How to Perform MS SQL Server Password Recovery of SA and Other SQL Users with SQL Password Recovery

Step-by-Step Guide

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   Step 1: First check your login credential and after providing the credentials in MS SQL Server you are not able to access your database and gets a connection error message

   Now browse to the location where you have saved the copy of "master.mdf"
   
   select it and click "Open". , Select and click "OK". ,, The password associated with them are either categorized as "UNKNOWN" or "EMPTY"
   
   where UNKNOWN denotes that password exists for that user and is in encrypted form, while EMPTY means there is no password set for that particular user. ,,, Click "OK" thereafter. , Now you have to move the processed master.mdf and mastlog.ldf backup file to its original location so that original master.mdf and mastlog.ldf files gets replaced with these processed file. ,, to locate its location,On the Start menu, point to All Programs, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Configuration Tools, and then click SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.The first page to appear is the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration start page.
   
   Click "Surface Area configuration for Services and Connections"
   
   Now click on "Start" button and when the service status changes from "Stopped" to "Running" just click on "OK" button.. ,, Don't forget to generate new password thereafter.
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   Step 2: then you need to follow the below mentioned steps.

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   Step 3: From a command prompt

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   Step 4: enter one of the following commands

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   Step 5: this will help to stop the default instance of SQL Server from running.

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   Step 6: Now go to the location where your database is located

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   Step 7: copy master.mdf and mastlog.ldf file and paste it in some other location

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   Step 8: preferably in a different drive.

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   Step 9: Now download the SQL Password Recovery software

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    Step 10: install and run it on your system.

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    Step 11: The second screen will prompt you to select the SQL Server version that you are using.

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    Step 12: Wait and let the software scan your database

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    Step 13: once the process gets completed click "OK".

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    Step 14: Now the software will show you list of all users who are associated with that database.

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    Step 15: Now make selection of all those user for whom you want to reset the password

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    Step 16: once selected click "RESET".

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    Step 17: The software will splash a message to create a backup of that database

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    Step 18: so if you have already done that just click "yes"

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    Step 19: otherwise go to step 3 of this article and see the backup process.

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    Step 20: After performing the requisite operation the software then will greet user with a message that the password for select user has been reset successfully.

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    Step 21: The reset process is almost completed.

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    Step 22: Now if you try to login in SQL Server you will encounter with an error message stating that an error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server

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    Step 23: if you go back and see in step 2 that we have stopped the instance of SQL Server

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    Step 24: to resolve that we need to restart the service back again.

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    Step 25: To resolve the issue go to "SQL Server surface area configuration".

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    Step 26: The service status for SQL Service had been stopped we need to restart the service.

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    Step 27: Now go back to SQL Server Authentication

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    Step 28: select the user

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    Step 29: leave the password field blank and then click "Connect".

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    Step 30: Now you can access your database with full privileges.

Detailed Guide

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