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NT Administrator password

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9 replies

by riche

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The administrator password expired, the admin tried to change it to the same password, now he can't get in. Any solutions short of reload?

Rich

9 replies

by davidj

If the administrator knows his own password and has Domain Admin privileges he should be able to change it.
If you can not remember the password and have an emergency repair disk, use that to reapply the SAM. This will give change the Administrators password to the old one.
If all else fails, load another copy of NT on the same system in a different directory, get the SAM from the old system and use LophtCrack to get the password.

by gallaso

I did not want to spend the whole afternoon doing it the long way, as davidj@rx.com suggested, so I used a third party software.(Had to buy, of course. But if this issue happends again I will be ready)
It basically resets the administrator password. In my case the user had removed the computer from the domain. It worked for me. Here is the link:
http://www.lostpassword.com/windows-2000-nt.htm

by nt/2000/sql

This answer was given by haha in PASSWORD!!! thread. A very cunning one. I'm just copying it here :

long way to recover:

01. Install an alternate copy of Windows NT.

02. Boot the alternate install.

03. Use Control Panel / System / Startup.. to change the default boot instance to your original install.

04. In the original Windows NT folder, navigate to the \System32 sub-folder.

05. Save a copy of logon.scr, the default logon screen saver.

06. Delete logon.scr.

07. Copy CMD.EXE to logon.scr.

08. Shutdown and restart your original install.

09. Wait for the logon screen saver to initiate. It will actually open a CMD prompt, in the context of the local system account.

10. Type MUSRMGR, into the CMD prompt from step 09, to execute User Manager, and reset the Administrator's password.

11. Delete the logon.scr from %SystemRoot%\System32.

12. Rename the saved default screen saver, from step 05, to logon.scr.

13. If you wish to keep the alternate install:

Compress its' folder.

ATTRIB -R -S -H c:\boot.ini

Edit c:\boot.ini and change the text of the alternate installs 2 entries to ALTNT.

14. If you wish to remove the alternate install:

Delete its' folder.

ATTRIB -R -S -H c:\boot.ini

Edit c:\boot.ini and remove the alternate install's two (2) entries.

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