Backup and reinstall - no server access

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.setup (More info?)

"Antony Gelberg" <antony@wayforth.co.uk> wrote in message
news:433420da$0$21186$db0fefd9@news.zen.co.uk...
> Hi,
>
> We have a Windows Server 2003 with a lost Administrator password. It is
> the PDC, and we don't have local or domain passwords.
>
> We have tried the procedure at
>
http://www.petri.co.il/reset_domai [...] 003_ad.htm
> and didn't get very far. After resetting the local admin password with
> the rescue CD, we started up in Directory Services mode, but the new
> password wasn't recognised.
>
> The only option that I can see is to boot from a Linux live CD (e.g.
> Knoppix), plug in a USB hard disk, copy the files on the Windows
> partition to the external disk, reinstall Windows Server 2003, recreate
> the users within AD, copy back their profiles from the external hard disk.
>
> Will this work? Is there an easier way to do this? Surely we can't be
> the only people in this position. How can we restore their mailboxes,
> which I don't believe are part of their profiles?
>
> Please let me know if this isn't the best newsgroup for this issue.
>
> Antony

The usual way to solve this problem is to boo the machine with
a boot disk from here:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html,
then to reset the administrator's password to a blank.

It is also common to have at least two admin accounts on every
machine, with one of them locked away, the same as you never
have a car with one single set of keys.