Forgotten my password - need help breaking it

The password is on Windows, not the bios. Fortunately i never set a password on the BIOS. How can i connect another computer up to it when i can't get into the machine?

Sorry, forgot to mention that it's a blade server and it's the only 1 I have. Whilst it has changeable hard drives, I don't have another server to put it into
 
You want to have a look at the trinity-rescue-disk simple and fast.while ophcrack actually trys to recover your pwd (like your pwd was: "123mypass" - this usually takes ages or its not possible) trinty gives a fuck and simply resets your pwd to BLANK enabling you to login without a pwd... works always and takes only a few minutes - but it has to be used carefully!!!just a question: why not using linux as an OS?cheers
 
There is only 1 good software for this Cain&Abel, but i doubt will work for you.
 
Windows stores the Usernames/Passwords in a protected file on disk, however if you use a bootdisk (CD or USB) to start that computer/server the file is completely unprotected. Extract this file from the disk (bootdisks above will help you do this), now you need to crack it.

You should have a rough idea about the complexity of your passwords, are you a dictionary+numbers guy? or are you a pseudo-random-password kinda guy? You can use tools like Ophcrack to brute-force/rainbow-table it pretty quickly, of course if you used a 16 character pseudo-random password you might be waiting for the password until the next Ice Age!?!
 
I was thinking hirens boot cd when I read your OP, not sure if it will work with a server, I'm guessing it will though. To put it on a usb download ultra iso (free on the normal sites :) ) put your usb in and in ultraiso click file, open and select the iso of hirens. Then on the bottom left window of ultra iso select your usb sticks drive. Click the tab at the top name writeable, from the drop down menu select write bootable image and that should do the job ;)

I heard hirens only works for win xp, vista and 7 at the moment... Not used it for a few years myself though so you would have to check.

Edit: Sorry made a mistake, once you have the iso open, and your usb selected, theoption you want is "bootable" then from the drop down menu "write disk image"

And make sure you format the usb stick before hand ;)
 
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I was thinking hirens boot cd when I read your OP, not sure if it will work with a server, I'm guessing it will though. To put it on a usb download ultra iso (free on the normal sites :) ) put your usb in and in ultraiso click file, open and select the iso of hirens. Then on the bottom left window of ultra iso select your usb sticks drive. Click the tab at the top name writeable, from the drop down menu select write bootable image and that should do the job ;)

I heard hirens only works for win xp, vista and 7 at the moment... Not used it for a few years myself though so you would have to check.

Edit: Sorry made a mistake, once you have the iso open, and your usb selected, theoption you want is "bootable" then from the drop down menu "write disk image"

And make sure you format the usb stick before hand ;)

Thanks. I tried a similar method yesterday but i didn't get very far as i struggled to make my USB stick bootable. I couldn't work out whether it was just a case of putting a bootable iso onto it or whether the USB stick has to be bootable in general to start with. Right clicking the drive and selecting the make disk bootable was greyed out. I found loads of sites that talked about making USB sticks bootable but nowhere actually gave me the bootable iso drive to download for a USB stick and most places said that making a USB stick bootable was quite a black art and quite often doesn't work at all.

After spending ages on it, i then looked and the server is not bootable from USB anyway (I am pretty sure i can't change the settings to make it bootable though i may be wrong). It's a Poweredge R410 so please correct me if i am wrong.
 
Doesn't MS Server have a Drive D recovery drive?

When you say D drive, what do you mean? I thought a D drive was a DVD/CD drive and this is not reading disks so i have ordered a new 1 which will hopefully come in a couple of days
 
Windows stores the Usernames/Passwords in a protected file on disk, however if you use a bootdisk (CD or USB) to start that computer/server the file is completely unprotected. Extract this file from the disk (bootdisks above will help you do this), now you need to crack it.

You should have a rough idea about the complexity of your passwords, are you a dictionary+numbers guy? or are you a pseudo-random-password kinda guy? You can use tools like Ophcrack to brute-force/rainbow-table it pretty quickly, of course if you used a 16 character pseudo-random password you might be waiting for the password until the next Ice Age!?!

I only have about 10 passwords in total that i use and this is why I am quite surprised i don't know what it is. These are a mixture of letters and numbers but simple things like replacing an a for @ and o for 0 or runs of numbers at the beginning or end.

I thought when it came to breaking passwords, there are 2 types: type 1: removing or changing password and type 2: revealing what the password is without changing it. I thought that type 1 was ethical and is a bit like breaking into your own home so it isn't so hard and there are quite a few programs out there that do it whereas type 2 was was more for hackers that want to look at stuff without being seen and was much harder.

I just want to get into the machine so i'm happy to remove/change the password. It's my computer so there's no-one to hide from :p
 
Hi rugbyjack2005 - in my previous post i mispelled the name - correct would be:

[h=2]Trinity Rescue Kit 3.4[/h]
Doesn't attempt to recover your password it just simply deletes it an enables you to login without a pass...
Make sure to check it out!!! - works like a charm...

By the way - why don't you use linux on your server?

cheers olystyle
 
Where exactly have you struggled with this? You didn't succeed in creating a bootable CD/DVD/USB STICK or didn't manage to boot it properly? or it simply didn't boot? did it return an error? be as specific as possible, thank you.
 
Where exactly have you struggled with this? You didn't succeed in creating a bootable CD/DVD/USB STICK or didn't manage to boot it properly? or it simply didn't boot? did it return an error? be as specific as possible, thank you.

I have struggled in a few areas :s The Disk drive for some reason is not reading the disk and therefore when i put a bootable disk in, nothing happens. I have tested this by going into the settings section of the bios and asking it to read the disk. It comes up with an error message saying it can't read the disk and i have tried with several disks that work on other machines. I then tried to do it via USB but i struggled with making the USB bootable and before persevering too far, i checked that the server was actually able to boot from USB and it isn't as far as i can tell. I thought you could change the settings to boot from USB but it appears that you can't. Where I am at now is I have ordered a new disk drive which will hopefully arrive tomorrow or the next day.

I still have to make a bootable disk with the Hiren software on it ready for when the new disk drive arrives but i won't know if it works until i have installed the disk drive. Does the Hiren software definitely work with Windows 2008 R2 standard as quite a few of these password breakers seem to only work with home editions like xp, vista, 7 and not with server editions like windows 2003 or 2008?
 
hmmm may sound like a dumb question as I've never had to use a physical server, only a VPS. I'm presumeing the internal components are the exact same as a office computer, ide, sata and so on. You mentioned that the discs you tried worked on other computers so the server drive may be screwed. Have you tried to take the dvd/cd drive from the home computer and installing it on the server? Most internal components are plug and play now days so you shouldn't have to worry about drivers. Shame you couldn't boot from usb though. I've got a 8GB pen drive with hirens, xp and vista all ready to go on it. Take the thing everywhere with me :P
 
hmmm may sound like a dumb question as I've never had to use a physical server, only a VPS. I'm presumeing the internal components are the exact same as a office computer, ide, sata and so on. You mentioned that the discs you tried worked on other computers so the server drive may be screwed. Have you tried to take the dvd/cd drive from the home computer and installing it on the server? Most internal components are plug and play now days so you shouldn't have to worry about drivers. Shame you couldn't boot from usb though. I've got a 8GB pen drive with hirens, xp and vista all ready to go on it. Take the thing everywhere with me :P

I don't think it would have worked even if the connectors were the same as servers often have sensors and don't run with the cover off unlike desktops. To be fair I didn't try it as it was easier just to buy another disk drive so it may have worked
 
Ok so the new disk drive has arrived. I tried Trinity Rescue kit 3.4 and this didn't recognise Windows so i presume it doesn't work with Windows 2008 R2. Hiren's BootCD also doesn't seem to work and it does not pick up any passwords so i just keep pressing enter and going round in circles. I presume this doesn't work with Windows 2008 R2 either.

Anyone now of a password breaker that works with Windows 2008 R2?
 
I think you may not have completed all the steps correctly in creating your bootable usb. Recovering the password or deleting the password can be done with several tools but as I think you are struggling you may be better off purchasing a premium recovery disk.
Do a search for Kon-Boot .
 
I think you may not have completed all the steps correctly in creating your bootable usb. Recovering the password or deleting the password can be done with several tools but as I think you are struggling you may be better off purchasing a premium recovery disk.
Do a search for Kon-Boot .

I don't think you have read all the information otherwise you would know I can't boot from USB. I am after a program that works on Windows server 208 R2 as most just do home editions. Asunsoft says it can do it but i have to buy it and it costs $45. Not a big deal if it works but i would like to know it works first. Has anyone got experience with this with Windows 2008?
 
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