Administrator Password - XP Recovery Console

[troyboy]

Does anybody know how I can run the recovery console in Windows XP without knowing the administrator password.

I have a PC that I need to repair the boot sector and cant run the recovery because I don't know the administrator's password.

Any Idea's?

Linux boot disk to get password ???????

HELP!

[WhiteOx]

Download Hirens boot cd and you can remove the admin password.

[troyboy]

Thanks WhitwOX....Will try that but really need to know the password if anybody knows how to recover it!

[z80]

I have had trouble doing it with service pack 3.

Does it still work ok?

[troyboy]

I found some unix software (3MB ISO Image) which allowed me to reset it, but actually fining the password seems another thing.

[Aboulaly]

ophcrack xp live cd actually shows you what the password is.

but are you sure there is an administrator password in the first place?

[z80]

very quick download site that one...

[troyboy]

ophcrack xp live cd actually shows you what the password is.

but are you sure there is an administrator password in the first place?

Thanks I'll try it.

I have administrator access to the PC, but its a secondary admin account. But when you run the recovery console, you need the administrator password and cant use secondary accounts, even if they are of the same security level.

[Aboulaly]

if you have administrator access, you can log on in safe mode and remove the password for the Administrator, and once you are in the recovery mode it will still ask you for a password even though there isn't one so just press enter and should carry on the process.

[troyboy]

The PC's not booting though....It says problem with BOOT.INI and won't load. So thats no an option!

[troyboy]

ophcrack xp live cd actually shows you what the password is.

Thanks for the link Aboulaly......

Well I downloaded and booted from this CD. Very powerful software. Only problem is this is the free copy and it only extracts passwords that are upper/lower case and numeric characters.

One thing I have gathered is that my admin password must have a special character (EG: &%$#@>?)

Its well worth a download as its a handy tool, although it hasn't helped me gain access to this PC yet.

Anybody else know of similar software ???

[Aboulaly]

Download this file and burn it on a cd, then boot from the cd and it gives you the choice to clear all passwords.

P.S when you boot from the cd it will ask you for a password, just type password
By the way I have integrated Sata drivers on this one, so it should be good for all laptops as well.
let me know how you go with this one champ.

[WhiteOx]

The PC's not booting though....It says problem with BOOT.INI and won't load. So thats no an option!

Do you have access to another XP machine?
If so .. copy boot.ini from the booting machine to non-booting machine.
Pull the HD out if you have to.

[troyboy]

Aboulaly & WhiteOX

Gents....Thanks again....Much Appreciated.

I have software that can reset the password, I also know how to fix the BOOT.INI problem, What I am trying to get is the actual admin password.

I have already fixed the PC in question, But for reasons that will take me hours to explain, I am now just hunting down, what the actual password is.

I have extracted the NT Hash and now need to get it converted to plain text.

Cheers