How to reset Administrator password Windows Server 2003 installed on Vmware?

Question

I want to reset administrator password on Windows Server 2003. OS installed on VMware server VMware Server version 2.0.1. And problem is this: when i try to boot from live cd, after boot disk with Windows not detected. I tried to use

• Windows Admin Hack - Linux Boot;
• Hirens.BootCD.10.4;
• ophcrack-xp-livecd-2.3.1.iso

None of these programs did not see the hard drive! Any ideas?

Thank!

ADD: I want to reset LOCAL admin password, not domain. And this computer are not domain controller.

Answer 1

I typically use a Linux rescue CD for this purpose. My preference is the PLD Rescue CD, which is a standard part of my toolbox. PLD includes the chntpw - NT SAM password recovery utility, which allows blanking or modification of the Windows password file. Assuming some Linux knowledge, this process works reliably. More details at: http://linuxbasement.com/content/changing-nt-passwords-with-linux-and-chntpw

• Download the ISO image to your vCenter host or client system.
• Boot the VM off of the image (Modify BIOS to boot from CD first, if necessary).
• Once the Linux rescue boots, the Windows drives are unmounted. fdisk -l will show the drive partitions. Let's say that the C drive is listed as /dev/sda2 (although, this may be different on your system). You can mount the drive (C:) to the Linux mountpoint, /mnt using the command: mount.ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 /mnt
• Navigate to the directory containing the SAM file, cd /mnt/windows/system32/config or /mnt/winnt/system32/config.
• Run chntpw -h to list options. The default is chntpw SAM, which will provide menu options to change the Administrator user's password. I usually blank it and reassign upon reboot. You can also assign a new password at this point.
• Change out of the Windows filesystem directory using cd and unmount the partition, umount /mnt. reboot and the system should come up.