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I have an old Dell Poweredge T100 from my fathers old business running Windows Small Business server 2008, however I do not know the admin password nor do I have the boot/windows install disk. Is there any possible way to access the server or reset the admin password? Bare in mind, i'm not a tech wizzard, any help is greatly appreciated.

Graham Chap
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DerrekM6554
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1 Answers1

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Microsofts official answer to this would be no, but someone on their forums linked to this, hopefully it helps.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/meacoex/archive/2011/08/15/reset-your-windows-sever-2008-r2-domain-controller-administrator-password.aspx

NOTE: This is for Windows Server 2k8 r2, so it may not carry over to SBS.

  1. Restart your Windows server 2008 DC with the installation CD

  2. Choose your language and click next

  3. Select your partition and installation version and click Next

  4. Click on Comm and Line Prompt

  5. Change directory to the access the system 32 directory. Then your original C:/drive is changed to D: or E: depending on the number of drive and partitions you have on that system.

  6. Rename the file Utilman.exe to Utilman.exe.bak using the comm and Copy Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.bak.

  7. Using Command Move Cmd.exe Utilman.exe to move CMD.exe file into Utilman.exe. Press O or Y to accept after that restart your Computer normaly

  8. At the user logon screen, press a combination of Windows KEY+U, then the CMD.exe will appear. Type net user “Username””new password”;

Then your system Admin Password is reset. Please don’t forget to rename back Utilman. Exe ->Cmd.exe and Utilman.exe.bak-> Utilman.exe after getting back access.

Graham Chap
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  • Unfortunately I lack the Installation disk so Im stuck at point 1. But thankyou for the information – DerrekM6554 Apr 28 '15 at 16:51
  • If you are able to burn a CD/DVD, microsoft offers a trial version that may get the job done- http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15237 – Graham Chap Apr 28 '15 at 16:59
  • I ended up booting from Ubuntu on a USB for the time being and I can see some files, is it possible to change the admin password files this way? – DerrekM6554 Apr 28 '15 at 18:41
  • @DerrekM6554 you may be able to do those first few steps (renaming files) and then booting it up in windows again to see if it worked. – Graham Chap Apr 28 '15 at 19:17
  • I guess I will give that a try then. Unfortunately now the server keeps turning on and off repeatedly when I plug it into the mains and I have no idea why. – DerrekM6554 Apr 29 '15 at 12:50