can't log on - forgot password (oops)

[Jimmy Wu]

On 8/19/07, NoOp <glgxg at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> On 08/19/2007 01:13 PM, Jimmy Wu wrote:
> > Does chntpw work on laptops?  I have a WinXPPro laptop that I changed
> the
> > password to a while ago, but I've forgotten it because I usu. leave it
> on,
> > and haven't let it shutdown in a while.  I tried chntpw, but it didn't
> seem
> > to work.  This is my company-issued laptop, and it would be really bad
> if I
> > got locked out and couldn't use it.
> >
> > Hope someone can help.
> > Thanks
> >
> > Jimmy
> >
> >


I think I figured out what was wrong:
I was using a Ubuntu Live CD - working fine (but then again, laptop is
relatively new).  I would cd to the Windows system32/config dir, and do
`chntpw -u 'Jimmy Wu' SAM`, type * to blank, and it would seem to work
normally, but doing a chntpw -l right afterwards showed no change in the
password (ie still not blank).
Then I remembered from my experience working with an NTFS HD on my home
Ubuntu machine, that I had to install ntfs-3g or something like that before
Ubuntu could write to NTFS (otherwise, it's read-only, I guess).  So I
installed that, along with ntfs-config, told it to enable write access to
the XP hard-drive, and tried chntpw again, and this time it worked.

Thanks for the really detailed instructions, though unfortunately I didn't
check my mail until after I had done the above.

Jimmy
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