Lost Administrative Privileges!

[scarney]

I was trying to network my 2000 pro machine with my XP
machine, and I really messed up! I think what I did was
create a new workgroup, and in doing so did something very
bad. When I restarted, it logged me in to an account I set
up with the new workgroup. I now have to log out every time
I restart, so that my girlfriend (who's pc it is I messed
up) can log in as herself. She still has the same log on
name and password, and has access to all her files and
folders, but now is no longer an/the administrator, and has
no administrative privileges. When I try to log her in as
the administrator, I get the prompt that she does not have
administrative rights. What have I done, and is there any
way to fix without completely re-installing?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I was trying to network my 2000 pro machine with my XP
machine, and I really messed up! I think what I did was
create a new workgroup, and in doing so did something very
bad. When I restarted, it logged me in to an account I set
up with the new workgroup. I now have to log out every time
I restart, so that my girlfriend (who's pc it is I messed
up) can log in as herself. She still has the same log on
name and password, and has access to all her files and
folders, but now is no longer an/the administrator, and has
no administrative privileges. When I try to log her in as
the administrator, I get the prompt that she does not have
administrative rights. What have I done, and is there any
way to fix without completely re-installing?

You could try this:
- Boot the machine with your Win2000 CD, then select Repair.
- Get into the Command Console.
- Rename c:\winnt\system32\config\sam to something else.
- Reboot the machine normally.

You will now have exactly one account: Administrator, with
a blank password.

After resolving this issue, start planning ahead and create
a secondary admin account. Think about your car, and why
you have at least two sets of keys, then extend the same
thought to your PC!

 

[Guest]

At this point I can't take any chances that may
potentially lose data, and or require me to do a fresh
install. I think I went from a domain to a workgroup. In
doing so, the original admin/password is not valid in the
workgroup. How can I log on as an administrator to get
out of the workgroup, and back to where I started?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

If you went from domain to workgroup then you have to
ask your system administrator to re-register your PC
on the domain, or to give you a local account/password.

You also need to review your backup strategy. If there
are important files on this machine then they must be
backed up to a different medium every week. This time
you're safe but next time you might lose the lot!

 

[Guest]

That's the problem, I am the administrator.

-----Original Message-----
If you went from domain to workgroup then you have to
ask your system administrator to re-register your PC
on the domain, or to give you a local account/password.

You also need to review your backup strategy. If there
are important files on this machine then they must be
backed up to a different medium every week. This time
you're safe but next time you might lose the lot!





.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

So what about the recipe I gave you in my first post?
It will get you locally, allowing you to re-register the
machine on the domain.

 

[scarney]

Will that change any of the user log ins that already
exist? I want to be sure I don't do anything that makes my
situation worse. I ran into a major snafu when in repair
mode on my XP machine last year and ended up reformatting.
It's the girlfriends machine, otherwise I wouldn't have
anything to lose. When you say rename to something else,
what specifically am I to rename? This is uncharted
territory for me.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

We seem to have a little problem with reading and digesting
previous replies. In my first reply I wrote: "You will now have
exactly one account: Administrator, with a blank password."
You now ask me if it will change any of the user log-ins that
already exist. Of course it does - they will no longer exist!

If you don't like this then you can download & run this tool:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html.
It's scary stuff but it lets you reset the admin password to
a blank. And as I said: If you're an administrator then it's
high time to take some basic precautions so that you're
never again in this painful situation.

 

[scarney]

Sorry, I am not trying to be difficult. I should have said
user profile rather than user login. Would having multiple
admin accounts help me even in my current situation? I mean
I can still see the admin account under users/groups, it
just seems like when I set up the workgroup, it/I did not
set me up with an admin account, and the one I still see
and know is an admin user does not work.

 

[Phillip Windell]

Sorry, I am not trying to be difficult. I should have said
user profile rather than user login. Would having multiple
admin accounts help me even in my current situation? I mean
I can still see the admin account under users/groups, it
just seems like when I set up the workgroup, it/I did not
set me up with an admin account, and the one I still see
and know is an admin user does not work.

I think you are getting too hung up on the Workgroup thing. There is no
such thing as a workgroup admin account. There are domain accounts and
there are local accounts. When you removed the machine from the domain you
then just log in using the local admin account (third line of the login
prompt is the local machine's name). You don't remember creating the
account because you didn't create it,..it is always created durning the OS
install and you can't "not" create it. If you don't remember giving it a
password, then are you sure it isn't just a blank password? Have you tried
it that way? It would be the password given during the installation of the
OS when it was installed on the machine long before it was ever joined to
the domain to begin with.

 

[scarney]

I have tried every combination that I could think of. I
even tried Administrator/ with no password.

-----Original Message-----

Sorry, I am not trying to be difficult. I should have said
user profile rather than user login. Would having multiple
admin accounts help me even in my current situation? I mean
I can still see the admin account under users/groups, it
just seems like when I set up the workgroup, it/I did not
set me up with an admin account, and the one I still see
and know is an admin user does not work.

I think you are getting too hung up on the Workgroup thing. There is no
such thing as a workgroup admin account. There are domain accounts and
there are local accounts. When you removed the machine from the domain you
then just log in using the local admin account (third line of the login
prompt is the local machine's name). You don't remember creating the
account because you didn't create it,..it is always created durning the OS
install and you can't "not" create it. If you don't remember giving it a
password, then are you sure it isn't just a blank password? Have you tried
it that way? It would be the password given during the installation of the
OS when it was installed on the machine long before it was ever joined to
the domain to begin with.

--

Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com



.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

- Having two admin accounts allows you to log in at
any time, even if one of these two accounts becomes
unusable for some reason. It's the spare key to your
PC.
- Deleting the SAM deletes all accounts but does not
delete profile folders. If you rename the SAM file instead
of deleting it then the action becomes reversible.
- Once an account is deleted, all personal settings
(desktop colour, Outlook settings, screen saver etc)
are also out of reach. If you know someone who is
familiar with the inner workings of Windows profiles
then he can restore them for you.
- The concept of a "Workgroup" has nothing at all to
do with the current topic.

 

[scarney]

Ok, so I went in to the recovery console to rename the
SAM file, but I run in to the same problem....I need the
adminstrator password. What now? Every known fix
mentioned thus far takes me so far, but still requires an
administrator login and password which is what I need to
fix to begin with. Catch 22.....

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Use the link I gave you in one of my previous replies.