Re: Administrator password unavailable - Small Business Server


"Philip Herlihy" <thiswillbounceback@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"M.I.5¾" <no.one@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Philip Herlihy" <thiswillbounceback@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
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I've just acquired a new client who have (clearly) had very poor service
from my competitors. Among other problems, we have a Small Business
Server which is in the "locked" state, and we have no Administrator
password available. Apparently my immediate predecessor is dealing with
a grave family illness and has not responded to phonecalls or emails
over several weeks.

I'll declare now (as I've declared to my client) that I'm not very
familiar with SBS - I'll have to set one up on a test machine and study
it as soon as get the chance. The login screen announces itself as
"Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server" so I can't even be sure
which version we have.

The office has seven PCs in the domain. In the very limited time I have
to look at this problem I've tried logging on as one of the "normal"
domain users - this account does not have Administrator status, and it's
unlikely that any of the other accounts would have greater privileges.
I've tried connecting via Remote Desktop (which has clearly been used in
the past) but it appears that only the Administrator account has the
necessary privileges. I've also tried logging on remotely via
Sysinternals' psexec utility, but this is blocked.

At the moment the server is continuing to provide SQL Server services to
a line-of-business application and I've managed to provide them with
access from Outlook to a POP3 server but it's clear that this is a
disaster looming. I'm assuming that SBS isn't readily "hacked". I do
have physical access to the server and could, for example, dismantle it
if that would help! The only alternative seems to be to put pressure on
my predecessor which everyone is loath to consider.

I'll be grateful for any advice.

Delete the administrator password.

This utility is what you need.

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

This links to an image of a bootable CD. Burn it to a CD and then boot
from it. Use it to delete the administrator password (it should be self
explanatory), don't try to change it to another, it is less than
reliable. You should then be able to log into the administrator account
without a password.



Thanks, MI5 3/4, I'll look very carefully into this. It seems to have
moved to:

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


I shall update my records, Thanks.


.

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