Member Avatar for merlinron

hi all,
I have a problem. I have added a PC running W2000 which I was updating for a customer to my network. This way I could access it from my own desktop. Part of this installation is that the PC needed CTRL-ALT-DEL + user/password to access the network. This user and password I have created and are known.

After finishing the work I updated the customer's PC so it would no longer be part of the network. I removed the network definition and restarted the PC. But now it asks for a W2000 user + password (not for the network); since the machine used to startup without popping up I have no idea which user/password to use. The customer is also not aware since he never uses a user/password.

Is there a way to solve this? Any help would be immensely appreciated since I have to have everything working tomorrow to prevent looking more than a fooll than I already do.

Ron (from the Netherlands)

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Suspishio

Dani AI

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— situation understood. and pointed in the right direction about account/domain issues; below are practical recovery steps that do not assume you know the current Windows password and that focus on preserving data first.

First, back up the drive before attempting any password work. Remove the disk, attach it as a secondary drive (or use a USB-to-IDE/SATA adapter), and copy the whole user profile folder (C:\Documents and Settings\<username>) plus the registry hive files in C:\Windows\System32\config (SAM, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE). If you can, make a full image of the disk with an imaging tool. This preserves files and EFS keys so you do not lose any data if a password-reset method damages access.

Recovery options (ordered by safety):

  1. Offline password reset tool (chntpw/ntpasswd): boot a dedicated password-reset/rescue ISO, point it at the Windows installation, select the SAM, choose the account and clear or set a new password, then write changes. This is the standard, low-cost way to regain interactive logon on Windows 2000. Important: clearing a password will break access to EFS-encrypted files for that account.
  2. Boot a Windows PE/BartPE environment and, after backing up, replace the accessibility program at the logon screen with a command shell. From that shell you can add a new local admin user and set a password:
    net user tempadmin P@ssw0rd /add
net localgroup Administrators tempadmin /add

    After reboot you can log in as that admin, copy data, and repair accounts properly.

If those are not possible or files are encrypted, use the backed-up drive to recover data on another machine, then rebuild or restore the OS image. Since this is a legacy Windows 2000 machine, document a recovery plan (local admin account with known creds and offline backups) to avoid similar emergencies.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for freshfitz

What did you update that made it not belong to the network. Did you un join it from a domain. Did you try Administrator no password?

Member Avatar for Suspishio

Maybe you can gain control again by logging in Safe Mode as Administrator and hoping no password is required.

Member Avatar for freshfitz

administrator would have the same pw safe mode or no safe mode

Member Avatar for merlinron

Maybe you can gain control again by logging in Safe Mode as Administrator and hoping no password is required.

pretty much tried everything I can think off. The machine was delivered without a user prompt but since I unconnected it from my server network I suddenly need a user/password. Don't understand why. Safe mode is also user/pw required and safe mode with command prompt does not work.

Member Avatar for freshfitz

Did you un-join it from a domain. Then yes it probably had a administrator password set and now you don't know it so you can't login and you can't use the one you set cause there is no domain to authenticate to. By default if the password was not setup during the original install of windows 2000 then it would be administrator no password.

Member Avatar for merlinron

yes, thats what I thought, but no luck..:-(

tomorrow morning (its 23:24 now) I will contact the guy who built the image. You are always reuired to set a user , right? my hope is on him now... cheers for the help

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