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Thread ID: 44846 2004-05-01 22:16:00 Inherited PC Passwords Blue Druid (4480) Press F1
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233546 2004-05-01 22:16:00 I have a friend whose husband recently died leaving her with his PC (O/S: W2K Pro) which she would like to retain and use. However, she wants to install a modem (it only had a network card because it was his business PC) and she does not have the administrator password to allow her to install it. She does have the user password.

In addition to many file which she wishes to keep, she would like to continue to use the apps which are installed so a complete reformat is undesirable from her point of view. There is no CD burner to backup the files to (assuming it would allow her to without the admin password).

Is there any way in which she can access and change the administrater password so that she can continue to use it without losing any of the HDD content? I seem to remember that it is possible but cannot recall the 'how to' bit. Then again, I may be simply confused :-)
Blue Druid (4480)
233547 2004-05-01 22:43:00 This site (www.petri.co.il) here offers some good advice on how to recover a forgotten password without having to reinstall Windows. Jen C (20)
233548 2004-05-02 08:51:00 Found here: www.geocities.com

31. Reset Administrator Password
If you have forgotten the Administrator password then you can go to this directory WINNT\system32\config and delete theese 3 files SAM , SAM.SAV , SAM.LOG
Deleting theese files will delete all accounts along with passwords, so you need to recreate all users again. But the Administrator account will continue to exist but with no password

If your Win2k is installed in a FAT16 or 32 partition then just use a standard boot disk to get access.

Use one of the Password Remover found on the Files page, which is also able to edit the SAM files and reset the password without damaging the other accounts
Use a standard bootdisk for Win9x to access to boot partition and delete the files.

If your Win2k is installed in a NTFS partition then you can :
Use one of the Password Remover found on the Files page, which is also able to edit the SAM files and reset the password without damaging the other accounts
Install a second Win2k on another partition and access the old Win2k through that and delete the files
zqwerty (97)
233549 2004-05-02 08:55:00 Also look here:

home.eunet.no
zqwerty (97)
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