Old admin took password to his grave

[Guest]

I'm trying to get access to a Windows 2000 Server, that is a Domain
Controller. Oh no I said the DC word. The old admin isn't around, he's
dead. So now what? Administrator is the only account, besides guest which
is disabled. It was a dumb AD deployment. I mean who only makes 1 account!?!

Anyways, this server uses an LSI 21320-R U320 SCSI Controller Card R1 SCSI
card. I tried to use some freeware utility from
"http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd" but it doesn't find any of my
partitions cause it doesn't support my controller. Bummer, cause this
utility is awesome otherwise.

Is there any other way to reset the password, or at least edit the registry
so that I can edit HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Desktop and change the
logon.scr to cmd.exe.

I was going to change that registry key so that I can access a cmd prompt
from DSRM boot.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Steven L Umbach]

The real built in administrator account for the domain can not be disabled
in Windows 2000. It can be disabled in Windows 2003 but is available in safe
mode with networking start. The link below is the only way I know to do what
you want. For those that think this is a vulnerability of Windows 2000, the
user needs full physical access to the domain controller which is one reason
why they must be physically secured. This is true for any operating
system. --- Steve

http://www.petri.co.il/reset_domain_admin_password_in_windows_2000_ad.htm

 

[Guest]

I'm back to square 1. The bootdisk that the site tells me to use won't work
cause it doesn't recognize LSI Logic's controllers.

However, I was going to try this alternate login method instead. Kind of
sucks since, I have to go out and get an IDE drive, install Windows again,
load the SCSI drivers so that it can see the SCSI disks, and then copy
cmd.exe to logon.scr. Oh and of coarse, management wants little to no
downtime during the week, so guess where I get to spend my weekend.

Its all outlined at:
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password_alternate_logon_trick.htm

Thanks though for your help. The link you posted helped me find this
alternate login method link.

Regards,

BogdanSUA
I just wish there was an easier way. If someone asks how do I get from
Europe to North America, you don't tell them to swim it.

 

[Guest]

You maybe able to take a ghost image and restore it to another box and try
from there. It may be worth looking for some network password utilities.