Resetting the Password for Logging In to a Windows ECS Without Password Reset Plug-ins Installed

Scenarios

If your Windows ECS has no password reset plug-ins installed, follow the instructions provided in this section to reset the password.

The method described in this section can only be used to change the password of a local Windows account, but not the password of a domain account.

For details about the operations performed on Linux ECS, see Resetting the Password for Logging In to a Linux ECS Without Password Reset Plug-ins Installed.

Prerequisites

• A temporary Linux ECS which runs Ubuntu 14.04 or later and locates in the same AZ as the target ECS is available.
  

  Currently, this operation can be performed only for Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04 public images.

• You have bound an EIP to the temporary ECS and configured the apt-get source.
• You have used either of the following methods to install ntfs-3g and chntpw software packages on the temporary ECS:

  Method 1:

  Run the following command to install the ntfs-3g and chntpw software packages:

  sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g chntpw

  Method 2:

  Download the ntfs-3g and chntpw software packages of the version required by the temporary ECS OS.

Procedure

1. Stop the original ECS, detach the system disk from it, and attach the system disk to the temporary ECS.
   1. Log in to the management console.
   2. Click in the upper left corner and select your region and project.
   3. Click . Under Compute, click Elastic Cloud Server.
   4. Stop the original Windows ECS, switch to the page providing details about the ECS, and click the Disks tab.
      

      Do not forcibly stop the Windows ECS. Otherwise, password reset may fail.

   5. Locate the row containing the system disk to be detached and click Detach to detach the system disk from the ECS.
   6. On the page providing details about the temporary ECS, click the Disks tab.
   7. Click Attach Disk. In the displayed dialog box, select the system disk detached in step 1.e and attach it to the temporary ECS.
2. Log in to the temporary ECS remotely and attach the system disk.
   1. Run the following command to view the directory of the system disk detached from the original Windows ECS now attached to the temporary ECS:

      fdisk -l

   2. Run the following command to mount the file system of the detached system disk to the temporary ECS:

      mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/Result obtained in step 2.a /mnt/

      For example, if the result obtained in step 2.a is xvde2, run the following command:

      mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/xvde2 /mnt/

      If the following error information is displayed after the preceding command is executed, the NTFS file systems may be inconsistent. In such a case, rectify the file system inconsistency.

      The disk contains an unclean file system (0, 0).
      Metadata kept in Windows cache, refused to mount.
      Failed to mount '/dev/xvde2': Operation not permitted
      The NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown
      Windows fully (no hibernation or fast restarting), or mount the volume
      read-only with the 'ro' mount option.

      Back up the disk data, run the following command to rectify the NTFS file system inconsistency, and attach the system disk:

      ntfsfix /dev/Result obtained in step 2.a

      For example, if the result obtained in step 2.a is xvde2, run the following command:

      ntfsfix /dev/xvde2

3. Change the password and clear the original password.
   1. Run the following command to back up the SAM file:

      cp /mnt/Windows/System32/config/SAM /mnt/Windows/System32/config/SAM.bak

   2. Run the following command to change the password of a specified user:

      chntpw -u Administrator /mnt/Windows/System32/config/SAM

   3. Enter 1, q, and y as prompted, and press Enter.

      The password has been reset if the following information is displayed:

      Select: [q] > 1
      Password cleared!
      Select: [q] > q
      Hives that have changed:
      #Name
      0<SAM>
      Write hive files? (y/n) [n] : y
      0<SAM> - OK

4. Stop the temporary ECS, detach the system disk, and attach the system disk to the original Windows ECS.
   1. Stop the temporary ECS, switch to the page providing details about the ECS, and click the Disks tab.
   2. Click Detach to detach the data disk temporarily attached in step 1.g.
   3. On the page providing details about the original Windows ECS, click the Disks tab.
   4. Click Attach Disk. In the displayed dialog box, select the data disk detached in step 4.b and device name /dev/sda.
5. Start the original Windows ECS and set a new login password.
   1. Click Start to start the original Windows ECS. After the status becomes Running, click Remote Login in the Operation column.
   2. Click Start. Enter CMD in the search box and press Enter.
   3. Run the following command to change the password (the new password must meet the requirements described in Tabla 1):

      net user Administrator New password

      Tabla 1 Requerimientos de complejidad de la contraseña

      Parámetro	Requisito	Valor de ejemplo
      Contraseña	Consta de 8 a 26 caracteres. Contiene al menos tres de los siguientes tipos de caracteres: Letras en mayúscula Letras en minúscula Dígitos Caracteres especiales para Windows: $!@%-_=+[]:./,? Caracteres especiales para Linux: !@%-_=+[]:./^,{}? No puede contener el nombre de usuario ni el nombre de usuario escrito al revés. No puede contener más de dos caracteres consecutivos en la misma secuencia que aparecen en el nombre de usuario. (Este requisito solo se aplica a los ECS de Windows.)	YNbUwp!dUc9MClnv NOTA: La contraseña de ejemplo se genera aleatoriamente. No lo use.