Not your ordinary question

[DnD]

Ok I forgot the password I put over my brothers computer (its on lockdown because of his grades) but he's allowed to get on before church every sunday and well I forgot his password.

So I was wondering if anyone knew how to crack/hack your way passed the users account password.

This is Windows XP Home Edition btw.

If you feel not like tellign me here please PM me...I seriously need help or my dad will kill then my brother will feed me to the birds that and I will have to let him on my comp every sunday morning >.<

[A Person]

http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/darktips/story/0,24330,3625960,00.html

You're gonna need to know some basic knowledge of linux to do this one, but its the only solution that I know of.

[DnD]

Lol its ok now, my dad told me all I had to do is reinstall windows XP without formatting my HDD

[A Person]

well, thats kinda risky. What I would do is make a partition and move everything that you want to keep to that partition. Just to make sure you don't lose it.

[kb244]

If the partition is an NTFS , reinstalling windows isnt going to do squat for you. IF its Fat32, you might manage to pull it off, but all your files will be a mess.

[Rich]

I imagine nothing has been encrypted on disk either, as reinstalling windows will make data unreadable. There are also utilitities out there that will perform a password crack or will completely remove the NT security backbone.

XP home does have a method to keep that from happening again. I have reproduced it here, but the link is HERE (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prnb_efs_nyhc.asp)

"Password Reset Disk Creation

PRDs protect against loss of access to master keys and encrypted files on stand-alone computers. Users can create PRDs for their own user accounts. When a user creates a PRD, the system creates a public-private key pair and a self-signed certificate. The user's password is encrypted by using the public key and stored locally in the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY\Recovery\<user SID>.

The private key is exported to a removable media and deleted from the local computer.

To create a password reset disk for your user account

1. In Control Panel, click User Accounts.
2. Click your user account.
3. Under Related Tasks, select Prevent a forgotten password. This starts the Forgotten Password wizard.
4. On the welcome screen, click Next.
5. Select the removable drive on which you would like to store your password key, and then click Next.
6. Enter your current password, and click Next.

If you have created a PRD and you forget your password or enter the wrong password, you will be prompted with the following message: "Did you forget your password? You can use your password reset disk." You can then use the Password Reset wizard to reset your password. The system will do the following:

1. Use the private key stored on the PRD to decrypt the stored copy of your old password.
2. Create a decryption key based on an SHA-1 hash of your old password.
3. Decrypt your master keys by using the decryption key.
4. Prompt you for a new password.
5. Encrypt master keys by using your new password.

To use the PRD to reset your password

1. At the logon screen, click use your password reset disk to start the Password Reset wizard, and then click Next.
2. Insert the removable media that contains your password key, and then click Next.
3. Enter your new password in the Reset the User Account Password dialog box, and then click Next."[/url]

[DnD]

If the partition is an NTFS , reinstalling windows isnt going to do squat for you. IF its Fat32, you might manage to pull it off, but all your files will be a mess.

Nope it was NTFS and everything went smooth as butter ^^

[caniswolfie]

Did you have the administrator's password? You could have logged in as Administrator and changed the password.

[Rich]

Ah yes, the admin password...never leave home without it.

[DnD]

Did you have the administrator's password? You could have logged in as Administrator and changed the password.

No I didn't....thats why I was asking.