Password help

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Hi all
Just a quick, the password for a pc at work has been lost/forgotten (system admin PW) is there anyway to retrieve it or will a complete clean install have to be carried out. No password protection disk was created.
thanks

 

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What OS is it?

Is the PC attached to a domain? Or is it stand alone?

 

if it's the local admin pw, check this: http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm
if you scroll down, you'll see some tools. i've successfully used this one in the past. good ol' linux to the resque.

 

Its a stand alone PC mate

 

It's fairly trivial to change local passwords on a NT-descended system. However, if any files have used the encryption option then they could be unreadable.

I use the Locksmith from ERD commander, but there are now many free equivalent utils that will do this.

Harry.

 

Failing these could i just carry out a clean install

 

Does the PC have another user account on it? If so does it have admin rights? if this is the case then you should be able to go into the control panel and reset the Admin password.

 

The only account on it is the administrator and no one knows the pw, the admin left and this is the first time this pc has been booted since then

 

If the PC is pre Service Pack 2 you could try this.

You have nothing to loose if you're going to format it anyway.

 

Has anyone used this? Just wondering if it works...

 

Nice one boyce,
simon cheers for that will give it ago like you say nothing to lose if the thing needs reformatting anyway

 

even though it was asked, you still haven't told us much, like what kind of operating system is running on this machine. and besides, from the links that have been provided to you, there are about 6 or 7 different cheap or free solutions and tools that you can use. if you fail to use all of them, then yeah, maybe a clean install is the best solution for you.

 

The OS is XP pro on a stand alone pc. We are going to give the information supplied here a blast and if it works bingo where in and learned something new in the process if not then a clean installation will have to be done and the pw kept in a safe place.
thanks all