How do I get into Win2K

[pthres]

A friend has recently bought a Win2K machine, upto now he's been logging into it no problem ( username and password already filled in ) so all he has to do is press enter. Now what has happened is he thought that he could make up his own password and name from the login dialog box, so he cleared them out and tried to enter his own ( which we all know is not possible with Win2k as it is with Win98 ) so now he's locked out of it.....He can't telephone the previous owner because he's moved to Spain!!!

So my question is this :-
he knows it was setup for networking but does not know the IP address or workgroup name, so what I want to know is if I then plug my Win2k laptop into it how do I find out these details ( reason being on my own system I have Admin rights, so in theory If I can set-up my own system to match his ip range and workgroup I could then remotely setup a user account and password that would allow him to log back in ) I've done this many times on my own network BUT I know the ranges and workgroup name so obviously this is easy..............

 

[Brooks]

I have no idea if you could do that or not. I doubt it unless you were able to hit upon the workgroup name.

To recover a lost administrator password, you can use this linux boot disk.

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

 

[DoyceJ]

I found this. Hope it helps.

People often find themselves locked out of their Windows 2000 or Windows NT systems as a result of a lost password for the Administrator account. Usually people consider the system a lost cause and start rebuilding it. However, you can use the following tip to work around this problem. When Win2K or NT boots, the OS usually displays the Ctrl+Alt+Del screen for approximately 20 minutes before the display changes and the logon box moves around the screen. When this happens, the machine has activated the screensaver logon.scr. If you replace this file with an alternative file (e.g., cmd.exe), the system will run this file under the system account instead of logon.scr. At this point, a user could issue a command such as Net User, usermgr.exe, or compmgmt.msc to reset the Administrator password.

 

[Brooks]

Now that is an interesting tip.

I will put that one down in my handy little logbook.

 

[Max19]

DoyceJ, how to suggest the user change that file? You can't use a Windows boot disk if the partition is NTFS.

pthres, have him try Administrator and leave the password field blank.

 

[pthres]

Thanks guys will go all your suggestions a go

 

[DoyceJ]

Max- I had run across the same answer in several different places with no explanation given in any as to how. I took it for granted that a w2k user or one of you would know.

 

[Brooks]

A second Install of XP/2000 on the same computer.

Installing the drive as a slave or secondary onto another computer with Xp/2000.

Either of these would work.

 

[p5mmx10g]

make sure you guys are on the network and the connection are fine. use computer management. select connect to another computer, that way it will browse the network. it should find the name of that computer, if not, go look for something that can scan the ip address on the network. hope that will work

 

[eandre]

There is a utility called ERD commander that cab be used to reset the administrator password to what ever you desire.

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/erdcommander2k.shtml