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Password Reset

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by paulbelliard 1 view

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I have an operational Dell Workstation which I have forgotten which is the password for the windows login. I have tried to use a number of password reset utilities such as Winternals ERD Commander to reset the password. When Winternals boots from the CD Rom it does not find an OS image for some reason. Is there something I can do in regards to the Winternals issue? Or is there another way around the Windows Password without having to rebuild the PC? Is there another utility out there that I can use to reset the password? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

11 replies

by paulbelliard

I have windows XP. Thing is that its the Administrator password that I am trying to reset. So it won't work in safe mode either. I think the link that you gave me I have tried. And the same thing happens, where it doesn't seem to find the NTFS partition where I want to reset the password.

by graeme

Have you tried loading a second copy of windows onto the drive, into a different directory.....I suspect the drive partition is not standard. However if you are able to get a second copy of windows on you can use disk partitioning software to convert to a standard. Careful though....would well be worth pulling the drive first and backing up to anyother drive

by gjcooper1960

G'day mate. I gather you can get into the machine, but not as admin.
1. log in
2. rename the current screen saver (x.scr).
3. Copy cmd.exe to the name of the screen saver.
When the screen saver cuts in it will execute the cmd.exe with full admin priveledges and you will be able to run usrmgr.

Good Luck

by paulbelliard

I don't get into the PC with any username and password. I have tried it all. I am going to rebuild the Workstation. Thanks for all the input. And remember all your passwords. That is Key........LOL :)

by jgaudet

I don't know if you tried it or not or if in fact that you have already rebuilt the machine, but have you tried removing and replacing the jumper switches on the system board?

by zenithindia

If U Have Forgot The Password, First U Have To Remove The CMOS Battery From The CPU. Power On The CPU Without CMOS Battery 10 Sec's. U Have To Power Off The CPU And Then Replace The CMOS Battery And Power On The CPU. Finally U Can Enter The Windows Without Login

by darren

I use a linux boot disk called Austrumi. Details of which below.

Austrumi

Austrumi is a Linux bootable ISO image for recovering NT passwords and other cool tools and methods, sized for Business Card size CD media (50Mb). It allows you to change any password, including that of the Administrator, on a partition occupied by Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Simply boot the CD and when you get to the initial boot prompt, type:

boot: nt_pass

This will launch a console utility that will detect Windows partitions on the hard disk and provide you with a menu to modify any user or Administrator passwords on the Windows system. It will even give access to the Windows registry for recovery purposes. Quite a handy utility to keep in your wallet (AUSTRUMI is small enough to fit on a business card-size CD) if you are unfortunate enough to having to deal with Windows machines in your line of work.

Read more at http://sourceforge.net/projects/austrumi

This tool got me out of a whole lot of Cow dung a few times now.

Regards,

Darren Foster
www.darrenfoster.co.uk
darren@darrenfoster.co.uk
Office - 01872 888148
Mobile - 07881 805523
Skype me - darrenfoster1976

by edelic123

If you don't have access to an account with administrator privileges then you'll need to do an offline reset Windows Password Unlocker. I believe is the tool i've used to do it in the past on XP.

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