Windows System Management Software

Copy user account passwords between Windows domains or servers

Migrating user passwords from and to Windows 2003 and XP

I need to transfer user accounts with their password between two Windows 2003 standalone servers.

Migrating user passwords from or to Windows 2003 SP1 and Windows XP SP2 means the file boot.ini (c:\boot.ini) needs to be modified in order to disable the DEP function.

To do this, open the file boot.ini using a text editor like notepad.exe, then replace the command /NoExecute=OptIn or /NoExecute=OptOut with /NoExecute=AlwaysOff

We advise you to keep the original boot.ini file, by saving it under boot_old.ini for example, before modifying it. You can also reactivate this option once the migration of user passwords has finished.

If you don't disable the DEP, your system will reboot during the migration process (LSASS.EXE Error).

IMPORTANT: You must restart the server for this modification to take effect.