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Local Admin Password Forgotten
Name: gddess Date: February 22, 2002 at 07:07:03 Pacific
Comment:
I recently changed the Local Administrator Password on my Windows 2000 machine, and now I have forgotten it. I now only have access rights to a Local PowerUser Account. Does anyone know how I can possibly log in as a PowerUser, and somehow recover/change the Windows 2000 Local Administrator Account.
Name: Jeff J Date: February 22, 2002 at 07:12:35 Pacific
Reply:
Is the Windows partition Fat or NTFS?
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Response Number 2
Name: gddess Date: February 22, 2002 at 07:56:08 Pacific
Reply:
The Windows partition is NTFS.
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Response Number 3
Name: steve Date: February 22, 2002 at 09:28:38 Pacific
Reply:
Easy as pie! Go here and download the demo and voila!
http://www.mirider.com/ntaccess.html
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Response Number 4
Name: Glen Date: February 22, 2002 at 09:46:24 Pacific
Reply:
How many people in here wish we had a nickel for every time we've seen this question asked?
Gddess, you do not have to reinstall but since the Windows partition is NTFS it will make the solution much more difficult. You will need a 3rd party utility change the password. I don't have any links off the top of my head but if you do a search you should be able to find them and someone will probably post a message in here for you.
Another thing you can do is to install another version of the OS, making a dual boot machine. Log into the second OS as administrator, and access the winnt\system32\config folder of the first install, then delete the SAM file. Reboot and log into the first OS and administrator / blank password.
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Response Number 5
Name: greg moore Date: April 14, 2002 at 19:31:24 Pacific
Reply:
yea i did the same thing. i did what glen said about creating a dual boot machine and deleteing the SAM file and it didn't work. i think the problem may be that i am running windows NT. should this still work? do i have to empty the recycle bin of the SAM file? i get an error message when i simply delete it and try to log onto the 1st OS.
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