Break NT workstation admin password

You can reinstall NT and keep your programs.

Select the upgrade option, rather than a fresh install of NT. You will be "upgrading" to the same version. Of course, make sure you have all drivers available and re-apply the SP when finished.

There might be a way to hack the admin password - I do not know it.

Here are a couple of options for you:

1) There's a password utility at L0pht.com called L0phtCRACK. It's a free download. It can be run on any node on your NT network. L0phtCRACK will give you username and user password in plain text. Upper and lowercase alphanumeric and >= 9 characters will give L0phtCRACK trouble - will take long to crack code.

2) Sysinternals.com sells "NTLocksmith" for about $40. It will give you the Administrator password for server or workstation.

Good Luck.

Have an Administrator change it via User Manager for Domains. All you have to do is click User/Select Domain key in \\workstationname (whatever your workstation name is) and presto.... change the password

Or if none of these other suggestions work you could install a second copy of NT into another directory. Then delete
%systemroot%\system32\config\sam of the original install. That is the account database and it will be recreated when you boot back into the original install. Administrator will have no password and you could log on and change it. Of course any other users created on the workstation will be lost so only do it if there are no other users or you can easily recreate them.

Dave

I know this isnt the total answer but reading a few weeks ago I read article which warned about the potential of a startup disk from winnt landing in the wrong hands as this is an easy path to use the to gain admin right and free rights to the system. I dont know how its done but its supposed to be a fair task,,, good luck

Don't forget to use your EMERGENCY REPAIR DISK (ERD).
If you have made a backup of your system registry you should have your settings for the SAM in the ERD disk, just do a repair of your SAM and presto! your sam will be restored to the last configuration that's on the ERD disk fixing the problem of your password & user accounts (the ERD has a file called SAM on the disk) or
I don't know if you have a backup administrators account if you do, use it to change the password on the admin's account that was changed.
Good luck!!!
Rich.

The ERD isn't limited to fixing corrupted registry files. You can also use it to repair
problems that originate with changes made to the registry with REGEDIT or a similar utility.
In some situations, the solution is to insert or delete a key or change the value of an item in the registry. The downside to making registry changes is that you may make the problem worse or make the system unbootable or otherwise unstable.
An up-to-date ERD will also prevent gray hairs when you need to reset the password to a previously used one. It can save you many hours you might otherwise spend reinstalling Windows NT and the associated programs on the
workstation being recreated.

Good Luck!
Rich

cjeck with jsiinc.com and look for the lost admin password... they have a complete description.

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