Will reinstalling Windows Pro from cd bootup fix Admin lock out problem?

[scalywag66]

I have a laptop my friend gave to me which was a workstation at a Motorola campus, and my friend lost the Password to the main user profile that used the workstation and made a pass for Administrator that he forgot, essentially locking himself out or anyone elset trying to log in as administrator.

So I was thinking,......

Can't I also borrow a copy of Windows Professional from my brother or someone who I know has it on CD and install it using the cd boot-up method and the Windows Professional key that's under the laptop?

[petroz]

M$ Licensing makes it pretty hard to just use any old XP cd. But if you can boot to a CD the odds are that Ophcrack will get you that pesky password your looking for.

[dhicks]

But if you can boot to a CD

And if you can't, simply remove the harddrive from the laptop (don't worry, they pretty much all just unscrew) and put it in a 2.5" USB drive caddy (£5 from eBay) and run Ophcrack on it from a different PC.

--
David Hicks

[kesomir]

try a cotton bud swipe over the cd lens first though.

[button_ripple]

If you can still get into the laptop under a different log on name, you might be able to do something about it. If you go to run and type in "control userpasswords2" you may be able to change the administrator password. This does depend on you being able to still get into the laptop and having enough permissions to get to it. Another thing you could try is joining the laptop to a domain (if it has pro on it) and then resetting the local administrator password on the laptop, then you could remove it from the domain.

If you can't do either of these i would just re-install the computer - btw can't you contact the manufacturer for a reset CD? This would be totally legal and put on all the drivers/software, etc...

[scalywag66]

you can also reset password by opening up a new notepad sheet, typing

@echo off
net administrator*

and save as a .bat file. Open the .bat file and do your thing. Of course tho, it all depends on whether I can get in or not.

[tom_newton]

I have used TRK to recover a lost admin p/w from a non-domain XP box... cant see why it shouldn't pull out the local admin tho.

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