Member Avatar for DennyF

My PC will not boot into windows. I want to do a repair but have lost my admin password. Anyone got any ideas?

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Quick summary tied to the existing replies: is right that some Recovery Consoles accept a blank password, but since that failed for you need other options. 's idea of booting from external media and 's mention of a password-recovery tool point in the right direction — here are practical, safe next steps and important cautions.

Try these in order:

  1. At power-on press F8 and try Safe Mode. If the built-in Administrator account appears and has no password, log in and change the user password (or run net user Administrator newpass from an elevated command prompt).
  2. Check the OEM hotkey (F11/F10/etc.) for a recovery environment that can run repairs without the Windows admin password — this depends on the manufacturer.
  3. If you cannot boot anything, remove the drive and connect it to another PC (USB enclosure) to back up important files before attempting password fixes or reinstalling.
  4. Use an offline password-reset utility (bootable ISO that edits the SAM hive) to clear the local Administrator password. The usual workflow: make a bootable USB/CD, boot the problem PC, point the tool at the Windows installation, select the account and clear the password, then write changes and reboot.

Critical cautions:

  • If any files were encrypted with EFS (or a third‑party full‑disk tool), blanking or resetting the account password can render those files inaccessible. If encrypted data is possible, back up the raw drive first and prefer password-recovery (recovering the original password) over blunt resets.
  • Always image or back up the drive before making SAM edits so you can undo mistakes.

If these steps feel risky or data is critical, stop and consult a data-recovery/repair service.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for Michael_Knight

If your doing a repair via the recovery console, try hitting enter (with no password).

Most OEM's leave this blank.

Member Avatar for DennyF

Tried that, it tells me any password I enter is not the correct one.

Member Avatar for kovach

My PC will not boot into windows. I want to do a repair but have lost my admin password. Anyone got any ideas?

Download Hiren's Boot CD - http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd
Boot pc from CD and look for password recovery or change tools.

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