I'm locked out of win2k

[HJB417]

my grandfather somehow managed to lockout the 2 admin accounts on his win2k machine and the only workable accounts are 1 poweruser account and 1 guest account. How do I unlock/reset the admin accounts? I'm thinking about maybe restoring the registry using this method. What do you guys think? If worst comes to worst, I'm gonna have to resintall win2k and that is something I DON'T wanna do. I'm gonna try to do a few google searches about this problem, meanwhile.

 

[Woodie]

The original "Administrator" account shouldn't lock out at the console. Try waiting a while (>30 mins) and then logging in again, at the machine (local/console login), using the original Admin id.

--Woodie

 

[Saltin]

Well it depends what you mean by lockout.
Lockout means the account has been disabled for a set period of time due to unsuccessfull logon attempts using that account. You would have had to have set up a policy to have this happen on the box (it's not default).
I'm guessing you mean your Grandad has forgotten his passwords?

 

[HJB417]

I thinking changing the system time to something really far ahead does the trick, like 2067.

Passwords don't work. Account has been locked out so even if they are correct, it doesn't work. I setup the policy months ago, it;s lockedout until hell freezes over =/

 

[Woodie]

You might try this: Offline NT Password resetter

** Warning: I have not tested it, nor do I know it'll work w/ your setup. **

FWIW, I'm surprised that you could lock the Administrator account out, or set the policy to allow it to lock out. In NT 4.0, that required special action, outside a Policy. MS also recommended that you NOT use that setting...just allow the account to be locked out from the network, but not from the console.

Good luck!

--Woodie

 

[Saltin]

What was the purpose of setting up a policy like that on your Grandfathers machine? Lol.

 

[HJB417]

well, then, I thought it was possible for someone to remotely hack in to his computer even thought I disabled the major vulverabilites (netbios, file print sharing, telnet, allowing remote access from accross the network, etc., and lots of stuff from here) . I need win2k on that computer becuase it's more stable than win9x. I dunno how winxp would do, now that it's out. He's on dialup and doesn't use the computer often. I will reconfigure those policies though.

 

[HJB417]

<< You might try this: Offline NT Password resetter

** Warning: I have not tested it, nor do I know it'll work w/ your setup. **

FWIW, I'm surprised that you could lock the Administrator account out, or set the policy to allow it to lock out. In NT 4.0, that required special action, outside a Policy. MS also recommended that you NOT use that setting...just allow the account to be locked out from the network, but not from the console.

Good luck!

--Woodie >>



I couldn't find an option like that in the local security policy -> "just allow the account to be locked out from the network, but not from the console."

 

[Saltin]

For future reference, instead of using account lockouts, just implement a strong password policy (8 chracters minimum, Upper and lower case, numbers and non alpha-numeric characters). I wouldnt worry about anyone trying to hack your grandad's box, unless he has half a million credit card numbers on it .
A strong password policy makes brute forcing a password take FOREVER.
We use account lockout at work, but only on enterprise admin accounts. If you put them on user accounts, well, you get what we have here. User's are bound to lock themsleves out at least once a week in my experience, lol. Too many headaches.

 

[Doubolplay1]

Hey, you can try this. I have never tried it , but it is worth a try

I got this online , and saved it I save any trick with win2k


"Recovering from a lost or changed admin password
Did someone change your admin password and now you can't do anything and the perpetrator won't tell you what the new password is? (This is from personal experience.) Well, there are two ways to fix the situation. First, though, make sure you make backups of everything before you try this, just in case. These are radical solutions for a tough situation.
1) Did you keep your root partition/drive as a FAT32/16 area? If you did the solution is easy. Get any Windows9x boot disk and boot up to it, then CD to X:\WINNT\system32\config and delete SAM (no extension), SAM.SAV, and SAM.LOG. The SAM without an extension is actually an exe file. Those three files control the usernames and passwords. Delete them, reboot, and there will be NO admin password to worry about. Recreate users as before and this time keep the admin password to yourself. "

 

[HJB417]

nice