# Deleted Administrator Account



## TotalEclipse (Oct 21, 2009)

Hi guys,

So my Dad accidentally deleted the main administrator account on his laptop the other day. Since then he's been trying everything to get it back, with no luck so far. 

The obvious problem is that when using the laptop, you are unable to do pretty much anything because the account he's using has no admin privileges. My Dad has been Googling a lot, but almost all potential solutions are inaccessible. 

I've personally just tried to add a new account via command prompt, only to be denied. I hadn't done this before, but I got the commands below from Google. 


```
net user /add Username Password
net user Username Password /add
```
Both times I got "system error 5 has occurred, Access is denied".

I've failed to boot into safe mode, apparently Windows 8 is interesting in that respect, and the usual method of spamming F8 or SHIFT+F8 doesn't really work anymore. I cannot access 'msconfig' to do it that way.

So all I want to know is, is there a way to restore/make a new administrator account without reinstalling windows?

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Stu


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

Unfortunately the Hidden Admin Account needs the PW to install. The only thing I can think of is if you have the Windows 8 disc, get into the advanced boot options and try a System Restore.


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## TotalEclipse (Oct 21, 2009)

Corday said:


> Unfortunately the Hidden Admin Account needs the PW to install. The only thing I can think of is if you have the Windows 8 disc, get into the advanced boot options and try a System Restore.


Damn. So there isn't any software that could help him out or anything? I don't think the laptop came with a Windows 8 disk.


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

I can't fathom what happened. If he was logged in as a user he couldn't have deleted the account. If he was logged in as the Admin, he knows the PW. Did you try a System Restore w/o the disc? Correcting Post #2 if Dad's account was really deleted.
There is a Hidden Admin Account (Built-in Administrator Account) which you can access by getting into Safe Mode. It only shows if there are no other Admin Accounts (I'm not positive Dad really deleted it). At the Safe Mode log in the account will appear. No PW needed. When all is said and done, create a new Admin Account and for safety sake, you should keep a copy of the PW.


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