Unlocking windows password

[Bill81]

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to unlock a windows 2000 server?
Admin password is lost, all those boot cd's that are capable od doing so don't work because they hang during boot process (complicated hardware Raid+scsi).
Knoppix seems to do the trick and starts up, can see all drives and access the data.
Can Knoppix also reset the admin passwd? if so how?

[Markus]

You could try this http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/answers/477 but captive ntfs is known to have bugs, so only write to ntfs with it if you have no other option.

[ckamin]

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to unlock a windows 2000 server?
Since you are running Win 2000 Server. Go here first for the answer to your question.: http://www.jms1.net/nt-unlock.html Do not try to access this page using Internet Exploder. FireFox and some others will work. The Author is adamant about not allowing IE to view his pages. I won't get into THAT discussion, but the information is good for W2000 SERVER.

If you are just running Win 2000 and don't have any of the issues described in the above link, then check the following information.

Some of this information was contained in a link previously given about chntpw and Knoppix. Try doing a Google search on chntpw for more info on it. It is a program that should be installable to Knoppix or might already be there in some versions, but I have not tried to look for or install it in Knoppix. I have used it from two different "Rescue" type live CDs and a couple of "Boot" CDs. Ultimate Boot CD, HELIX and INSERT, if my memory is correct. Try the info at http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ and look at the Linux AND the link to the Windows boot CD. For some other info, look here: http://www.inside-security.de/insert_en.html and here: http://www.e-fense.com/helix/ . I believe INSERT is contained in the Ultimate Boot CD, or at least one of it's versions. They can Blank the SAM files for you. They primarily cannot "Recover" the passwords, just blank them. Another link to see is: http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm. This one is sometimes offline, however and may not be up at all. There are a few tools listed there that might be useful. Try here also: http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/editor.html.

One word of caution. It is very risky to write to an NTFS partition using anything other than Windows. Windows NTFS partitions can easily be corrupted by improper writes. There are a few new projects to look at. Try http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/ for more info on a new project. Captive NTFS has been previously mentioned as a solution and has been known to work, MOST of the time.

Windows PE is something that an Enterprise organization might have available. A similar tool would be BartPE that allows writing to NTFS partitions. Some boot CDs use BartPE. It is a rather involved process to put it together, but if you use it more than once, it's worth it.

There are a few tools out there that can "Crack" the password. There are links and information about some of them in the links I have given previously.

[Bill81]

I'm gonna go with the option Markus provided.

That unlock website does not work, since I am not unlocking a win2k AD or domain controller.

And like I said, all those boot cd's from Petri to Nordhall don't work.
They do not recognize the hardware, are not able to locate the disks.
Only bootable cd that has managed to load eveything properly is Knoppix.

[|enouf|]

@ckamin;
thank you for the link to john's - interesting stuff, and exactly the stuff more ppl need to read

I had no problem accessing the site - and really felt like the disdain mentioned for winblows, and generally brain-dead cattle was me writing it ;)

you've more than made my day - thank you
p.s. I am already aware of the other valuable links you posted...nice job

@Markus;
thank you also - for the link - I already use knoppix (though not enough yet) - and have known and did some research a little while back about Captive NTFS...Your link is the perfect update I need. Thanks

@Bill81
do you mean the site doesn't work ? or the procedures outlined there ?
If I understand you questions/post - the info is there to accomplish what you want to.