2000 Professional Password Problem

[zjava]

Hi All!

I have a customer that "Fat Fingered" a new password on his Toshiba Satellite Notebook and basically cannot login in He is running Win 2000 professional on a non-network. What can I do to get this resolved without wiping out the machine. Any help please.

thanks,
James

[aussieolie2]

Install a fresh copy of Win2k over the top of the existing - you will loose Windows files, but do not format, you should not loose the contents of C:\ (or whatever drive its on).
You may also try a Windows 2000 password cracker (hard to find) :(

Hope this is of some help,

Olie

[zjava]

thanks, I'll try the reinstall first. Will he loose all his non-windows data files though?

james

[zjava]

thanks, I'll try the reinstall first. Will he loose all his non-windows data files though?

james

[YODA74]

http://www.crackpassword.com/advanced_nt_security_explorer.html

Or you could boot from a NTFSDos Pro or equivalent for NTFS drives
boot disk, Go to the c:\winnt\system32\config folder and delete the sam, and reboot, this should reset the password, or at least set it back to the original password.

[aussieolie2]

The only files that are overwritten are Windows system files etc and some program files (his programs will neeed reinstalling after you setup windows, however everything else should remain on the drve (provided you leave the drive 'as is' when setting up Win2k (note when choosing the drive to install to, dont format into NTFS etc.. LEAVE AS IS!
He may loose e.g. address books, favorites etc... (I am not sure about My Documents) - anyone??

Hope this helps,

P.S IF IN DOUBT BACKUP THE DISK FIRST (Think about ways to do this...u cannot access Win2k)

Olie