Windows XP Xp password problem.

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Covenant

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I have a friends machine here with a slightly unusual problem.
The machine is setup with 2 user accounts both requiring a password to login. Trouble is, the passwords no longer work and he can no longer get into XP
After a bit of digging, I've found there's no longer any passwords on the PC and
I'm starting to suspect some sort of virus.
Has anybody any idea how I can get in to Windows or is a clean install the only option?

Covenat.

PS I'm currently running chkdsk from the console and so far it's taken 3 hours to get to 50%
 
WEll assuming that the security hive has not been wiped out, the best bet is to use a utility to reset the administrator password.You didn't state what version of xp you are dealing with, if it is XP home, then you must boot to safemode in order to get the administrator logon. If you have not tried that, and it is home, then boot to safemode, selelct administrator. he should not have set a password, as most people don;t know that the only way to get administrator in home is in safemode. you should be able to reset the passwords in users and accounts, or failing that in computer management.

if it is not home, ie pro, and you can;t logon in administrator due to invalid password, google up the diskette version of ntpwreset, create the diskette, and boot with it. take the defaults thru the first few, till you get to user accounts.
select administrator (don;t do the user ones) and use the * option to blank the password. be sure you write the changes before you exit. Let the chkdsk run on reboot , logon as administrator and reset the user passwords.

this site has screenshots of running the utility:
https://www.moack.ws/articles/NTPasswordReset.html

you can also find some more info and the diskette and bootable cd images here:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
 
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