Is it possible to get into Win2000 if you don't have the admin password...

[NurseRN]

This is a legit thing, just in case anyone wonders. I have this machine which has Win200 Pro on it... The owner changed, or tried to change the password and as he puts it, when typing the password after booting the computer, whatever he thought the new password was.

I know that the same thing happened to me on a Linux machine... I ended up tyring every posibly close mistaken combination and to my surprise I found the one

This time, I have no clue where to begin; he has so much on the drive which he wants to save. How can I help this man?! Is there any way to bypass that password?

As always, I thank you all for your help in advance.

Nurse

 

[Barrak]

He changed the Admin Password? does he have any other accounts set up in the user manager? if he has no way of logging in.... I cant think of a way.

 

[Tweakin]

Unless the user created a backup "admin" account, nope...it's a done deal

 

[mikef208]

Not sure about your sitiuatin exactly, but I know my friend had a problem like this on his win 98 machine. If you hit cancel when asked for the password, you should be taken to the desktop in a very restrictive mode(meaning you can't do much at all), if you shut down and restart in dos or possibly use a dos prompt(not sure about that), you can search through does for a few files, i don't know there exact names, but there extension is *.pwl, delete these, then reboot, this should have deleted your password, thus asking you to input a new one at startup. The you should be okay.

 

[Barrak]

that would work in 95/98 and even ME I believe, but he has windows2000 which is built somewhat like NT. If you dont have the rights/permissions, which are given to a user at logon, to alter files you cant touch them. In fact hitting the cancel buttun in 2k doesnt even let you get to the desktop, you must have a valid username/password.

Does he have any other account set up on the system? even a user level account might enable him to save the files he wants to save, then you just reinstall 2k. And like Tweakin said, make a backup admin account.

 

[ucdnam]

mikef208: What you're referring to is for the home versions of Windows, not the NT-based Windows.

On these machines, you're basically f#cked if you forget your admin password.

NurseRN: If the machine was part of a network, maybe someone has a domain admin access and can get in?

 

[luv2chill]

No way to hack the pw if that's what you mean. There are programs that will use brute force (guessing basically) but those are pretty ineffective.

Is the Guest account enabled?

Worse comes to worst you can take the drive out and install it in another system. If the drive is using NTFS you're going to have to install it in another Win2k system but if it's FAT then any old system will do. Then, just copy his important files to another drive to back 'em up.

The only way that won't work is if he's using NTFS and has encryption turned on. If so you're SOL. Or should I say he is.

Lesson of the day: Never forget your admin pw!!!

Good luck!

l2c

 

[Thor_Sevan]

Hey, just add an other HDD and set it to master. Then boot from THAT DRIVE. Once you are in windows 98, or 2000, or DOS, just make a backup of your files. There will be NO problem. THen, scrap windows 2000 folder and reinstall and reput your data back. woohoo !

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

If you promise you are just going to use this for legit reasons, PM me and I'll give you a URL where you can download a special version of Linux that fits on one floppy (two of you need SCSI support). Basically it's a boot disk that locates and mounts the SAM file and allows you to edit the registry and/or manipulate ANY user name and password without knowing the old one. Including Administrator.
Works in NT and Win2000, FAT or NTFS.

Yes, I've used it. Yes, it works.

You can get into serious trouble if you abuse this, but let me know if you're interested.

JR..

 

[MegalodoN]

I heard somewhere that you can do a reinstall on top of the current setup and it will just ask you to enter the new admin password. I don't think any of his data would be affected by doing this....

--M

 

[Rogue]

Mega is right. Simply re-install Win2k over the existing one. During setup you can set a new administrator password. As long as you don't format or re-partition, all your data will be available. You could even do a parallel installation of Win2k by installing it into a different directory (ie-c:\winnt2) and then boot to that installation to recover data.

 

[NurseRN]

JoLLyRoGer? as I said in the beginning of my thread, this is a legit thing. People, who know me here on AnandTech, can attest my moral integrity. I am too old and too conservative to think of something funny, if you know what I mean?

Thank you guys for trying to help.

Nurse

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

I wasn't trying to attack your integrity or anything. I typically hang out in OT so I can't attest to anyone's character here in GH.

BTW did the link work for you??

 

[ArkAoss]

i can think of no other way than jolly rogers to access it unless you have aspare partition, and beos you can access an ntfs with a beos hd.

 

[mikef208]

Thanks for setting me straight on that issue guys, i knew my idea worked on the 9x kernels, I said in the post that i wasn't sure if it would work for him. Thanks.

 

[Castellan]

Or you could just go to BHS.com and get one of their handy dandy password extractors . Winternals has an NT admin password grabber that MIGHT work with 2k. Never had need to try.

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

WOW!! Good link Castellan.

 

[slipperyslope]

just go here follow instructions and you will be fine....

reset password

Jim

 

[XeonTux]

sweet! Just tried it on a spare system that I've been playin around with win2k on and it worked great!

Everyone at work gives me sh!t 'cause I prefer linux to the MS crap they sell ...now I can't wait for the opportunity to whip this out and save the day!

Anyone ever encounter problems or know of certain scenarios where I should NOT attempt this? You can bet that I will not guarantee customers that their systems won't be fscked after doing this anyway.

BTW, I loved this excerpt from the docs:
3) (NEW 2000-04-01, no, not a joke) Insert old styles password-hashes into the SAM, will be converted to syskey-hashes on next boot.
Thank god for this little lack of security, eh? I wouldn't be too suprised if this "feature" was fixed in a future windows update.


(I prob would have known about this utility earlier had I got dragged into, er, involved with windows systems before a month ago)

 

[Rogue]

Why don't you just re-install Win2k and reset it that way? That's about the easiest and safest way to do it.

 

[hungrypete]

<< WOW!! Good link Castellan. >>


Roger that! Excellent link!