Password hell

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roger Himmel
  • Start date Start date
R

Roger Himmel

I need help. A former employee changed the password on win
2000 and we haven't an idea what it is. We installed
windows 2000 on a point of sale system in our retail store
and now we can't get into the system. We can't process any
sales. Should we re-install win 2000? If we do, will the
entire contents of the hard drive be obliterated?
 
See the FAQ for options. -- http://securityadmin.info/faq.asp#password

One of the options is to down load the free program that resets passwords. You can
download the iso bootdisk image, burn it to a cd, and then boot the computer from the
cd. Follow the prompts where in general you will hit enter to select default options.
Eventually you will have to enter an * I think if you want to reset password to blank
and follow prompts to save changes. Renaming the sam file as described is also
usually effective if you have the means to do it. If you decide to reinstall [which
can be done rebooting from cdrom with install disk], you do not have to format the
hard drive/partition but instead can install to the same \winnt folder that setup
will detect. I think you are prompted to use L for that. Again do NOT select any
option to format, and after installation you will have to reinstall all applications
on top of themselves so that they are recorded in the registry, and reinstall your
service pack and critical updates from the Windows Update site
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp . Your data should still be
intact. The reinstall will also create a new user profile, but the old profile should
still be available to copy over the new profile. Be sure to developed a backup plan
in the future using something like Norton Ghost - the 2003 version that also comes
with System Works Professional. If you had a Ghost Image, you could be back up and
running in probably ten minutes.--- Steve

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

Information Week recently had an article on doing just
what you are trying. You can also find some information
doing a search on www.langa.com, which is the website of
the author who wrote the Information Week article. I
personally have tried to Ultimate Boot CD tool he mentions
to reset a forgotten local admin account, and it worked
great.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?
articleID=13100343

Good luck,

Teresa
 
Q321305 How to Log On to Windows XP If You Forget Your
Password
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-
US;Q321305


http://securityadmin.info/faq.htm#password

Reboot to Safe Mode, select Administrator, leave password
blank.
Then go to User Accounts in Control Panel and
delete/change the
password.

You do not need to reinstall if you forgot the admin or
any other password.

There is a boot disk you can download at:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

that will let you reset the password of any account on
NT4, Windows2000 or
XP.

Just follow all the default settings which are for the
admin account.


For an Win2k AD domain controller, you need to do more
than that:

http://www.jms1.net/nt-unlock.html
 
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