Please help need to use fixmbr

for the love of Pete

April 23, 2006 10:54 AM from

I'm trying to get into the Recovery console in XP by booting from the install disk. It is asking for the Administrator password. My regular logon password won't work even though I have admin privileges and I don't even remember setting up a password on the 'Administrator' account. I just need to run fixmbr. Any ideas?

Thank you

11,668 views 16 replies

Reply #1 April 23, 2006 12:00 PM from

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I'm assuming you have tried no password?
Sounds odd but I see a lot of PCs where the default profile has no password.

If you have tried that with no luck, I'll try to remember what I've done before in these cases.

Will the computer not boot into Windows at all?

Reply #2 April 23, 2006 12:08 PM from

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tried no password, computer will not get passed the grub boot loader (error 15)

I have my Ubuntu ISO install disk and am trying to just load the grub, but it won't let me. It keeps saying there is no root file system defined. I don't see anyway to fix that. I tried to just reinstall linux to get the grub installed, but having problems with that atm.

Reply #3 April 23, 2006 12:17 PM from

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crud...can't edit...

Am reinstalling linux, so hopefully, the boot stuff will get fixed in the process. what a pain.

Reply #4 April 23, 2006 12:27 PM from

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so the computer rebooted successfully with the boot loader. How do I change the admin account password? Can I even get to it from my account with full privileges?

Reply #5 April 23, 2006 12:27 PM from

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looks like I might be able to

Reply #6 April 23, 2006 1:52 PM from

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I remember there used to be a util. which resets the passwords for NT/2000/Xp ... but unable to recall the name

you can head-over to www.winternals.com and see if their software fullfil your needs ... they are bit costy but really work like a charm

Reply #7 April 23, 2006 3:06 PM from

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How do I change the admin account password? Can I even get to it from my account with full privileges?

2nd question first: yes.

1st question: you can go to Alt-click on "My Computer" select "Manage" then "Local Users and Groups" select "Users" locate the administrator account, alt-click on it and select "Set Password", then change it to whatever you want.

Alternately you can open the command prompt and type in: net users
This will give you a list of all accounts on the local machine.
To change the password type in: net user accountname * (with acountname being the name of whatever account you want to change the password for)
It will then ask you to enter a password, and then to confirm it.

As long as you are using an administrator level account, either one of these will work.

Reply #8 April 23, 2006 4:46 PM from

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Thanks to all!! I was able to change the admin account password via tjesterb's advice. Yay!

something happened to my ubunto logon. I get an error stating that it '~can't find an IP address for .' and gives me the option to logon anyway. Once I do, I can't run a bunch of things including the users and groups program. In Terminal when I type sudo gedit I get this:

unable to lookup via gethostbyname()

anyone know what this might mean?

Reply #9 April 23, 2006 5:44 PM from

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oops, I lied....it wasn't the 'Administrator' account...it was my user account crud

Reply #10 April 23, 2006 6:03 PM from

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LoL...WW..TJ's methods work..just make sure you change the correct PW..
Other than that...The "Original UBCD" has a program on it that you can create a PW reset disk from..
The BartsPE version of the UBCD has one on it to..but you'll have to build the thing first..unless you can find it to DL somewhere on the web...

Reply #11 April 23, 2006 6:17 PM from

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Thanks DZ...

The user account called "Administrator" is not showing up in the user accounts list. I don't know why I thought I was changing it

I saw something about a linux pw reset disk somewhere .. will have to check that out. This is a weird one alright. Something internal is just not hooking up my user account with anything else. I was going to do some editing using that whole sudo gedit thing, but it won't let me. Heck, won't even let me get into the user accounts in Ubunu

Reply #12 April 23, 2006 6:51 PM from

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The user account called "Administrator" is not showing up in the user accounts list.

WW, has the local administrator account name been changed? (It's actually a good security practice.)
If you follow the Computer Management\Local Users and Groups\Users path, one of the accounts should have a description to the right that reads "Built in account for administering local computer or domain" That is the account that you want to reset the password on.

Reply #13 April 23, 2006 6:54 PM from

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http://www.shebeen.com/bootdisk.htm

The bd040116 version I have used on others' computers....twice...and it works a charm...

Reply #14 April 23, 2006 9:13 PM from

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The bd040116 version I have used on others' computers....twice...and it works a charm...

Thats actually one of the versions included with the UBCD,WW, Does work..it is not without risk.. I had no troubles...apparently Jafo had no troubles..

Your Call...

Reply #15 April 26, 2006 2:39 PM from

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Thanks guys. DL'd it and will try it out when I can get enough time. I really appreciate it!!

Reply #16 April 26, 2006 5:03 PM from

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Your Welcome WW... Good luck!!

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