syskey (password on startup of windows) *RESOLVED*

[manavo11]

I was messing around with windows when I found in the system32 directory the syskey.exe... So just for the fun of it I made my computer startup using a diskette. A file (startkey.key if I remember correctly) and it reads a password from there to open the computer... Well since I saw what it did I deleted the file from the diskette and went to change the setting back to not needing a diskette and it told me to put in the diskette for verification (The one I had just erased) So now, the computer is closed and when I open it I get the option to put in the disk or reboot. Safe mode doesn't work or any other startup method. So, how screwed am I? What options do I have besides reinstalling windows (that I hope will work)?

Thanks

[manavo11]

I know I'm impatient but no ideas?

[MagellanTX]

Syskey is a WindowsXP security tool to lock the accounts database. When you ran the program, there is an option that asks where to store the key. One is local and the other (the one you chose) is floppy disk. If the key gets stored on a disk you must have that disk every time you start the computer.

As far as I know there are no recovery procedures for restarting a system with a lost key. I think your best bet is to try to un-erase the key from the disk.

[<ABX]

if you cant get the key off the disk...

your os install is pretty well screwed....

I hope you didnt use encryption because then all the files that are encrypted are useless... (there are ways but it will take forever, backup sam files just in case)

use NTFS dos or Knoppix to get the files off computer and then wipe clean and reinstall....

[manavo11]

Well, a friend of mine had a recover program (Easy Recover or something like that) and I was able to get the file back and put it back on a disk so I'm OK now... I also changed the setting back ( )...

Thanks for the replies