windows xp

[j8choi]

Is there an easy way to get into windows xp if the passwords are all forgotten. Admin and local user

[Cantacuzene]

Not that I know of. This happened on a friends computer and we had to end up reinstalling the OS to get back in.

[j8choi]

If I reinstall xp it wont delete my stuff rite?

[DankNstickY]

Originally posted by j8choi
If I reinstall xp it wont delete my stuff rite?

it shouldnt. i think its basically the same things as when u upgraded from your last version of windows.

[GilbertsGrape]

i did this a wile back there is a way to reset it if you cerated a recovery disk .... just dont remember the details.... also there is a hack to do it too just google it .... same way that nt can be hacked,,,,

[Jeffbx]

If you just want to get your files off, install another copy of XP into a different directory & log in using that copy. Or, if you have another computer laying around, make your HD a slave drive in the 2nd PC to get your files.

If you want to hack your password, there are a bunch of utilities that will run a hash against your password file & most of the time can break it. It can take a while to run, tho. Here are some starting points for that:

http://www.elcomsoft.com/prs.html
http://www.datapol-technologies.com/en/index.htm
http://www.openwall.com/PR/nt.shtml

A lot of these are licensed packages, but you can probably find a free one if you look hard enough.

[Joshua]

Wouldn't he need to be logged into the machine to run these cracks anyway?

Even if he did it over a network, I believe he'd still need the pw to connect to it...

[Jeffbx]

Originally posted by SnotRocket
Wouldn't he need to be logged into the machine to run these cracks anyway?

Even if he did it over a network, I believe he'd still need the pw to connect to it...

Nope, just has to boot with a different startup disk rather than going in through the OS. As long as encryption is not turned on in NTFS, it's a pretty trivial thing to get into a system if you have full physical access to it.

[eSDee]

Are you sure you set a password for Administrator? If not, you control alt delete twice at the startup screen, type in Administrator with no password, and log on.

[Jcranmer]

I don't know if this will work or not on XP. I have used it for NT 4.0 and WIN 2000 Pro and Server and it works great. Fat32 or NTFS file system.

Password Reset (http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html)

It a linux boot disk with a program on it that will allow you to reset any of the local user account passwords.

If it completely fries your system though, don't blame me. I can't really say if it will work with XP or not. It might just mess something up good. :(

[Burzhui]

http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecovery/erdcommander2002.asp

[Joshua]

Yep, Burzhui's right. System Commander is IT! I use it all the time at work. We have a few hundred NT/2000 servers and it works like a charm every time.