Sign in
 
HomeLibraryWikiLearnGalleryDownloadsSupportForumsBlogs
Resources for IT Professionals >
> 
> 
> 
SBS Server 2011 Standard - trying to use system recovery tools, wants password for Administrator

Answered SBS Server 2011 Standard - trying to use system recovery tools, wants password for Administrator

  • Sunday, January 27, 2013 1:43 AM
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    Short version...having a bit of goofiness on our server, and would like to try to use the system recovery tools (like, boot from OS disk and go into Recovery Options).  The issue there is that it prompts me to log in as either Administrator or a user - however, only Administrator appears in the dropdown, and I can't type in it.

    Which wouldn't be an issue if we knew what the password was for Administrator - I vaguely recall at the time we were setting up this machine asking about that account, since it didn't seem to be like the "normal" Administrator account on a "normal" (non-SBS) Windows server.  I believe I was told that it was kind of locked-down by MS, and you weren't supposed to have access to it.  Which I figured was fine - we made our admin account with a different name and went about our business.

    It probably isn't the end of the world, since we have data backups and a full server image from a while ago, so push comes to shove I can put humpty-dumpty back together again...but it seems like it might be swell to get into those tools - if only we had that password.

    ?

     

All Replies

  • Sunday, January 27, 2013 2:05 PM
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0
    What's the make of the server? What dvd are you using? Can you take pic of the screen you are on (with mobile) and post back it here to have a better understanding of what's going on?
     
  • Sunday, January 27, 2013 5:32 PM
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    Is it perhaps the DSRM password you're being asked for? Hard to guess without knowing which screen you are at though.

    Jim

     
  • Sunday, January 27, 2013 11:00 PM
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    OK, got some photos here...basically, boot from the SBS 2011 Standard disk and then go into Repair...


    Right off the bat it doesn't see the array, because it needs the driver - so I click load drivers and give them to it


     
  • Sunday, January 27, 2013 11:02 PM
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    And then:


    And then:


    It finally sees the array, but...

     
  • Sunday, January 27, 2013 11:09 PM
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    When you click Next, it wants you to log in...but as you can see, the only user it provides access to is Administrator.  And you can't type in that box.

    I discovered, oddly enough, that if you then cancel out of that, but go back in, it will let you access the command prompt.  Which actually worked out OK to get access to the file system and copy data off.  At this time, I'm working on restoring our backup image to another physical hard drive, and see if we can get operational that way, and then copy the data back to it...so hopefully we're more or less under control anyway.

    I'm just not sure why it only showed that one user, especially granted that I think it's a locked-down thing in SBS.  Not sure if I missed out on any other recovery options.

    While I have you, ultimately I believe the issue was a combination of 2 things - I think one of the hard drives in the 3-drive RAID 5 array "fell out" at some point in the past, who knows when, and no one noticed.  Could have been last week, could have been a couple months ago...no one really ever looks at this machine (which naturally will change in the future).  But the other thing was an apparent corruption of the Windows install - it wouldn't fully boot.  You'd get to the point where there was a blue screen with a moveable arrow on it, but then it would spontaneously reboot - either from a regular boot or safe mode.  The software RAID thing, I'm pretty sure, would have needed to boot all the way into Windows to attempt to replace the failed/dropped drive.

    I was really tempted to just run setup again, and see if that got the machine to boot into Windows again.  Used to do that once in a while in the Windows XP days, and aside from having to repatch everything up, it never seemed to cause any problems.  I was uneasy about trying such a stunt with SBS though...curious if anyone thinks that would have worked.

    The original 3 drives are marked for array order and sitting on the bench, in case we need to go back to them and try to recover again.  Hopefully not.

     
  • Tuesday, January 29, 2013 7:21 AM
    Moderator
     
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    Hi ,

    Thank you for posting your issue in the forum.

    I am trying to involve someone familiar with this topic to further look at this issue. There might be some time delay. Appreciate your patience.

    Thank you for your understanding and support.

    Best Regards,

    Andy Qi

    TechNet Subscriber Support

    If you are TechNet Subscription user and have any feedback on our support quality, please send your feedback here.

    Andy Qi
    TechNet Community Support

     
  • Wednesday, January 30, 2013 8:55 AM
     
     Answered
    Sign In to Vote
    0

    The administrator is not your domain admin, it is the local admin, or administrator for DSRM.

    if you can logon in normal mode with domain admin, you can reset this password by command ntdsutil

    if you cannot logon to normal mode with domain admin, there no way to crack the password.

    Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.