admin password not accepted

I had no password set for admin and I was going to run a repair of my XP media center installation, it asks for a password in order to do so when boot to the disc...it was not accepted.

I set a password and tried again, it was not accepted.

Any reason you can think of why and how I can accomplish this, thanks.

 

You don't need a password to repair your Windows install. When you boot to the CD, I'll bet you're pressing "R" at the first screen where it says "press 'R' to repair, press Enter to install,.....". DO NOT PRESS "R" AT THIS SCREEN! Press Enter. Then at the next screen, you'll press 'R'. Click on this link or click on this link for some how-to guides with screenshots. Good luck! I hope this helps!

 

The install volume shows up but there is no repair option available like their is in those screen shots.

 

Are you certain it's the correct disk? You must use a Media Center install disk to repair a Media Center installation. If you have a disk for another OS(even another Microsoft OS like XP Home or XP Pro), it will generally just show partitioned space and not the Windows installation, nor will it give an option to repair.

 

They are the correct discs, the install option exists but the repair option does not show up except on the former screen where it is not to be selected.

There is some sort of recovery mode using F2 on startup, would that be something similar?

 

This is where I put my foot in my mouth....(mshbrjdjf...jjddfieikd... that didnt taste nice... )

after pressing R.... dont enter a password....if that dont work... try Admin or admin... or Administrator or administrator


failing that if the system will boot in safe mode you cn thengo into control panel and change the System Administrators password from there and the do the nessasary from the R screen and new password.

 

Recovery mode is more than likely a set of diagnostic tools and/or the option to run a recovery, which restores the system to like new condition. Basically reformatting and reinstalling Windows but it will generally install the correct drivers for you and will generally put any software that came on the PC back on. Of course, you'd loose everything you had on the computer, which I'm assuming you don't want to do since you are trying to go the repair route instead of reformatting and reinstalling.