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URGENT: Any way to recover Win2k Pro Administrator password?

J

Justin

Senior member
My uncle bought a laptop from some guy who knew nothing about computers, and the adminstrator password is set so he ( my uncle ) can't install any software on it because the account he can get into doesn't have high enough priveledges. Does anyone know how I can retrieve the password, or better yet, reformat the drive and install windows 98. The laptop doesn't have a floppy drive, which is really the only hurdle, but I figure if anyone knows a way, it's the Anandtech'ers!

TIA,
Justin
 
Well the easiest way to recover the admin password must be to ask the guy you bought the laptop from. If that is impossible and you´re willn´ to pay for it you can use a program locksmith from Winternals. This will reset the password and give you the opportunity to choose a new one.

To reformat an make a new install could be a little tricky without floppy but if the mobo (BIOS) supports boot from cd-rom there is a possibility to boot of from a win98 cd and format from the cd and then install. If it doesn´t support cd-rom boot but have a NIC you could manage this from an other computer with your laptops hd mapped to it. If this hd is formatted using NTFS things coul´d get a little bit more complicated but not impoosible with the right tools...
 
Well, it is NTFS, it does have a lan card, and I have a network I could manage it from. More, detailed, info please.
 
If he were to get a floppy drive, would anything prevent me from fdisk'ing, formatting, and installing Win 98'? Is doing this on a laptop any different from doing it on a desktop?

TIA,
Justin
 
Justin, fdisk won't touch an NTFS particion, fdisk doesnt even detect NTFS partitions and it cannot format them. Do you have the original Windows 2000 CD?
 
Justin, contrary to what you were just advised fdisking will work fine. To be safe, first run fdisk/mbr to clear the exist master boot record. Then using fdisk delete the existing partition. Reboot and create the new partition using fdisk. Format if necessary and start the Win98 install.
 
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