Use Windows XP Repair to Reset the Admin Password

[Russell Hopkinson]

I found myself with a workstation running XP Pro that a client gave me, after they tried to join it to a new domain.  For some reason (still unknown to me) the process went horribly awry and they found themselves locked out of the box (no, they didn’t reset a local admin password, prior to the move).

 

None of the utilities I found would access the contents of the 160Gb mirrored SATA drives (using an Intel Matrix RAID controller), and then I found a surprisingly simple—and free—method to edit the local user accounts.  It sounded too good to be true, but it worked.  Here’s how:

 

1.       Boot the PC with the Windows XP install CD [you’ll need to download and load (F6) any special storage drivers].

2.       Choose to install Windows.

3.       When it finds the existing Windows installation, choose the Repair option (NOT the repair option that uses the recovery console).

4.       Windows Setup will delete files, copy files, and then after several minutes, Setup will restart the machine.

5.       On boot, as soon as the GUI pops up (after the splash screen), press Shift+F10.  A command window opens up.

6.       Type the following command: NTUSRMGR.CPL 

 

You should now have a GUI interface open, which will allow you to manage all local accounts (including a button that says “Reset password”).  Sweet!

 

Now, if I could just get a free Tuesday evening to hang with you all…

 

 

Russell Hopkinson  ●  RH Technology Solutions, Inc.

561.635.1034

rhopk...@rh-ts.com

www.rh-ts.com

 

[jber...@ctcfla.com]

Russell,
Did you know about this one? I have not used it on a system with your
RAID controller. http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
Jay Bertino
Royal Palm Software, LLC
http://www.royalpalmsoftware.com
561.333.8424

On Mar 12, 10:05 pm, "Russell Hopkinson" <rhopkin...@rh-ts.com> wrote:
> I found myself with a workstation running XP Pro that a client gave me,
> after they tried to join it to a new domain. For some reason (still unknown
> to me) the process went horribly awry and they found themselves locked out
> of the box (no, they didn't reset a local admin password, prior to the
> move).
>
> None of the utilities I found would access the contents of the 160Gb
> mirrored SATA drives (using an Intel Matrix RAID controller), and then I

> found a surprisingly simple-and free-method to edit the local user accounts.

> It sounded too good to be true, but it worked. Here's how:
>
> 1. Boot the PC with the Windows XP install CD [you'll need to
> download and load (F6) any special storage drivers].
>
> 2. Choose to install Windows.
>
> 3. When it finds the existing Windows installation, choose the Repair
> option (NOT the repair option that uses the recovery console).
>
> 4. Windows Setup will delete files, copy files, and then after several
> minutes, Setup will restart the machine.
>
> 5. On boot, as soon as the GUI pops up (after the splash screen),
> press Shift+F10. A command window opens up.
>
> 6. Type the following command: NTUSRMGR.CPL
>
> You should now have a GUI interface open, which will allow you to manage all
> local accounts (including a button that says "Reset password"). Sweet!
>

> Now, if I could just get a free Tuesday evening to hang with you all...

>
> Russell Hopkinson ● RH Technology Solutions, Inc.
>
> 561.635.1034
>

> rhopkin...@rh-ts.com
>
> www.rh-ts.com

[Greg Kirkpatrick]

He knows about Peter Nordahl's Offline NT Password & Registry Editor, as I had mentioned it to him earlier today -- but it has problems loading the RAID drivers prior to booting with the CD it creates (in my experience).

As this was RAID 1, the drives were mirrored, so it should have been possible to remove one of them, and boot from the other, without using drivers, using the Nordahl CD -- but no, the file format still could not be read.

This trick of NTUSRMGR.CPL is a good one, Russell -- I'm going to file it for future use.

Greg Kirkpatrick
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
MCP, MCTS-Vista, MCITP-Vista
mailto:gr...@ComputerMagic.CC
561-212-6094

Greg Kirkpatrick -- "Like other states, Florida has a tax on stupid people.  It's called "The Lottery".

[Dave O'Keefe]

Nice find Russ!

 

--------------------------------------------
Dave O'Keefe, MCSA
Your Computer Guy, Inc.
Microsoft Certified Partner
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Office: 561.337.6972
Cell: 561.818.5242
Fax: 561.584.6308
Da...@ycginc.com
www.ycginc.com

[Russell Hopkinson]

Jay,

I love that utility, and have never had it not work for me; but in this
instance, it simply would not recognize the partition as a valid NTFS
partition. I even removed one of the mirrored SATA drives and installed it
into another computer with a completely different SATA controller, and I got
the same result. So it looked more like a disk issue than a controller
issue.

Using Windows XP Setup to reset the admin password is not my primary tool of
choice, but it certainly saved my bacon this time!

Russell Hopkinson ● RH Technology Solutions, Inc.

Mobile: 561.635.1034
e-mail: rhopk...@rh-ts.com
www.rh-ts.com

-----Original Message-----
From: PalmB...@googlegroups.com [mailto:PalmB...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of jber...@ctcfla.com
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 11:31 PM
To: PalmBeachIT
Subject: [PalmBeachIT Forum] Re: Use Windows XP Repair to Reset the Admin
Password

[Steve Shelby]

Looks like the raid driver was the key.

I wonder if the latest ERD could locksmith it out, too?



------------------------------------
FarVision Networks
Steve Shelby
President
steve....@farvision-networks.com
tel: (954) 272 8267
https://www.farvision-networks.com/
------------------------------------