I recently needed to get into an SQL database, which only had the SA account as a 'sysadmin'. The unfortunate thing was the client didn't have the SA password documented anywhere. So we needed to reset that password somehow, or risk having to completely reinstall SQL!
Luckily, there's a relatively easy way to be able to get into a locked out SQL database, by resetting the SA password. The only caveat, is that you are a local administrator of the SQL server itself. Most of the time it's going to be on the domain, so as long as you have a Domain Admin account, you're going to be able to get in rather easily.
Fisrtly, you will need to download PsExec. It's from the Microsoft website. Extract the contents to your desktop of the server or somewhere you can easily access the .exes within it.
Through CMD, navigate to the location of the EXEs.
psexec -s -i "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\ssms.exe"
This will fire up SQL Management Studio, running as the system account. Once you've done that, go into the security section of SQL and reset the password for the SA account!
It's that simple! Shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes to get in and reset the password, provided you come across this blog ;-)
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