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Windows 2000 password

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by czechmate

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A friend has brought me her computer to check out. She just got the computer and has no idea what is in it. It was purchased from a lot of used office equipment and has Windows 2000 Professional installed. The login screen comes up with a name but she has no idea what the password is. The computer was previously owned by a family member and before that some office. The family member says that she never had a password for it.Is there a workaround other than reformatting that will let me inside the HDD to see what is installed?

11 replies

by blaine moore

First thing I would try is just hitting enter with no password on the default name that appears. If there was never a password maybe that was what they meant.

If that does not work, try setting the username to "Administrator" and not entering apassword. Many people never bother to set a password for this account and you may luck out.

The last thing I'd try is seeing if you can get on as the guest account, by using the 'guest' username with no password or with a password of 'guest'.What I do with new computers, of course, is just format the hard drive and install my own operating system onto it. That way I don't have to worry about any legal issues with seeing privelidged/trade secret/FYEO information and don't have to worry about disclosing it when I shouldn't. That, and anything on the machine currently won't be able to come back and bite me in the rear end later, such as viruses that could get onto my network and what not.

by squeech

If you are using a FAT32 file system, the procedure is quite easy. This technique will also cause ALL accounts to be deleted which means preferences and profiles will be gone (data loss), but everything else (documents, files, etc) should be intact:

Boot from a floppy. Delete C:\winnt\system32\config\sam and C:\winnt\repair\sam. Reboot. The administrator password is now blank. Viola!

Using NTFS? Technique two involves NO DATA LOSS, but the procedure is more involved. Use the boot disk from the address in answer #1. It's a Linux boot disk (Linux reads NTFS partitions) and use chntpw from the bootdisk (there are Linux and DOS ports of chntpw) to change the password.

Hope this helps! :D

by praveen4t

Hi,
This is a bit crooke method, but you will be succesfull. Since you have mentioned it as a personal computer I am suggesting you to follow these steps.

1)Boot your computer through a Bootable floppy.
2) Access your winnt\system\directory, I assume it is in C:\ Drive.Also note that your winnt folder should reside in FAT file filesystem
3) Then del sam.Now your SAM Database is erased and the admin password will be set to blank.
4)Then restart the machine and boot normally.
Note: Please don't try this method in production network.

Good Luck
Praveen

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