help! windows XP wont let me into safemode

[gutsylow]

Hi

I have a heinz 57 PC AMD Athlon at 1837Mhz, 200MB HD, 512RAM. Windows XP Pro SP2.

I have a problem for the last couple of months,

Each and every time I try to enter Safe Mode the password is rejected. I have even tried creating a new administrator account and then accessing safe mode through that login with the password written down beside me.

I can still access the desktop when booting normally, but I cannot get past the login screen for safemode.

If anyone can help i would appreciate it.

[chunkmartinez]

This may sound completely dumb, but make sure capslock is off.

[gutsylow]

I am not insulted MARTINEX, It is usually one of the first questions I ask people who ask me for advice.
I have tried with password on admin account I have even tried without password on admin account.
I have even gone and set up a new admin account to ensure first is not corrupted all without success.
No matter how I try I cannot get into safemode at all. To further complicate things I do not possess a Genuine Windows install disk as it has got damaged after being in storage for 3 years now.

And yes I did check the capslock status to no avail.

Any ideas dudes

[DMR]

There are a few methods/utilities mentioned here:
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

A Google search using the following search string will yield more info:

"windows xp" password administrator reset

[chunkmartinez]

Yea well also, Just because you are wanting to log into safe mode dont think u wont need a password, it's practically the same old crap.
If u cant loginto normall mode it's the same for safe mode & visa versa.
But than again u probobly already know this.

let's see.
im too lazy to type so ill pass u a tut i learned it from.

if u ever have trouble with this dont hesitate to ask./
also, i could get u the programs 4 free.

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Dark Tip: Windows Password Hacking
written on Wednesday, February 25, 2004
The ultimate guide to recovering lost Windows passwords.
Users most commonly protect data on their systems with a standard Windows password.
This is a good first step that keeps out the average user, but it can be circumvented in just a few minutes. Find out what I'm talking about on
"The Screen Savers" when I give you the ultimate guide to recovering lost Windows passwords.
Where oh where is my password?
Windows 2000 and XP passwords are stored in a file called SAM (Security Accounts Manager). It's located in the windows\system32\config directory.
Passwords are encrypted and stored within SAM as a password hash. Passwords look something like this: 8F J7 F3 GK S3 lL O4 E1 G9. To figure out your
lost password, you have to extract the encrypted hash from SAM and crack it.
To crack or not to crack?
Before you proceed, you must make a decision. Do you want to recover the old Windows password, or do you want to reset the password?
If you want to reset the password, use a nice little utility called ntpasswd. Ntpasswd uses password hash insertion -- it inserts a new password hash
that you've created into the SAM. This works great, but remember, if you have encrypted anything using the Windows Encrypted File System (EFS), you will need
the original user password. That means you have to crack the password.
Cracking Windows passwords
To crack a Windows password you need to extract it from SAM.
Boot with Knoppix STD and launch a shell.
From the shell, you can view all your NTFS partitions via the LinuxNTFS built into Knoppix STD.
Navigate to the windows\system32\config directory.
Copy the SAM and system files to a cheap USB thumbdrive.
Take each of these files back to another Windows machine and fire up SAMInside. SAMInside uses SAM and system files to extract
the encrypted hash (the SAM file is double encrypted with SYSKEY. SAMInside gets around that).
Launch LC4. It will brute-force and dictionary-attack the hash marks. Once the hash has been matched, the final password is displayed.

[chunkmartinez]

You know what scratch this.

just (free) download ntfsdos, put it on a floppy, boot up with it,navigate to the windows\system32\config folder and copy both "SAM" & "system" files and then contact me, and then we will have u send them to me and ill crack them 4 u.

[gutsylow]

You know what scratch this.

just (free) download ntfsdos, put it on a floppy, boot up with it,navigate to the windows\system32\config folder and copy both "SAM" & "system" files and then contact me, and then we will have u send them to me and ill crack them 4 u.

Hi chunkmartinez

All of this is very useful, but I have not seen how this would make me able to log into an account which does not have a password in the first place.

I have set up an extra admin account which did not have a password set. If there is no password then just pressing ENTER should begin the booting of the account.

If the account does not have a password, then there would be no password for you to recover from either of SAM & SYSTEM files, or for a password recovery software to recover.

I have since found a further glitch, this one is confusing to say the least. For a course I am doing, I was asked to create a second (imaginary) printer. After doing this I tried as the course shows to delete the printer, but the system says that I do not have administrator privileges.

This is impossible as I have removed nearly all the user accounts leaving just the default administrator account which I use every day, and the guest account (which has so far never been used on this machine.

Seeing as my account is the administrator account, how can I not have rights to delete a printer.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

gutsylow