You can the steps mentioned in the link below to reset the SA password: * [Disaster Recovery: What to do when the SA account password is lost in SQL Server 2005][1] Steps summarised below: > 1. Open SQL Server Configuration Manager from Start Menu > Programs > Microsoft SQL Server 20xx > Configuration Tools > relevant to the newest version of SQL Server you have installed (e.g. if you have 2005 and 2012 installed, use the 2012 version). Don't have a Start Menu? On Windows 8's Start screen, start typing SQL Server Con... until it shows up. > 2. Stop the SQL Server instance you need to recover by right-clicking the instance in SQL Server Services and selecting "Stop" > 3. Right-click the instance you just stopped, click Properties, and in the “Advanced” tab, in the Properties text box add “;–m” to the end of the list in the “Startup parameters” option (on newer versions, you can go directly to the "Startup Parameters" tab, type "-m" and click Add, without worrying about the syntax, the semi-colon, or anything else). > 4. Click the “OK” button, and restart the SQL Server Instance > 5. After the SQL Server Instance starts in single-user mode, the Windows Administrator account is able to connect to SQL Server using the sqlcmd utility using Windows authentication. You can use Transact-SQL commands such as "sp_addsrvrolemember" to add an existing login (or a newly created one) to the sysadmin server role. > The following example adds the account "Buck" in the "CONTOSO" domain to the sysadmin role: > >`EXEC sp_addsrvrolemember 'CONTOSO\Buck', 'sysadmin';` > > Once the sysadmin access has been recovered, remove the “;-m” from the startup parameters using the Configuration Manager and restart the SQL Server instance one more time. > > **NOTE:** make sure there is no space between “;” and “-m”, the registry parameter parser is sensitive to such typos. You should see an entry in the SQL Server ERRORLOG file that says “SQL Server started in single-user mode.” --- Additional resources: * [Connect to SQL Server When System Administrators Are Locked Out][2] * [Leveraging Service SIDs to Logon to SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014 Instances with Sysadmin Privileges][3] * [Recover access to a SQL Server instance using PsExec][4] Ultimately, you could always copy the database files to another instance, or even reinstall SQL Server (adding a local account as sysadmin during that process). [1]: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/raulga/archive/2007/07/12/disaster-recovery-what-to-do-when-the-sa-account-password-is-lost-in-sql-server-2005.aspx [2]: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd207004.aspx [3]: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/argenis_fernandez/archive/2012/01/12/leveraging-service-sids-to-logon-to-sql-server-2012-instances-with-sysadmin-privileges.aspx [4]: https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/2682/recover-access-to-a-sql-server-instance/