LSASS.exe - error on boot up

[Guest]

My W2000 machine crashed this am. On re-boot I get the
following error:
LSASS.EXE - System Error - Security accounts manager
initialization failed because of the following error: the
security id structure is invalid. Error status
0xc0000078. Please click OK to shutdown this system and
reboot into safemode, check the event log for more
detailed information.
Rebooting via PF8 into safe mode generates the same
error. I am unable to get back into the system.
The machine is not a Domain controller and no recent
changes have been made to the machine configuration.
How do I get back in to the machine?
How do I repair the security id structure?

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Ouch. It would be worth a try to do a repair install and select the fast repair
option. If that does not work and you can put the drive in another computer try
copying the \winnt\repair folder contents to the \winnt\system32\config folder after
backing up the contents of the \config folder. If that does not work, a reinstall is
probably in order. You could reinstall into the existing \winnt folder without
formatting to preserve your data hopefully [unless EFS encrypted]. If you go that
route you will need to reinstall applications on top of themselves, reapply service
pack and critical updates, and retrieve data files from your original profile under
documents and settings folder with the user name. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;292175
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;238359