Administrator Password, huh! Who? What?...

[Guest]

Here is the deal:

I have an underlying VIRUS somewhere on my hard drive. So, I am trying to
use the repair/recovery application on my OS Boot CD. But, it asks for an
Administrators Password. What is this? Where is it? and How can I get
around this?

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

If you are running XP Home, try leaving the password blank. If you are
running XP Pro, you will need to enter the password that was created when XP
Pro was installed.

 

[Guest]

I did try that. I should mention that this is a Gateway OS recovery CD. So,
would Gateway have set the password?

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Contacting Gateway may very well help. They should be able to tell you if a
password was set and what it is.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Here is the deal:

I have an underlying VIRUS somewhere on my hard drive. So, I am
trying to use the repair/recovery application on my OS Boot CD.
But,
it asks for an Administrators Password. What is this? Where is it?
and How can I get around this?

The password being requested is that of the built-in
_Administrator_ account, not the password for any other administrative
user accounts that the computer's owner may have created. Unless the
owner deliberately set the Administrator's password via the Management
Console (_not_ the Control Panel), it's probably still blank. WinXP
Pro asks the installer to set the Administrator's password during
installation, but WinXP Home doesn't.

As for "getting around" it, you'll have to format the hard drive
and perform a clean installation. (Which may be just as well, as a
repair installation won't do a thing to remove any viruses.)

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I did try that. I should mention that this is a Gateway OS recovery
CD. So, would Gateway have set the password?

If you've an OEM installation, the image was likely created using
Sysprep. If that's tha case something here may help:

'The Password Is Not Valid' Error Message Appears When You Log On to
Recovery Console in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308402

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Michael Stevens]

I did try that. I should mention that this is a Gateway OS recovery
CD. So, would Gateway have set the password?

Look for the password tip in the link below.
Click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into the address box
if using the web based newsgroup.
Recovery console info.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html#RC
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
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