trunnelli
asked on
local admin password
I purchased 3 servers, set them up on my domain, and then an outside software vendor came in and installed their software and set it all up. They went out of business but the machines kept chugging away. I changed my domain structure and took two servers down ( put them on a workgroup) preparatory to moving to the new domain. But I was unable to join the domain as that "guru" had changed the local admin password. They are long gone and I really need to "reclaim" those servers! Is there any way I can get that local admin password back??? I haven't yet taken the 3rd server off the current domain and assume its local admin password would have been set to whatever the other two are. Is this any kind of help to me? Can anyone tell me how to reset the local admin password so I can get back into those servers? Or recover that password somehow?
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I just looked at xDUCKx's link and found that it has a listing for the tool I suggested.
Like xDUCKx said, any account you have with Admin rights including a domain account should be able to reset the local account or add an additional administrative account.
Log on to one of the servers go to Computer Management > Local Users and Groups, see if you can see who all is in the local administrators group.
If you really do not have any means of getting the account, the link posted above should get you want you need. There are tons of options for resetting and/or retrieving passwords.
One thing to note about this situation, if efs encryption was used on that account, resetting the password like this will break any files that have been encrypted with it.
Log on to one of the servers go to Computer Management > Local Users and Groups, see if you can see who all is in the local administrators group.
If you really do not have any means of getting the account, the link posted above should get you want you need. There are tons of options for resetting and/or retrieving passwords.
One thing to note about this situation, if efs encryption was used on that account, resetting the password like this will break any files that have been encrypted with it.
ASKER
Whoa, Dude! This is awesome! I can't wait to go try these things out! I will let you all know the results! Thanks!
i always use the UBCD to run the password tool mentioned above :
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ ultimate boot cd
http://ubcd.mirror.fusa.be/ubcd511.iso direct link UBCD
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ ultimate boot cd
http://ubcd.mirror.fusa.be/ubcd511.iso direct link UBCD
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http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/
I have used it many times, though I don't believe that I have with any of the server products. It should be quite clear if it does not work there.
If you give it a shot, make sure you get all of the way to the last choice where you try to exit and it asks if you want to save the changes. Otherwise, it will not write them back.