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Administrator password forgotten

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5 replies

by skloo77

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My system OS is Win2K. There are 2 accounts.
1 Administrator and 1 User.
But I have forgotten both the account paswords.

Would like to know if there are any methods of by passing the password? Like can I reset it?
Or do I need to re-install myOS?

Thanks

5 replies

by darry

Dear...,
Very simple if the partition is FAT32 or FAT. Just boot the PC from a bootable Floppy (any DOS / Win95). Go to the folder c:\winnt\system32\config & rename the file SAM as anything like SAM.REN. Now restart the PC & you should see the logon screen. Here login as the administrator & blank password. You will be able to login as usual!!
Do let me know how the same goes about!

by dreadlux

The first answer is only partially right. You will loose both accounts when you rename the sam file.

Here is a better way. Goto http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ and download the utility. Make the bootdisk from the download. (The instructions are included)
Then follow these instuctions:
- Shutdown or turnoff the PC
- Put the book disk in the PC and reboot
- Respond to the Linux prompts (The highest barrier is understanding unix media descriptors)
- Select the account whose password hash needs to be rewritten & enter a new password
- reboot & access using the new password

Hope this helps you out

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