Why can't I access my encrypted (EFS) files after resetting the password?

• Because in XP and possibly later service packs in win2k the password itself is used to encrypt the keys needed for EFS.
• Sorry, there is no way to recover the files once the password has been reset.

The .bin-file inside the .zip won't fit on a floppy.

• You didn't read the bottom of the bootdisk download page
• Click on the install.bat after extracting the .zip file, and follow the on screen prompts.

The keyboard does not work! I can't answer the questions!!

• Sorry, this is at the moment a known problem with the 040116 version.
• Reported mostly on some laptops.
• The 040818-version may work better? or not?
• There may be an older version on some of the mirrors.
• Or look at here for some older pre-releases, the newest of them may work. Some of the older may be dangerous

When loading the floppy it stops with "boot failed."

• Bad floppy. Or bad bootloader (some versions are known to give up easy)
• Use another floppy or a new version of the ldlinux.sys file (go allthewebbing for it for instance. grab one from a linux distros bootdisks. I did.)
• Or get the CD image from the download page.

I have the CD in my CD drive, but it starts on the haddrive.

• Check your BIOS manual on how to boot from CD, or if the CD-ROM is on a SCSI-card, check the cards manual.
• For those of you without manuals: Try hitting ESC or F10 or F12 for bootmenu right after the RAM-count.
• Or enter BIOS setup and change the boot order. Either you can figure that one out from the menus, or you really need the manual.
• I don't remember when BIOS-folks started implementing the CD boot (El Torito) standard, but it was around 1995? Older computers won't CD boot.
• But BIOS-programmers never actually READ the bloody standard, so you may have a buggy one that only boots some CDs.
• If it boots (first banner page), the same problems as for the floppy may show, please read on..

The floppy stuff crashes with "VFS: Unable to mount root.." and panic etc.

• The are several ways of getting the size of the memory out of the BIOS at boot.
• It probably selected the wrong one, and 16MB is a bit too little.
• Strangely, this most often happens on big brand machines, like Compaq and DELL.
• At boot, hold down LEFT SHIFT key until "Boot: " prompt appears.
• Then enter:
  • floppy mem=128M
• but substitute with how much memory you have (or a bit less to be safe)
• If this doesn't help, there is probably not support for your motherboard, CPU or BIOS.

It cannot find any NT disks or paritions.

• Some controllers require more than one driver. Try repeating the autoprobe first.
• It's either caused by unsupported controller or filesystem driver problems.
• See next questions..
• Please don't ask about inclusion of new drivers. I'm often short on time, get lot's of mail, and it's difficult to put in things I cannot test.
• If you really insist on asking for new drivers, you must at least provide me with correct info on controller card or chip brandname, type, model etc, and a link to website(s) with drivers for linux. If there also are docs for using it on linux, I need that, too. However, as I get a lot of mail, I cannot guarantee an answer or that your needed driver will be included.
• There are however several other things to try:
  • Try to build Grenier's DOS floppies
  • Move harddisk to another machine as secondary, then try Grenier's chntpw.exe
  • Install new NT/2k/XP in another dir than \winnt etc, then login with new install to access the old ones sam file. Either rename it (will leave admin with blank pass) or use chntpw.exe on it.
• Or why not look at The password recovery page at MCSE World

How to load a 3rd party driver

• You need the binary driver for 2.6.x kernels (2.6.7 on the bootisk right now, but a lot 2.6-series drivers may load OK. Or not. Try!)
• It's the .ko file you need from the driver set. If there are lot's of files in the driver archive you got, look in the readme's there to find out what's the correct module file to load.
• Put that in the "scsi" directory on the bootfloppy (delete what's there if the disk is full)
• Or add it to the existing drivers on the scsi-floppy.
• Try to load it from the driver select, see bootdisk doc for this.
• A driver will usually list the disks it finds, and also some other information if it loads correctly.
• The load of 3rd party drivers are now forced, (insmod -f), that is there is no (or little) version check by the loader, so if the loader manages to load it in, it will try to run. And probably crash if it has some special requirements that's not present in this version.

I get some errors about extending / expanding from the FS driver when writing back!

• This is from NTFS driver. It will only write over the exact same size. No expand, no delete, no new files, no rename etc.
• Actually I don't try to write past end of existing file, but sometimes it complain anyway. Maybe some internal stuff in the filesystem.
• Usually the file is actually written OK, so relax.
• There is nothing to do about this. Quit bugging my mailbox with it.
• If it does not get written, I still cannot help. Sorry.

It seems to change the password, but NT won't agree.

• The NTFS code wasn't that great after all (probably didn't write things properly)
• My code wasn't that great after all. (it didn't change or changed in the wrong place. The V struct is still marked "here be dragons..")
• Try blanking the password instead (entering * at the prompt), this may straighten things out. In fact, reports indicate: BLANKING RECOMMENDED!
• If it still won't work, see the previous solution.
• Blanking will probably be the only option beginning from some release in 2004.

I'm told that the account is locked, even if I know it is not.

• Ok, then the code to identify lockout is not good enough. Sorry for that.
• Just ignore, don't change the lockout it asks for.
• Really nice if you can tell me more about what happened.

I'm not told that the account is locked out, even Windows says it is. How can I reset it?

• Oops, probably more to the lockout stuff than I know about.
• You probably can't reset it in the current release.
• Unless you'd like to play with the registry editor yourself and figure it out. I cannot give lessons in registry edit.

I tried it on Win2k PDC (Active Directory), and it didn't change the password.

• ActiveDirectory (AD) is a completely different database.
• There is no support for directly changing passwords in AD.
• To clear things up: The Active Directory SERVER itself is not directly supported, but workstations (w2kprof) and servers (w2k server) that is just MEMBERS of the domain can have their LOCAL passwords changed by the utility.
• But..
• John Simpson has made instructions on how to reset that pesky lost administrator password in AD.
• Many thanks goes to John for this!
• And I may as well in a future relase make a frontend for the screensaver trick he uses, so it will be even easier.

What is the 'Can't access tty...' error message when I quit the floppy/cd procedure?

• It's from the shell, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the password edit.
• My scripts don't allocate the terminal correctly.
• Only thing it means is that ctrl-c to break etc won't work on console 1. Should work on console 2-4 (ALT-F2 and so on)
• Please don't ask about this in mail AGAIN!

My language uses characters in the usernames that are not readable with the floppy, and i cannot enter/search for them, thus not edit.

• There is no support for the full unicode character set. Perhaps never will.
• Select user with the RID (user ID) instead.
• At the username prompt, enter the RID in hex, just as it is listed in the user listing. 0xfa0 for instance.

Can I donate money?

• Yes. But it is not required, the program is free to use anyway, and the current economic situation isn't that good, I understand that.
• Consider donating to a charity!
• Or if you really want to give me something (which will probably be used to buy stuff off eBay since cashing out is rather expensive)
• My paypal ID is the same as my mailaddress. pnordahl@eunet.no
• Or click the button below
• You decide how much. It is of course completely voluntary.
• I have got quite a lot of donations! Thanks folks! (however, not many have told me they have donated to a charity. shame...)
• Thanks!

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