Watchman~SPARTA~ Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 I have a friend who cannot update her PC as she doesn't know the admin's password. The PC was set up by her partner who has moved on and can't be contacted. Can this be done through the bios screen or will she still need to know the old password to reset it??? Ta, Watchy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicSN6 Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 (edited) Wow, I'm not sure. I would research what file stores the password and try deleting that file. Hopefully, this doesnt screw up the machine. Before she does anything drastic with the HDD (format, reinstall) I would DOS copy, or use it as a second HDD in a windows machine then copy all of the important files over (Pictures, resume, documents, music etc.). Then reinstall windows. I reread your post. If it is a windows login PW, then follow the above, but if it is tha Startup password that was set in bios, and it comes up just after POSTing, then reset the BIOS by removing the battery. Edited November 9, 2009 by Medic~SPARTA~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KalXen~SPARTA~ Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 There are Unix hacking tools out there that can crack the admin password. You download the ISO, burn to a CD and boot with it. It will then replace the existing password with something else. No guarantee that it might not nuke something else., but I have had to do that on Windows 2000 and XP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchman~SPARTA~ Posted November 9, 2009 Author Share Posted November 9, 2009 This is the user password you enter to get you to your windows desktop. It was setup this way as there were multiple users and they obviously wanted privacy at the time. A CMOS battery pull wont fix this, as I also have user passwords on my machine and when I've pulled the battery to rest the board bios it's never affected this password. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krambo Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 yer cant you set the p/w protected drive as a slave to another drive? then copy the docz across and reformat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchman~SPARTA~ Posted November 9, 2009 Author Share Posted November 9, 2009 yer cant you set the p/w protected drive as a slave to another drive? then copy the docz across and reformat? Yes, possibly but this is a fix for a friend that expects the PC to do whatever she wants without having to know how it works. When I mentioned Bios she went blank, so slaving HD's etc are way over her head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halli~SPARTA~ Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 My Asus book says it's stored in Bios. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PANiC Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 what is she trying to do? i didnt know updates need admin rights 0_0 you can change or blank the admin password with a boot cd or floppy depending on windows version, but u need to tell us what version of windows it is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PANiC Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 yer cant you set the p/w protected drive as a slave to another drive? then copy the docz across and reformat? tried that with a vista hard drive, but you cannot access the docs if you are not that user , xp or earlier is no probs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchman~SPARTA~ Posted November 9, 2009 Author Share Posted November 9, 2009 She's on Vista, not sure which version as the pc was taken into her hubby's works and his IT dept "upgraded" everything - so it's a dodgy copy of the OS that she doesn't have a disc for. They've parted company, he's moved out of the house and she can't ask him / he wont tell her the PW. As daft as it sounds she's not after anything sensitive on the PC she just wants to update flash player so she can get back to playing that dumb-ass farm game on Facebook. But when she trys to update it tells her she does not have admin rights. So she needs to change his PW to give herself admin rights then job done. I suggested a format as the worst case but as she doesn't have the OS disc I can't even do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi~SPARTA~ Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Not sure if this works on Vista, it works on XP but it's worth a go. Put the computer into safe mode, that should bring up the admin account with that your friend should be able to cancel her b/f account & upgrade hers to admin. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PANiC Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 can you help her at all or would you be talking her through this on the phone only? thing is that there is a few ways to get around it, but all involve making a boot cd and some risk few options for ya: http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/ made boot cd and follow instruction: http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/walkthrough.html dont worry about all the text in the walkthrough, it just explains what the app is doing, not what you need to type in or anything. ok here's a video then: http://www.ubcd4win.com/ make cd, boot from it, go to the Password reset tools and find the admin account and just set the new password, reboot and login http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/ download livecd, follow info, as long as the pass is not too complicated then it will tell you all the passwords after some time. most other utility boot cd's like hirens, varients using bart's PE, or live linux cd's like trinity rescue disk or probably helix will have similar tools that will blank out or change the passwords, changing it is a lot quicker than finding it out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PANiC Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Not sure if this works on Vista, it works on XP but it's worth a go. Put the computer into safe mode, that should bring up the admin account with that your friend should be able to cancel her b/f account & upgrade hers to admin. Hope this helps. prob with vista is that the admin account is hidden as default so i don't think it will show in the userlist, and you can bet yo ass that vista wont let you delete an account without admin rights from the UAC. cool trick tho, not heard of that one before Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchman~SPARTA~ Posted November 9, 2009 Author Share Posted November 9, 2009 Based on any of these response or the stuff I've read, I'll be doing it for her. Thanks for the info guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cylawyer~SPARTA~ Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Ah!, as I read on I realize you meant "business partner." In this day and age, the simple term "partner" does not communicate what I think you intended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoBoL~SPARTA~ Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Sorry for a late reply, but as for the Admin passwords in windows. The answer is yes you can reset the password. I know you can do this for all version of windows. but not too sure on win 7. Never had to do it yet . Software :- Winternals (This is a suite if programs) NTLocksmith is the application you need. If you can't find it PM me ill send you the app. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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