Win 2k Lost Password

[c3p0]

OK, I have a friend who has forgotten their password in Windows 2000 Pro. Is there any way to get in to the system and fix this problem? We have tried every combination of password that he can think of. I know this is a long shot, but thought I would give you guys a shot at it.

If all else fails, can we reinstall Win2k over its self so we don?t loose any of the information on the hard drive? This system has some very important information that can't be lost. Any reasonably safe idea is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[bsobel]

> If all else fails, can we reinstall Win2k over its self so we don?t loose any of the information on the hard drive?

An upgrade will not fix the password. I clean install into a different directory will allow you to access the files. You can search the net for l0pht crack, if you can access the files you need you may be able to use that (it might take some time)

Bill

 

[SaigonK]

You could do the following:

Go to sysinternals.com (think that is it) and get the util called NTFS Pro.
It installs onto a floppy and allows you to access the NTFS file system.
Once in DOS with the ntfs-pro bootdisk, delete the SAM file and it will reset all accounts on the PC. The risk is that you will lose any local accounts besides the ones installed by default.

 

[c3p0]

SaigonK, thanks for your post, as well as bsobel. I will check the web site you gave and try to download NTFS Pro. We installed Win 2K in another directory already. Can we delete the SAM file from the new intallation? Or will we still need to use NTFS Pro? Thanks to both of you for your responses.

 

[Abzstrak]

heres a free util that will let you boot into linux and fix it

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

I've used it few times without problems.