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Change Your Forgotten Windows Password with the Linux System Rescue CD. Note that if you are using standard Windows encryption for your files, resetting the password will permanently disable access to those files.

Creating the System Rescue CD

Download the System Rescue CD from sysresccd.org and burn it to a disc.

Resetting Your Password using the Rescue CD

Now that you have your boot CD, you’ll want to boot from it, which will take you to this very informative prompt, with some basic instructions on how to use the CD.

Mount the hard drive

ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows –o force

you might not need to use the –o force argument, it’s only really for when the system didn’t shut down correctly. You can use the df –m command to verify that the drive has been mounted and that it’s the right drive. Note that it’s mounted on /mnt/windows at this point.

Find the System32/config directory

Now you’ll want to change directory into the Windows/System32/config directory inside of your windows installation. For mine, the full path was something like this, but it might be different on yours:

cd /mnt/windows/Windows/System32/config

Once you are in that directory, you should see that there is a SAM file, which is where we’ll want to change the passwords.

Use the chntpw command

To change the password we’ll use the chntpw command, and it’s most useful to use the –l argument first to list out all the usernames in the file.

chntpw –l SAM

Now you can add the –u argument with your username, which will end up being something like this command, except you’ll want to replace geek with your username:

chntpw –u geek SAM

This will present you with a wizard type screen, and you will just need to follow the wizard to reset your password.

Tips & Notes

1. To search for the SAM file, or any other file, use these commands:
   
   

   cd /mnt/windows
   find . -iname ’sam*’ –print

Reference:

http://tinyurl.com/4ghohb