I have a new client that is a hard position with their previous IT management company. The previous company is refusing to release any administrative usernames or passwords for any computer. This is only a problem for one, the PDC which is also a database server for their POS system. This is a crappy situation to be in.
I'm a linux guy by trade so I'm not super familiar with Windows environments. I know that I can image the disks and then load it into new hardware, I know I can boot from the "Offline Windows Password & Regitry Editor" boot cd and rewrite the admin password. However, what I don't know is if that admin account is only for the local machine or if it's for the domain as well.
I setup a test Windows Server 2008 R2 PDC at the office and proceeded to rewrite the password using the disk mentioned above. However, upon rebooting I still could not login to the local computer. The windows server wanted me to login as DOMAIN/Administrator and I only over wrote the password for LOCAL/Administrator. So I'm somewhat at loss on how to gain access to the system. How can I overwrite the password for the DOMAIN/Administrator account? Or the best question is, given complete physical access how does one gain access to a Windows Server Primary Domain Controller?