Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

Hi Guys & Gals.
I really need your help now! :(
I installed windows 2000 on my girlfriends PC by doing the upgrade feature as she had Windows 98SE and wanted 2000. So all went well.....everything installed. And Windows 2000 starts to boot.....then....

I get the user log on box, with administrator in the top line (as username) and no password. I started to panic, as previously her Windows 98SE had no password on this screen and you just pressed escape and it booted. And no admin password set up at all.

So I tried escape and it beeped at me, I tried default, password, everythign I could think of that was Windows linked. But it stayed on and I could not find a way to get past it so it would boot into the desktop, So currently we have a totally useless PC.

So where has this admin box come from?
How can I get past it without the password (what ever it may be is there a default)
I did not set this up so why has it appeared?

There must be a way around it surely.

I dont know what the solution is other than a fresh complete wipe and re-install, although this PC has her files on it so this is not really an option.

There must be a way around this! This box appears in safe mode, every mode.
I spent nearly all night trying. :(

Can someone help me please! :confused:

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

It sounds simplistic, but I think that the password box comes as a default and there will be no password set. Therefore, when it pops up, just press enter and ignore the password request.

It should just let you carry on from there.

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

Did you press/click enter (ignoring the request for a password alltogether)?

There may also be some help elswhere in the site IIRC. Will have a look and get back to you

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

W98 does not force you to log on, in W200 you must log in as something, that's its nature. The default user is administrator and as above - I would expect the password to be nothing unless you were asked to set it.

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

Tried just pressing enter and it did not work :(
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Never asked for any password to be set, surely there must be another way around it other than wiping (thats a last resort as my girlf will loose all her files) hence the update.

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

I'm sorry to say this, but I doubt this will be the last problem you get with this install.

Both professionally and privately I've never known an upgrade of 98 to 2000 go without a problem (usually pretty terminal ones). If you went from NT4 to 2000 I'd be far more confident.

It's useless advice to get in hindsight, so sorry :(, but it may be worth keeping in mind that a clean installation will always be better.

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

try getting into safe mode (although you may well have same problem here) set up a new admin user with a password you know and log on using that. My experience with win2000 is a tad short but might work

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

According to what I remember when I did this, and the documentaion I have checked today - it asks you to specify a password as part of the upgrade.

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

You don't necessarily need to wipe it to do a fresh installation.. you can actually install into an existing partition without upgrading it. (that may not be the case if it's FAT rather than FAT32, not sure though)

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

Safe mode displays the same box.
Thats the problem :(
There must be a way......

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

My secondary PC started life as W95, then upgraded to W98, and then to W2000 - and it's still going strong. :)

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

There is a time consuming option to save the files if all else fails and thats to reinstall win2000 without formating.This will create a second windows install in a folder labled windows000 or somthing of the ilk.It will most likely say its a bad idea to do this but you can save the files.It should create a dual boot system one the broken install and 2 the new clean install(obviously most programs will not work and program lists etc will be incorrect)

Jon M beat me to it ;)

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

If you do not know any password then there is no way, that's the point of a login box ......

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

There might be something that will work in this thread https://www.cableforum.uk/board/showthread.php?t=31175 https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2012/01/10.gif

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

Thanks I will check it out.
Please keep the soloutions coming though.

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

Take the hard disk out, put it in another PC and copy her files.
Put the hard disk back in the original PC, then do a clean install.

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

How to recover a lost Linux root or Windows 2000 Administrator password


The problem of what to do when the superuser password is forgotten is likely to become more than a casual concern.
In short, you can't easlily recover the password, you need to change it.

To get around a lost Windows 2000 Administrator password:
(This also works for Windows NT 4.0)

You need to get hold of a specialized Linux boot disk. Don't let this part put you off, they're easy to find on the net. These disks contain support for both VFAT32 and NTFS partitions, and an automated script and utilities to alter the password file with a new password. Early versions had difficulty handling the obfuscator that Windows 2000 employs for its password hashes. Make sure you find a recent one. A quick search on your favorite search engine ought to provide a starting point. As a reference, finding one when I last needed it took around five minutes.

Hope this helps :erm:

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

It absolutely does.

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

I never asked, im distraught. And I will be killed, im being blamed. :(

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

try the new install just do not format all her files will be safe.

As mentioned do you have access to another pc? or a techie who can rip the hdd out and save her files so you can start again?

Stay calm she wont be best please if you give yourself a heart attack

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

Just a thought but could the password from 98 have carried over, even if 98 never asked for one, there still may have been one but disabled.


marky now waits for a big slap :dunce:

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

onother option would be to use ghost in dos and do a hdd back up to cd or dvd if a writer is installed then you can reformat reinstall everything and extract any info from the ghost discs.Theres loads of options available to save the data dude so be easy

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

From the Active Network forums...... "The only way is boot the system with floppy and just go toc:\winnt\system32\config
remove sam file.Again once you login a new sam will be generated with admin password as blank.The one disadvantage is if biztalk server or vs.net is installed it will loose all the user information" or you could try shutting down the system removing the CMOS battery for a while then replace it and re-boot the system, this may help you to add a password.

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

try PASSWORD for the password in upper and lower case
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try this password resting s/w

http://www.password-reset.com/
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and these

http://www.lostpassword.com/windows-...ndows+password

this looks good

http://www.pcbeginner.com/tools/pcdoctor.htm

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

Thanks guys, will try all these when I finish work.
Ta

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

I can't help with you getting into the system, but when you have done, get a copy of TweakUI and that will allow you to auto log on as Administrator and skip the password entry bit altogether.

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

I would give http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ a try. It works on 2000 and XP pro, we use it at work and it's been successful many a time. Also http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_admini...password.htm#1

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

There is plenty of things here http://winxpworld.com/res_Windows+20...Password_0.phpHope it helps ;)

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

Well - did you manage to fix it?

There would have been no Administrator account in Windows 9x, so you must have had to input something during the install.

It's a simple enough fix to recover the password!

Lee

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

Im awaiting a password companies reply aftre following one of the links in this post.
As yet they have not got back to me though :(

Re: Please Help me.....HUGE windows problem.
 

pop80 - sent you a PM