When I installed SQL Server 2000 on a Windows 2000 server, the SQL Server and SQL Server Agent services were configured to use the Win2K administrator account and password as the security credentials for the services. Someone changed my Win2K administrator's password, however, so now SQL Server doesn't work. Can I reset the services by changing the SQL Server configuration, or do I have to change back to Win2K's former administrator password or reinstall SQL Server?
Good news: You can reset the services even when SQL Server isn't running. Go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services; select the SQL Server and SQL Server Agent services; and reset the password on the Login tab. Ordinarily, you reset the service account password in Enterprise Manager before you shut down and restart the service. However, after you shut down the service, the only way to get it restarted is to reset the password on the Login tab. Also note that after you restart the service, if the SQL Server instance is clustered, you need to use Enterprise Manager to correct the password on all cluster nodes.