# Password Override Windows Xp Pro



## huggabugg (Mar 29, 2007)

Hi everyone, 
I just bought 5 IBM Thinkpads "AS IS" at an auction. Apparently they are passworded. 

I know there is a combo hotkeys to press to bypass the password, does anyone know them? Or anyway other way to bypass the password. 

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and helping.


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## huggabugg (Mar 29, 2007)

*I purchased five (5) IBM Thinkpads "As Is" at an auction, they all have passwords. Does anyone know how to override?

The whole Safe Mode and using Admin doesn't work. Arrggghhh, Now I know why they were so cheap .*


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## striker0204 (Nov 12, 2006)

yahhhhhhh, if you mentioned XP Home or 2000 or 98 i could help you... xp pro is pretty fricken locked down...go to somewhere like best buy, go to the geek squad, they have bootable floppies and stuff where you can override crapola


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

It's very easy to get pass previous passwords with XP (Home or Pro)

There is a boot disk you can download at:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

that will let you reset the password of any account on NT4, Windows2000 or XP.

Just follow all the default settings which are for the admin account. Used it many 
times with great success.

They also have a bootable CD image you can download.


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## Rich-M (May 3, 2006)

I hope that Bob's solution is the complicated method I tried one time on a client machine...I could not figure it out.
If it is, then try this which takes more time, but will work easily:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=305


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Fortunately it is a lot less complicated than that other solution. 

Basically just boot with a floppy or CD, take all the defaults, and reset the admin password. Not too much to figure out. It actually gets posted on this forum quite a bit.


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## striker0204 (Nov 12, 2006)

hmm. i think ill try that. guess you can just throw my prev. post right in the cann


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## cwwozniak (Nov 29, 2005)

I wonder if huggabugg is talking about a BIOS/Hardware password instead of the Windows admin password. That may be a tougher nut to crack.

http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/292350-ibm-thinkpad-bios-password.html


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Then they wouldn't have been able to boot from safe mode as mentioned in the first post.


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## maxibhoy (Jan 19, 2006)

If you have any trouble with any of the other methods you could try this. Basically in XP the account passwords and usernames are stored in the sam file. c:\windows\system32\config\sam. Unfortuney on XP the passwords are encrypted but alas that's not really a problem either. Since they are encrypted though you'll also need another file c:\windows\system32\config\system. Now to get these files the easiest way in my opinion is to use a live cd like knoppix or puppy linux to boot into the computer. Knoppix is actually easier as you won't need to mount the drive beforehand to acces the windows partition in linux. Right so assuming you'll be using knoppix, which is availible for free download from www.knopper.net, after you've downloaded this burn it with nero or any software that will burn iso files. Then boot from this into the laptop. Once in it will present the windows partitions on the desktop. Simply click (once) into this and navigate to C:\windows\system32\config\ and simply drag the two files sam and system onto some other media (usb flash drive would be perfect) Once you have these files download saminside (just google it, it's everywhere) saminside will get you every user account and password in no more than 5 mins. and there you go. You'll probably find they all have the same or simillar passwords if they where all from one business or something. Who knows, maybe not. This info is for use for legal purposes only and only because i'm satisfied that it is going to be am i giving it.


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## cwwozniak (Nov 29, 2005)

I must be too much of a pessimist. I read "The *whole* Safe Mode and using Admin doesn't work." as _possibly _meaning they could could not get to Safe Mode to try and make it work.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Actually if you don't care about any previous user accounts, just delete the sam file entirely. Then you will be simply left with an administrator account with no password.


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## maxibhoy (Jan 19, 2006)

> Actually if you don't care about any previous user accounts, just delete the sam file entirely. Then you will be simply left with an administrator account with no passw


I'm sure that only works with pre xp machines.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

What happened when you tried it?

Of course the boot floppy mentioned earlier is way faster than messing with the sam file yourself.


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## maxibhoy (Jan 19, 2006)

Security accounts manager failed to initialize seems to ring a bell.

Well at least he's got plenty options now.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

The floppy is likely the fastest simplest method then. Don't even need another computer.


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## striker0204 (Nov 12, 2006)

floppy is prolly the best way to go. use those tough more thorough options if the floppy doesnt work


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## blacktruth609 (Sep 17, 2007)

I have a dell d600 with windows 2000. I am locked out by pass word. I tried to start in safe mode, didn't work. What can I do to unlock this laptop?


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## EAFiedler (Apr 25, 2000)

Sorry, we can no longer assist with passwords as we cannot verify the intent of the user.

Forum Rules


> Category I Offenses
> 
> Passwords - Please do not ask for assistance with forgotten passwords and/or bypassing them. As there is no way to verify the actual situation and/or intentions, no assistance will be provided and any such threads will be closed.


Closing thread.


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