Posts Tagged ‘domain controller’

How to Reset a Forgotten Administrator Password on a Domain Controller

November 27th, 2012 by Admin

Network administrators change the administrator account password often to provide an extra level of protection for the account. The administrator account is a target for hackers, because it has complete control over the network. But frequently changing the administrator password can also cause losing it easier. What to do if you forgot the administrator password on a domain controller?

In this tutorial we’ll demonstrate how to reset a forgotten administrator password on a Windows Server 2010/2008/2003/2000 domain controller, if you forgot the administrator password and can’t login using any other alternative administrative accounts.

How to Reset a Forgotten Administrator Password on a Domain Controller?

  1. Download and install Password Recovery Bundle on another computer that you can log in.
  2. Prepare a blank CD and insert it into the computer.
  3. Launch Password Recovery Bundle and click on Windows Password button, it will display a password reset bootdisk creating dialog.

  4. Choose the CD you’ve plugged in and then click on Start Burn button to create a Live CD.
  5. After you have the Live CD, put it into the CD drive of your domain controller.
  6. Turn on the server and have it boot from the Live CD. You may need to go into BIOS and set CD/DVD as the first boot device.
  7. After booting from the Live CD, it will load the Windows PE operating system inside the Live CD and start the Reset Windows Password program.

  8. Choose the Active Directory NTDS.dit database, it will display a list of domain user accounts inside the NTDS.dit database.
  9. Choose the administrator account from the list, then click on Reset Password button, the program will replace the forgotten/unknown administrator password with the new password: Password123.

Reject the Live CD and reboot the domain controller, you can then log in to the administrator account with the new password. No need to format the hard drive and re-install your domain controller.

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How to Access the Directory Services Restore Mode on a Remote DC

October 15th, 2012 by Admin

When Active Directory (AD) isn’t working, the steps you’d typically follow would be to boot into Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) for repairing or recovering Active Directory. To access Directory Services Restore Mode, you typically press F8 prior to the machine booting into Windows, then select the Directory Services Restore Mode option from the menu that appears.

Tips: If you forgot DSRM password or domain admin password, you can reset the forgotten password easily with Reset Windows Password utility.

But sometimes you need to fix a problematic DC in a remote location, but nobody is close enough to troubleshot. Obviously, you can’t boot the domain controller into DSRM as usual. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to access Directory Services Restore Mode on a remote DC.

How to Access Directory Services Restore Mode on a Remote DC?

  1. On your machine, select Run from the Start menu, type Mstsc /console, and click OK.
  2. Type the IP address of the remote domain controller you want to connect to.
  3. Log on to the server using the Active Directory account.
  4. On the DC, right-click My Computer, click Properties, and then click the Advanced tab.
  5. Click Settings for startup and recovery.
  6. Click the Edit button to edit the startup options file.
  7. Modify the default entry to include the /SAFEBOOT:DSREPAIR switch, as shown in the following example:multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="W2K DC \\ your server name " /fastdetect /SAFEBOOT:DSREPAIR
  8. Save the modified Boot.ini file, and then close Notepad.
  9. Restart the domain controller.
  10. After waiting a few minutes, perform steps 1 and 2 again.
  11. When you reconnect, the server should state that it’s in Directory Services Restore Mode. Log on using the Local Administrator account (not the Active Directory account).

Once you have restarted the server in Directory Services Restore Mode, you are ready to begin the repairing or recovery process.

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How to Recover Active Directory Password with A Live CD

September 29th, 2012 by Admin

Forgot Active Directory password is one of the most annoying thing for network administrators in medium to large organizations. If the domain controller is very important for your company, then you have to find some other ways to recover Active Directory password than formatting and reinstalling the server. There are many excellent Windows password recovery software available on the internet, but none of them are able to recover Active Directory password.

Active Directory password is encrypted and stored in the NTDS.dit database. Once you’ve forgotten the password, you have no access to all your computer files. So we need to create a Live CD and use it to boot your domain controller for performing password recovery. Password Recovery Bundle is the only software you need in this tutorial.

How to Recover Active Directory Password with A Live CD?

  1. Download and install Password Recovery Bundle on another computer that you can log in.
  2. Prepare a blank CD and insert it into the computer.
  3. Launch Password Recovery Bundle and click on Windows Password button, it will display the ISO burning dialog.

  4. Choose your CD you’ve plugged in and then click on Start Burn button to create a Live CD.
  5. After you have the Live CD, put it into the CD drive of your domain controller whose password you want to recover.
  6. Turn on the domain controller and have it boot from the Live CD. You may need to go into BIOS and set CD/DVD as the first boot device.
  7. After booting from the Live CD, it will load the Windows PE operating system inside the Live CD and start the Reset Windows Password program.

  8. Choose the Active Directory NTDS.dit database, it will display a list of domain user accounts inside the NTDS.dit database.
  9. Choose a domain user account from the list, then click on Reset Password button, the program will replace the forgotten/unknown password with a new password: Password123.

Remove the Live CD and restart the domain controller, you can then log in to your Active Directory user account and recover access to all data and files on your domain controller. The Active Directory password recovery procedure is simple and fast! No need to spend a lot of time to rebuild your server.

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