Solved: windows 2003 server password recovery on raid 5

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Windows Server 2003

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kazuma6666

windows 2003 server password recovery on raid 5

Hello,
I searched here but couldn't find a whole answer. We just bought another company and we are stuck with the hardware. The main server at this place is in windows2003 and we don't have the password to start it. We need to be able to configure things in this server, but since it's in raid 5 (
HP Smart Array P400 Controller) I can't use ebcd to reset password. I need a tool to reset password and before that load the drivers. There is linux drivers on the hp site (suse, redhat, SCO and even solaris). If anyone could help it would be very much appreciated. My main problem is the raid controller.

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techzter🇺🇸

Could you be a bit clearer on what password you are trying to work around? I am having difficulty figuring out whether you are referring to a BIOS password, Local Windows password, Domain login password?

kazuma6666

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I'm looking for the administrator password of windows 2003. Not the bios password. I think logging in locally could resolve a lot of our problems but if you have a solution to get the domain login password it would also be interesting I guess.

vertsyeux

There are several linux live (botable) CDs that will reset the local passwords on a Windows workstation/server.. Personally, I'd be nervous about using these as they mount NTFS in read/write mode in Linux and write to the hive security files - I once trashed my Windows system that way..

Your best bet is a utility called ERD (Emergency Recovery Disk) from Winternals.. It's also a bootable CD but boots into Live Windows, and has a utility called "Locksmith" that will allow you to reset any local Windows password.. Does other useful stuff too..

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kazuma6666

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Well, we got the password reset with hiren's boot in fact.

But the problem is not resolved. We can't login locally into the computer. When arriving in the logon screen, there is no way to change anything in the "logon to" combo box. So I either need the domain password or a way to log on locally.

Seems they did everything they could to prevent us from taking over...

techzter🇺🇸

So when your companies merged the old IT staff just walked away and gave no admin login information for the local machines, or the domain? Ouch!

Is this server a domain controller? If so I think the local admin account is disabled and you can only login to the machine using a domain login.

Have you considered opening a ticket with Microsoft? I think you can open a per incident ticket for around $300. That is will worth it to gain full access back to the network.
http://support.microsoft.com/select/?target=assistance

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techzter🇺🇸

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kazuma6666

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Techtzer : I think they planned for their current owner to buy them back. Unexpectedly we got them instead, and now another branch has changed password and configuration remotely.

Is there nothing we can do from the recovery console?

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vertsyeux

Here is a hack that will reset active directory passwords.. I've never tried it so use with caution

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

techzter🇺🇸

I think so. Check the last post I put in. Since you have the local admin password recovered it seems that you can use that in order to get in and reset the Domain admin password. It appears that you can boot into a Directory Services Restore mode using the local admin password. You than can run some tools to fix the AD admin password.

Make sure to disable the remote connectivity as well so the other branch doesn't change it on you again. ;)

techzter🇺🇸

Vertsyeux I think that will get them the local admin password, which he has already been able to do. Unfortunately you can't login to a domain controller using the local admin password in regular operation. He will need to reset the admin account for active directory in order to login to the server.

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kazuma6666

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Thanks a lot for your help techzter, I will try all those links. They do look promising.

Gideon7🇺🇸

techzter🇺🇸

How are things coming along? Have you been able to obtain the access you needed?

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kazuma6666

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Sorry about that I got sidetracked on other projects. The problem is solved with the links provided in the accepted solution post. We also used Hiren's bootcd to reset te local admin password. It was the only one that supported our raid controller.

Thanks techzter, gideon and vertsyeux.

Windows Server 2003

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Windows Server 2003 was based on Windows XP and was released in four editions: Web, Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter. It also had derivative versions for clusters, storage and Microsoft’s Small Business Server. Important upgrades included integrating Internet Information Services (IIS), improvements to Active Directory (AD) and Group Policy (GP), and the migration to Automated System Recovery (ASR).