NTPassword or something like that iirc.

 

[HannibalX]

Google "CIA Commander"

 

[Karot]

Boot up into safe mode. Then change the password in the Control Panel.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=305.

 

[jlbenedict]

Originally posted by: Karot
Boot up into safe mode. Then change the password in the Control Panel.

I believe you still need the Local admin password to log in


Safe mode or not, you gotta know the Admin password..

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: jlbenedict

Originally posted by: Karot
Boot up into safe mode. Then change the password in the Control Panel.

I believe you still need the Local admin password to log in


Safe mode or not, you gotta know the Admin password..

yup

 

[JEDI]

edit:
sigh.. Admin is NOT the only acct on system.

He has his own acct, which is admin equivalent. That's the password he changed, and is now locked out of.

And he has NO CLUE what the admin password is

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=305.

er.. reinstall WinXP, then do this?
"Keep your eye on the lower left hand side of the screen and when you see the Installing Devices progress bar, press SHIFT + F10. This is the security hole! A command console will now open up giving you the potential for wide access to your system."

sounds waaayyyy too risky. i'm basically reinstalling WinXP, probably overwriting some settings.

 

[nchavie]

All you need to do is download, burn, and boot from this program and you can remove any password on the system.

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

I've done this many many times with Windows 2000 and Windows XP Home/Pro.

This is a must have tool for any Windows user.

 

[RebateMonger]

^^^ That's what I use. It's POSSIBLE that it may do something "not nice" to the XP security system, but I don't know of anything specific. If you can't get in any other way....

If you only need data, you can just hook the drive up to ANOTHER XP computer, take ownership of any data directories, and copy the data to the other PC.

 

[stash]

"Keep your eye on the lower left hand side of the screen and when you see the Installing Devices progress bar, press SHIFT + F10. This is the security hole! A command console will now open up giving you the potential for wide access to your system."

lol, security hole. You have full physical access to the box, and you are installing a freaking OS on it, but having a command prompt is a security hole.

(This isn't directed at you JEDI, just the quote from the article.)

 

[mchammer]

So this kind of stuff shows why bitlocker is needed. I guess if he had that he would be permanently SOL.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

If you have a windows 2000 cd you can use that in xp and do a recovery and all your admin passwords will be off. I recall hearing about this years ago.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
^^^ That's what I use. It's POSSIBLE that it may do something "not nice" to the XP security system, but I don't know of anything specific. If you can't get in any other way....

If you only need data, you can just hook the drive up to ANOTHER XP computer, take ownership of any data directories, and copy the data to the other PC.

But thats for NT. It works for WinXP (Fat32)?

 

[fartbag]

slave the drive on a different system and use Ophcrack to crack the slaved drives sam.

 

[John]

I use ERD 2003 to remove passwords when the hidden admin account is locked.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: John
I use ERD 2003 to remove passwords when the hidden admin account is locked.

link?

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

google is your friend and not your enemy.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: SoundTheSurrender
google is your friend and not your enemy.

tried that.

too many results. and i dont know which ones are safe.

 

[pcgeek11]

Why is it funny to me when people install admin account passwords and their own account is also admin and they forget everything and lock themselves out of their own computer.

I am sorry, but it is just crazy.

pcgeek11

 

[Carrot44]

Find Ophcrack at Sourceforge. It is a linux program you boot your computer from. Will find all passwords. As said earlier you may have to run the drive as slave from another computer.

It did work for me with 4 other drives in the system.

 

[boomerang]

You're saying he doesn't know what the admin password is. He may not have set one. Have you tried from Safe Mode?

If not, boot to Safe Mode, leave the password field blank and hit Enter. In Control Panel > User Accounts change the forgotten password.

 

[jlbenedict]

Originally posted by: boomerang
You're saying he doesn't know what the admin password is. He may not have set one. Have you tried from Safe Mode?

If not, boot to Safe Mode, leave the password field blank and hit Enter. In Control Panel > User Accounts change the forgotten password.

If an admin password was not set, you don't have to go to safe mode.. if its blank , you could still log in normal mode or safe mode.. doesn't matter..

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: jlbenedict

Originally posted by: boomerang
You're saying he doesn't know what the admin password is. He may not have set one. Have you tried from Safe Mode?

If not, boot to Safe Mode, leave the password field blank and hit Enter. In Control Panel > User Accounts change the forgotten password.

If an admin password was not set, you don't have to go to safe mode.. if its blank , you could still log in normal mode or safe mode.. doesn't matter..

admin password not blank