According to the description on gaining lost passwords on this site http://www.computing.net/faq/contentnt/lostpw.html
I'd like to post a question or two about it as i am new to NT. How are you supposed to copy the SAM file if all versions at sysinternals are read only versions and you are required to copy a file?
Thanks in advance for clearing that up
Matt

You can copy a read only file. You just can't write to it. This is, obviously, dealing with strictly NTFS partitions.

The real deal here is that they tell you to use l0pht to crack the admin password. That takes a while. It can take quite a while, and not be so easy to do, either. You have to remember to load the libraries, download them, etcetera.

With a FAT16 drive, you just delete the file. But that brings us back to your question.

Run attrib, and change the file attributes for the FAT16 drive. The NTFSDOS program kinda ignores those, so it doesn't make a diffrence. Besides, you're not writing to the NTFS drive, only reading the SAM from it.

Hope this clarifies things for you,
Chase

Sweet man thanks heaps, so i can just copy that SAM file with my read only version 3 NTFSDOS.
Thanks Again
Matt

hi i have win 2000, and have lost the admin password, i have installed another copy on another partion, all okay, i have gone to the orignal deleted the sam files rebooted to the orignal install and still it comes up with the same user name what do i do now?

cheers