Is it possible to override the admin password on XP?

[Lysander]

Basically one of our computers has gone weird at work. It would demand that it be booted in safe mode. On attempting to do this it then rebooted and performed two disk checks, deleting a load of files on the way.

Now we're into the safe mode login prompt, but can't get to desktop since it's insisting than none of the logon passwords are correct. Not even the admin one. Is there any way round this?

 

[Nismo]

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=305

I did that on a work PC running XP Pro SP2 who's owner had forgot their local admin password, and it worked a treat.

Someone else will probably know a better way of doing it though

 

[Fibre_Optic]

ERD Commander can reset Windows password.

 

[Lysander]

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=305

I did that on a work PC running XP Pro SP2 who's owner had forgot their local admin password, and it worked a treat.

Someone else will probably know a better way of doing it though

Thanks, I just tried that link but the recovery console couldn't copy files properly... God knows what's wrong. Can't even boot in safe mode.

We've just gone for a reinstall. There was nothing important on the C drive apparently.

 

[bledd]

ophcrack use that live cd to get it


the free version will get it as long as it contains a-z &/or 0-9

 

[hegemon]

This works just the same on XP, have used it a number of times:

http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

 

[Lysander]

OK, now on trying to do a fresh install, it keeps saying "xxxxxxxx is not a valid XP system image" when trying to reinstall. And it can't copy some files from the Windows CD.

Is it a problem with the CD?

We did a quick format with NTFS beforehand, would a normal format make any difference now?

 

[bledd]

replace the hd

all full format does is a diskchk, if that's finding problems, there'll probably be more in the future

so replace it now

 

[FrankJH]

OK, now on trying to do a fresh install, it keeps saying "xxxxxxxx is not a valid XP system image" when trying to reinstall. And it can't copy some files from the Windows CD.

Is it a problem with the CD?

We did a quick format with NTFS beforehand, would a normal format make any difference now?

for anyone interested (although I guess its obvious) you get the same "error" message if the disk is encrypted