Changing passwords is an important task. The longer you use a password the better the chance that someone finds out what it is. Password policies help but not all passwords are managed by the policy. The Disaster Recovery Mode (DSRM) password is one such password.

The DSRM password is used when you start a Windows server and press F8 before the system boots. This gives you a set of boot options, including Disaster Recovery Mode.

DSRM is used when you are running a restore of Active Directory and starts the DC but not the directory services. This allows you to restore the system state and recover items that were deleted from AD. Because the directory services are unavailable you must use the DSRM password to login. You set the DSRM password when you promote the server to a member server.

Now you may have forgotten it, or you may want to be a good admin and change this password regularily but you may not be aware how easy it is!! Using NTDSUTIL it is very simple to reset the DSRM password. Just type the following into a command prompt and your password will be changed immediatley.  

ntdsutil ntdsutil:

set dsrm password Reset DSRM Administrator Password:

reset password on server server_name Please type the password for DS Restore Mode Administrator account:

enter_password Please confirm new password:

enter_password

Once you see the message the it was successful, type quit and then type quit again to exit ntdsutil.