Win 2000 password

[Channel Hopper]

Silly me

I have some imprtant files on a PC I threw in the loft three months ago just after I updated to Win 2000

Its asking for a password but I think I was in Mikeeys frame of thought if I ever put one in

Ive looked in the bios for clues, added supervisor and user passwords but I still cannot get onto the system

Any ideas ?

I need the files for a court case on Tuseday

 

[rolfw]

Can't help with the password CH, but you could try taking out the hard disk and putting it in your current PC, change the jumpers to slave and you should be able to read the disk.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Bloody good idea

Will try it (only the new PC is a laptop)

Will have to dig out another old PC- Ive got loads for some reason- charitable donations

 

[rolfw]

LOL, didn't think of that circumstance.

 

[jimbo]

Can you log on to a guest account CH? If you can I'll tell you stage 2 ;)

 

[Channel Hopper]

I think you will have to tell me Stage 1 first

I cannot see guest account anywhere

The PC doesnt let me get past the first scren with login name and password, after five or so tries it hangs completely

The REALLY onld PC in the loft has a fault of the motherboard so wont accept anything new on the IDE cable

Lokks like Im going to have to assign the disk from the OLD PC as primary on the newer PC - and play for a few hours tonight

And I thought life was getting easier

 

[rolfw]

Are you talking about a BIOS password, or a Windows password CH, if its a windows one, can you not just press cancel at the password prompt and enter as a guest? I'm not too familliar with Windows2000.

 

[drag0nfly_69uk]

@CH: if you cannt log on win2000, there's utilty to change the admin password avail as a boot linux floppy (something familiar?), you could then change whatever admin passwd to the one you choose (it works on ALL flavour of winnt - nt4, nt5, nt5.1)
go here: http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

 

[jimbo]

I was talking about logging into Windows 2000 as 'guest' which normally does not require a password. If you could get in that way you could then delete the SAM file which would return your own login password to default (= no password).

If that's not possible, can you reboot with the Windows disk and reload the 2000 operating system. Would that return all settings to default (anyone?).

 

[rolfw]

I think that the file is protected once in the windows system Jimbo, otherwise it could be too readily abused.

 

[drag0nfly_69uk]

@rolfw: protected?? what's protected? windows passwords are there for show, it's been "opened" for years, used to cost $200 for a "locksmith" commercially, now it's free since the "invention" of linux

 

[drag0nfly_69uk]

the sam files can be deleted just as any file, the best way to it is obtain a "live" linux cd, the cd that boot into a complete linux system, use the GUI to delete sam files. if the disk isnot nfts then any dos disk can sort it out.

 

[drag0nfly_69uk]

follow the links from this page, http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ it'll show u ways and means to access a "protected" windows box

 

[drag0nfly_69uk]

@jimbo: guess accounts are normally disabled automatically when u set password to admin account (not true in winnt4)

 

[rolfw]

I appreciate what you say, that deleting the file can be done from a boot disk dragonfly, but was pointing out that from within windows, it is as far as I know difficult, if not impossible.

 

[drag0nfly_69uk]

@rolfw: sam file is not hidden, not protected, not marked read-only from within windows. It's in folder : c:\windows\system32\confi. the point about bootdisk is: you've lost (forgotten) admin password, your drive is NTFS, cannt be read by dos disk, no way you can get to the file because you could not log-on. Hence the bootdisk, if you could log-on then there wouldnt be any problem.

 

[Channel Hopper]

drag0nfly_69uk

Thanks for the link

Ihave a stay of excution for another two weeks and will try what was in the link

Im not an expert by any menas so it looks like more late nights

 

[rolfw]

@ drag0nfly_69uk,

As a matter of interest, I am experiencing problems with XP Pro and am trying to repair the installation, the repair function on the CD Rom asks for an admin password. I didn't allocate one when I installed it and my account has administration status, but it won't accept the password, if I delete the sam file, will it allow me to repair by just entering when the request comes up?

 

[drag0nfly_69uk]

@rolfw: it wont work in your case, it will only work when the system is healthy, the only problem is you've forgotten the password, and if your drive is NTFS, you cannot "see" the disk at all (which is what i suspect your drive is). Anyway in winxp pro the admins password is blank. when you setup winxp pro, you did not have the chance to set admins password anyway, you were only "allowed" to set password against certain username, eg username: rolfw, password: ****, all 5 users were set admins level. you were not given the chance to set admins password, eg username: administrator, password: ????. So when you are ask for administrator password, hit the enter key.

PPL please remember to set admins password in winxp pro

your other answer is to obtain that linux bootdisk and reset your administrator password and then you can use the cd to repair your install, but then linux would probably report that "your admins password is not set, try to use blank instead"

 

[rolfw]

OK thanks drag0nfly_69uk, I tried to enter the blank and it wouldn't let me, the drive is not NTFS as I run 98se on another disk and wasn't sure whether they would live happily together.

It may have turned out that I do not need to do it after all, I've removed the satellite card, USB card and one memory stick and the problems seem to be no longer appearing, so it may have been hardware.