Completely locked out of system. Can't access system restore

I DID NOT FORGET THE PASSWORD

Not really sure what happened. I was playing Skyrim when it crashed (nothing new there, I modded it too much). I hit ctrl+alt+dlt and went to end the program. I might've hit something else because everything froze. I turned the system off via the power button and restarted. Now, Windows doesn't recognize my password. I'm POSITIVE I didn't forget it. It's the same password I've used for months now with no changes. I've tried doing a system restore from the advanced boot options but it won't allow me to do it because it once again claims my username and password are incorrect. I really don't want to wipe the drives and re-install, but I'm afraid I might have to. I don't have my W7 factory disk. It doesn't give me the option to change User. There's just a single user which is my admin account (Yes, I know it's stupid and I've now learned my lesson). Any and all suggestions that avoid having to wipe the system are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

edit: system specs
Windows 7 Ultimate
i5-6600k
ASUS STRIX GTX 1080
Asus - Z170 PRO GAMING ATX mobo
WD Blue 1TB
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD

First fix is get to a cmd prompt and then run chkdsk c: /r chances are the file system is corrupt with the crash which may give the problem

UPDATE: May have bricked it. Found a W7 installation USB I made a while back. From there I was able to get into a command prompt. When I did the "net user" command, it showed only "administrator" and "guest". Then I did "net user administrator newpassword" and restarted, making sure to change the boot back to my SSD. Now I get a black and white screen saying:

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:

1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings, and the click next.
3. Click "repair your computer".

If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: An error ocurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data.

samuria said:

First fix is get to a cmd prompt and then run chkdsk c: /r chances are the file system is corrupt with the crash which may give the problem

If you don't mind, please check my updated situation. I ran chdsk and got a bunch of stuff that chkdsk is verifying (out of 5 stages). At the end it says Windows has checked the file system and found no problems... What I saw that might make a difference is Failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with status 50.

I'm pretty out of my element here at this point. I have no problems with system restores and installations, but this has me stumped. The goddamn thing just refuses to accept my user and password so I can't even restore.

For future reference, you should do regular backups (at least once per month) using a non-Windows aftermarket backup program such as Macrium Reflect Free.

Macrium (and other programs) let you make an emergency boot disk so that if your computer is totally hosed, you can boot with the emergency boot disk, plug in the external drive, and do a restore to a new hard drive.

mrjimphelps said:

For future reference, you should do regular backups (at least once per month) using a non-Windows aftermarket backup program such as Macrium Reflect Free.

Macrium (and other programs) let you make an emergency boot disk so that if your computer is totally hosed, you can boot with the emergency boot disk, plug in the external drive, and do a restore to a new hard drive.

Duly noted, thank you

RolandJS said:

I remember hearing or reading about how local computer fix-it shops take a computer, with the receipts of ownership of hardware and OS, use utilities such pc-unlocker and recover needed passwords. I'm not sure if such a local pc shop is in your area.

The one in my town screwed me over before in an unrelated incident... Besides, none of my files are really worth the $50 or so a shop would charge. I'll just wipe the drives instead. Just a PITA to reinstall everything

SIW2 said:

If you have access to another pc you could borrow my boot media and either burn it cd/dvd or extract it to usb. Boot it up on your sick machine.

There are several tools included. I suggest you use nt6repair first ( link on the desktop) to recreate the boot files. You may be able to run system restore from it (there is a link on the desktop called system restore), or copy off any important data.

17514x64-v5.iso

Thank you so much! I'm out of town for a few days, so I'll give it a shot when I return. I really appreciate it, and I hope to be able to get back into my system. Quick question though: will this erase any files? As far as I can tell, my program files and saved media are all still on my disks, I just can't get at them. Like I said, I don't mind wiping everything and doing a fresh install if that's what it needs.