cant change admin password:unknown error

fguihen

my pc is in a bit of bad health and i want to use the repair app on the windows XP cd. i need my admin password for this, which is blank, but it tells me that password is incorrect. when i boot into windows to check, and try to look at the admin account properties i just get an error "internal error", and no other info, in the logs or anywhere. i get the same issue when i try to change the password. any ideas?

mukki

what way are you trying to change the password

did you try in a cmd prompt
net user administrator password

fguihen

when i try with the command prompt i get a "internal error occoured". i prob should reinstall, but at present i cannot locate my xp pro cd. also tried a rollback to an old restore point, but that did no good.

try this before you restore : password recovery site

[edit]
actually on second thoughts I'm removing the password recovery link, because people may use passwords for other things too, as well as connecting to networks where the admin can override anyway

password resetting is OKish in the sense that you can't change it without the password owner finding out, and besides most local files are visible with things like NTFSDOS.

CM
[/edit]

Capt'n Midnight

hellboy99 wrote:

try this before you restore : password recovery site don't forget they work by having massive lists of passwords, to which yours will be added, so prob not a good idea if the admin pw is likely to be used elsewhere by you

there have been a few of these recently, virus or similar ? do a scan if you can
but as I've said in the past , if parts of the registry get out of sync then even a repair/reinstall may not get you sorted

_Kaiser_

I use this: http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

LoGiE

Kaiser2000 wrote:

I use this: http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

I second that!

ymb

Kaiser2000 wrote:

I use this: http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

I've downloaded this to try and retrieve a lost password but I find it difficult to follow. Do you start the pc with the disc in or do you wait for the log in box or boot from the cd or what?

Webmonkey

You have to boot with it outside windows. If its two difficult to even make the cd bootable you can download the <snip> burn to cd, restart and boot from that cd. it will be in the menu, think its on the second menu under Password Recovery tools or something.
Its got a load of other useful tools as well that may be of use in the future.

<snip>

Few mirrors on that page, surely one working.

Good luck with it

[edit]no links to Warez - that CD has many non-free apps.
Ghost for example needs a licence per machine


CM[/edit]

ymb

Webmonkey wrote:

You have to boot with it outside windows. If its two difficult to even make the cd bootable you can download the <snip> burn to cd, restart and boot from that cd. it will be in the menu, think its on the second menu under Password Recovery tools or something.
Its got a load of other useful tools as well that may be of use in the future.

<snip>

Few mirrors on that page, surely one working.

Good luck with it

[edit]no links to Warez - that CD has many non-free apps.
Ghost for example needs a licence per machine


CM[/edit]

Is this the type of thing you mean? I would be fairly hazy on this subject,




Password Recovery Software 2.1
Free download Microsoft office 2000 XP 2003 Excel Word PowerPoint MS Access MDB outlook password recovery software source code reset reveal forgot windows user administrator login passwords support 98 ME NT 2000 XP 2003 view hidden asterisk keystrokes password character behind MSN Yahoo messenger google gmail rediff hotmail indiatimes aol e mail account on IE internet explorer Netscape mozila opera restore ZIP WINZIP RAR ARJ ACE PDF passwords.
PasswordRecoverySoftware.zip

Webmonkey

What i stupidly posted above was indeed warez so my apologies for that.

Even though xxx contains a lot of free software and abandonware from the DOS era, it should be noted that there are items on xxx CD which are proprietary software, and xxx CD is thus warez.

I would stick to that NTPassword reset thing.
Download this: http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/cd060213.zip and burn it to cd, then restart PC booting from that cd. That should do the trick.

ymb

I would stick to that NTPassword reset thing.
Download this: http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/cd060213.zip and burn it to cd, then restart PC booting from that cd. That should do the trick.[/QUOTE]

Obviously I'm doing something wrong. I downloaded to hard drive, burned to cd, moved the cd rom to the top of the boot list and restarted but still with the same result. Any ideas?

kippy

Did you make the CD bootable?

Personally I thing the floppy disk image is easier to use with that particuliar program.-although your PC may not have a floppy drive.

ymb

kippy wrote:

Did you make the CD bootable?

See, now you're trying to baffle me with science, I said I was only a simple chap.
How do I do that? BTW pc does have a floppy drive.

Webmonkey

You will have to change the Boot Sequence.
Second you turn on your computer you'll see the bios screen and stuff, in modern PC's at least some anyways have a Key to press for boot options like F8 or something. If this isn't here you gotta go into the BIOS Setup, by pressing DEL key, F2 or what ever key it says and go to boot options and make the CD the First device in the sequence. Usually done using the +/- keys but that will be given inside the BIOS Setup.
Best of luck.

ymb

Webmonkey wrote:

You will have to change the Boot Sequence.
Second you turn on your computer you'll see the bios screen and stuff, in modern PC's at least some anyways have a Key to press for boot options like F8 or something. If this isn't here you gotta go into the BIOS Setup, by pressing DEL key, F2 or what ever key it says and go to boot options and make the CD the First device in the sequence. Usually done using the +/- keys but that will be given inside the BIOS Setup.
Best of luck.

Yes I've done that, I moved the cd rom drive to top of boot list and I can hear it start up