Help with Win 2000 Pro

[thefantom1]

My buddy has computer that has Win 2000 Pro on it... to make a long story short.. he can't get anywhere on it because as soon as it boots it ask for a log in..which he does not have.. How can this be bypassed?? He wants to reformat the hard drive and install XP on it.. Help

 

[WarriorPL]

Try hitting cancel and taking off the pw and logon settings once in windows... if not, try booting up in safe mode.... should work.

 

[JOKER47]

I think your buddy is screwed. I have tried a couple times when I have forgotten my password on systems I built, and couldn't come up with a way. I had to reformat and reinstall. I didn't try real hard though, because I look at it this way: If there was a real simple way of getting past the password logon, Microsoft would a serious security flaw in their corporate target OS.

Good luck, and if you find a way, let us all know.

.02,
Joker

 

[thefantom1]

Reformating is not a problem and is actually what he wants to do... if he can get to command line to do it...even in safe mode it is asking for logon name and password...

 

[Puc]

Reformating is not a problem and is actually what he wants to do... if he can get to command line to do it...even in safe mode it is asking for logon name and password...

use a boot disk. you put it in "a:" drive. it boots in dos mode. then you can install any os you want.

 

[Ffactor]

When the password comes up just click ok. It should be ok.

 

[thefantom1]

Ok..here is what he did.. he reinstalled win2k pro.. no problems whatsoever... now he wants to install WinXP home and get rid of the win2kpro.. what would be the best way (easiest way) to go about this?? should he reformat?? (format c: /s) or just boot from the CD and install xp ???

 

[Delinquent]

I always prefer formatting then doing a clean install. I've always run into quirks after upgrading like wierd corruption, slow performance, etc. Is there any way he can get a hold of XP Pro? I've heard some people say they hated home but liked pro. I've only used pro so I'm not what the difference is

 

[thefantom1]

He is just going to install the Home addition.. its simply for home use..internet.. a few games..nothing crazy.. should he use the format c: /s to reformat?? Also.. win2k is ntfs.. is winxp the same way??

 

[Delinquent]

I'm pretty sure xp home is built on NT technology but I don't think you can choose between NTFS and FAT filesystems. I know for a fact pro is. Maybe someone can ring in with that answer for you. If it doesn't have the choice, he'll probably have to just do a complete format with adding the sys files.