Password no longer works for Administrator

Question

I know that a lot of people lose or forget their password.  I may have had that happen, but I have it written down and a video of me typing it in and I said it out loud on the video as I typed it.  All that said I bought a dell R320 server that
I am using to run an industrial application under Windows Server 2012.  What that means is I am not an IT guy but a guy who uses computers to display information from a factory.  The server came with Windows Server 2012.  I installed the Rockwell
Automation Factory View SE software on the computer exactly as the 600 page installation and setup book describes.  I ran the application in Demo mode (7 days) while getting the View SE Client in Multi-Monitor mode setup.  I then installed a 30 license
to run the sample application and do the tutorial.  At that time I was running from administrator as the user.  I then setup an additional user "CR Operator 1" with the password "user".  I had to go into the "Policy"
in order to allow simple passwords.  I then let the system sit for 3 months without powering on while the customer got the project approved.  I purchased permanent License for the software and powered on the computers.  I installed the licenses
on the server as described in the instructions.  Everything was working great.  The client showed it was checking out licenses from the server the sample application was running and I connected to a local PLC and made a simple program to verify
connectivity and making it work in 4 instances on the multi-monitor client.  I was excited.  I shutdown and left town for 8 days.  I came back and powered up the system.  My administrator account shows invalid password.  I can log
on as "CR Operator 1" (standard user) but not as administrator.
Like I said earlier I didn't forget the password.  It may have changed or I accidently changed it (I wouldn't know how).  I have read several things on the internet about resetting the password.  The easiest was with the setup DVD which I
tried but evidently the drivers for the disk aren't on the DVD therefor the files on the C: or D: drives aren't accessible.
Two questions.  1. Can somebody from Microsoft Access my computer and reset the password? 2. Any idea if any of the things I described above that could have caused this problem in the event I need to go back and install the entire system?  I video
taped the original installation so I can duplicate but there was a lot of time invested.  But it concerns me that I can't make the password work.

Answer 1

1.) No they can't.
2.) Can't say for sure what happened but the simplest method may be to backup the ViewSE project, FT directory config, reinstall operating system. Reinstall FTView SE, patch it to same level, restore the network directory config and SE project. Rockwell
will reset the activations if you can't get them off. You'll be done in about three hours or less.
Regards, Dave Patrick ....
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.