As Microsoft’s other products, MS SQL Server is easy to operate, and also has good speed and stability, thus becomes the first choice for database development in Windows platform. If you forgot SA password,  how to login to SQL Server? Find the old password or reset SA password to a new one?

SQL SERVER offers two login mechanisms: windows account login and database user login. The former login is to log on with windows system Administrator account, the latter is to log on with user account set up in the SQL Server – the typical one is SA account. Read more

When you use windows admin account to log in to SQL server, usually there is no errors, but when logging in SQL server with SA user, you may not be able to access it for different reasons.

Reason 1: Disabled SQL server authentication mode
Step 1 Login SQL server with windows administrator, right-click the name of SQL Server, and then choose properties.
Step 2 Click security tab, in server authentication option, change it to SQL server and Windows authentication mode.
Step 3 Confirm and restart SQL server services.

Reason 2: Input a wrong SA password
Note that the password is case-sensitive. Check if you press caps lock key by mistake. If not, you may forget SA password unluckily, don’t worry, you can use a third-party software to reset SQL password soon.
MS SQL Server Password Unlocker could change any lost or forgotten SA and other user account password on MS SQL Server 2008/2005/2000 to a new one in seconds. No matter how long and complex the passwords are, once you import master.mdf to this program. Easy to use, no special computer skills required, and no need to reinstall SQL Server. See the below picture:

Reason 3 Disabled SA account
This problem often appears when using the SQL server at the beginning. When SQL server is installed, SA user is disabled by default.
Please do following to enable SA user.
Step 1 Right-click SA, and choose properties.
Step 2 Click status tab, and check enable in login option.

In a word, when you face login problem with SQL server, please check if you enabled SQL server authentication mode and SA account at first, and then make sure you have input correct SA password, otherwise, you may need to reset SQL password.

Have you ever worried about how to keep your SQL Server secure? Here gives some simple tricks and tips on this. Meanwhile, it introduces a new professional SQL password recovery tool for you in case you forgot/lost the SQL password to access.

Some simple ways to protect your SQL Server database

1. Using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) to assess the server’s security
MBSA is one of a variety of Microsoft products, which can scan unsafe configuration tools. It can be run locally; you can also run through the network.

2. Isolate your server and regularly back up
Physical and logical isolation would form the basis of SQL Server security. Database should be installed within the enterprise network security area, but not directly connected to the Internet. Back up all data regularly and store copies in a safe location outside the site.

3. Assign a strong SA password for a SA account
SA account should always have a strong password, even if Windows is configured to require authentication of the server. This will ensure that the server has been reconfigured in the future as Mixed Mode authentication; it will not appear blank or weak SA.

Read more

One of my friends complained that: I am not a sql db manager by any means but I’ve been asked to reset sa password for a sql 2005 server. My concern is …will changing this password have any effect on applications that use sql 2005. They use Micro CRM 3.0, and I don’t want to disrupt their service. The reason they want to reset the password is because they recently bought a new accounting package that will tie into CRM, and the technicians are requesting the password to complete the install. Read more

In our life and work, these follows often happen: I’ve forgotten the sa password for SQL Server, what can I do? How to reset or reset the forgotten SQL password? Don’t worry about that, here I will give you some methods to recover it.

Method 1. Reset SQL password from the command line

1. Open a command prompt window by selecting “Start“–>”Run…”, and typing “cmd.exe” in the “Run” dialog box.

Read more

SQL SERVER – Reset sa Password

1.Open the SQL Server express management studio

2.Connect to SQL Server using windows authentication

3.Right click the server name and choose properties

4.Go to security tab. Change server authentication to “SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode” Read more

Look, there are so many similar questions:

“How to reset sa password?”

“How to change SQL password without data loss?”

“I’ve forgotten the sa password for SQL Server – what can I do?”

“How to Change SA Password If Forgot or Lost SQL Password?”

…

In fact Read more

You have a variety of options for updating the SQL Server Agent password on the clients. The method you specify depends on the tools available on the client computer.

If the SQL Server Enterprise Manager is available on the client computer, you can change the sa password directly. For details, follow the procedure in Changing sa Password on the Server. Read more

First off, you can log in as any SSO role user and have them reset ‘sa’ password for you.

Being life and life being not always so simple we may not always have an SSO role handy (or configured)

So, we resort to the following:

1. Edit the ‘runserver’ file. By default it’s in the $SYBASE_HOME/install directory
2. Add “-psa” (for password ‘sa’) to the end of the command line. (I have noticed that this DOES NOT work in windows unless it’s the FIRST param on the command line)

Read more

If you happen to forget your SQL Server password for ’sa’ account, then here’s a simple query to help you reset it:

In Case you remember your Old Password and want to change ’sa’ password, use this query: