I lost the administrator password for windows 2000. Help!!!

[Scrapster]

I was so used to having win2k automatically login administrator, but now that I have another computer and would like to add more users I cannot remember the admin's password. Is there any way of finding it or reseting it?

Scrapster

 

[Killbat]

oooo, that's bad news d00d. Maybe you could get into the HDD with another machine?

 

[Usul]

only f you use FAT, NTFS is harder to get into.
Yoy should try all the names that come to your mind, man!

 

[AKA]

Hehe, Lesson learned.

 

[rudder]

to reset the password is simple... reinstall 2000. Of course they are password hacking programs, but they may take a while depending on how complicated your password was.

I would try to reinstall the OS either in a different directory or over top the old install.

 

[celeritas]

FAT32 or NTFS? If FAT32, see below. If NTFS, get something like NTFSDOS Pro at SysInternals and then see below.

Using a boot disk, boot up to DOS mode, go to the \WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG folder, and delete/rename the file called "SAM." Reboot, and just hit enter/return at the Administrator login. Voila.

BTW, you will lose some user account information -- but that's the price you pay for forgetfulness. You're welcome.

 

[celeritas]

Update please.

 

[sun818]

Do you recall if your password is simple or complex? I use l0phtcrack produced by http://l0pht.com. Run this program from another NT or Win2000 box on the same network. A lot of simple passwords (text/numbers only) can be cracked in a few hours. If password is complex (text/number/symbols), it could take a few days or weeks. But I found that most simple passwords were deciphered within the hour on a PII 400.

Thanks,
Sun