Changed from Domain to Workgroup. Password stopped working!

[IWantXPBack]

The company that I worked for went out of business. They let me keep my
laptop.

I decided to get this laptop onto my home network, so I changed the
information for the computer. I changed the name of the computer. I removed
the old Domain information and I added the computer to my local Workgroup.

When I reboot the computer, my old username was in the Username field of the
login screen, without the preceeding domain information. But, no password is
working now. Not my old password, not my new password.

Does anyone know what username/password the system is looking for now? It
must be looking for some specific set, but I've tried everything I can think
of and it's not letting me log on.

I'm starting to get that icy feeling of panic.

 

[R. McCarty]

Opps, common mistake. You should have created a non-domain account
prior to switching from Domain membership to Workgroup. That however
depends on whether you knew the local Administrator password to log in.

At this point there is no existing account for the local machine other than
the Administrator account.

What you'll need to do is get a password reset ( Null ) utility, run it to
null
out the local machine or Workgroup Administrator account. Once done log
in as Administrator & then create your local machine or Workgroup account.

One Password reset tool can be found here:
http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

 

[Malke]

The company that I worked for went out of business. They let me keep my
laptop.

I decided to get this laptop onto my home network, so I changed the
information for the computer. I changed the name of the computer. I
removed the old Domain information and I added the computer to my local
Workgroup.

When I reboot the computer, my old username was in the Username field of
the login screen, without the preceeding domain information. But, no
password is working now. Not my old password, not my new password.

Does anyone know what username/password the system is looking for now? It
must be looking for some specific set, but I've tried everything I can
think of and it's not letting me log on.

I'm starting to get that icy feeling of panic.

Your computer is behaving as expected. Your old user account/password was
for your *domain* account. Now that you've removed the computer from the
domain, that account no longer is available to log into (although any data
for that account will still be on the machine). You need the local
Administrator password to get into the machine. Once you've logged in as
local Administrator, create a new user account for yourself and copy any
data you want from the old domain account to it. You can delete the old
domain account. You'll find the old domain account under
C:\Documents and Settings\old-domain-account.

If you don't know the local Administrator password, you can change it to a
blank with NTpasswd.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Frankly, in cases like yours it is really better to do a clean install of
Windows since there can be many domain settings/restrictions in place that
will still affect a local account.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows - What
you will need on-hand

Malke

 

[IWantXPBack]

Your computer is behaving as expected. Your old user account/password was
for your *domain* account. Now that you've removed the computer from the
domain, that account no longer is available to log into (although any data
for that account will still be on the machine). You need the local
Administrator password to get into the machine. Once you've logged in as
local Administrator, create a new user account for yourself and copy any
data you want from the old domain account to it. You can delete the old
domain account. You'll find the old domain account under
C:\Documents and Settings\old-domain-account.

If you don't know the local Administrator password, you can change it to a
blank with NTpasswd.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Frankly, in cases like yours it is really better to do a clean install of
Windows since there can be many domain settings/restrictions in place that
will still affect a local account.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows - What
you will need on-hand

Malke

Thanks to both of you for the information. I'll try using the tool you've
recommended. I've written to one of the IT folks from the former company, so
maybe they'll be able to get me the admin credentials, but I'm not going to
hold my breath.

And yes, I already bought a new copy of XP to install once I get my personal
files off this machine.

Thanks again!

 

[Malke]

IWantXPBack wrote:
Thanks to both of you for the information. I'll try using the tool you've

recommended. I've written to one of the IT folks from the former company,
so maybe they'll be able to get me the admin credentials, but I'm not
going to hold my breath.

And yes, I already bought a new copy of XP to install once I get my
personal files off this machine.

You're very welcome, but please know that you don't have to boot into
Windows in order to get your files off. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Pull the drive and slave it in a computer running a working install of
XP/Vista. Depending on the target drive's characteristics, you may need a
drive adapter; i.e., laptop-to-IDE or a SATA controller card, etc. A
usb/firewire external drive enclosure works very well, too. Use the working
Windows Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard drive and
then burn the data to cd or dvd.

2. Or you can boot the target computer with a Linux live cd such as Knoppix
and retrieve the data that way. Here is general information on using
Knoppix for this:

You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw OR
a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an external
usb/firewire hard drive formatted FAT32 (not NTFS)*. To get Knoppix, you
need a computer with a fast Internet connection and third-party burning
software. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your bootable cd. Then boot
with it and it will be able to see the Windows files. If you are using the
usb thumb drive or the external hard drive, right-click on its icon (on the
Desktop) to get its properties and uncheck the box that says "Read Only".
Then click on it to open it. Note that the default mouse action in the
window manager used by Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead of
the traditional MS Windows' double-click. If you want to burn CD/DVDs, use
the K3b program.

*My understanding is that you can now write to an NTFS partition from Linux.
If you wish to do this, Google for instructions.

http://www.knoppix.net

Malke

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

The company that I worked for went out of business. They let me keep my
laptop.

I decided to get this laptop onto my home network, so I changed the
information for the computer. I changed the name of the computer. I
removed
the old Domain information and I added the computer to my local Workgroup.

When I reboot the computer, my old username was in the Username field of
the
login screen, without the preceeding domain information. But, no password
is
working now. Not my old password, not my new password.

Does anyone know what username/password the system is looking for now? It
must be looking for some specific set, but I've tried everything I can
think
of and it's not letting me log on.

I'm starting to get that icy feeling of panic.

Perhaps this icy feeling of panic will encourage you to review your backup
policy after you've resolved your problem with the help of the other
respondents in this thread. Important files must ***never*** reside on just
one medium. If they do then you're asking for trouble. A 2.5" disk in an
external USB case is a low cost but highly effective backup medium. Time to
think about getting one.

 

[Ray Parrish]

Here's a link to a site that has a downloadable CD image which you can
burn, then boot from to recover or reset your Windows XP password.

http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Later, Ray Parrish

 

[Bruce Chambers]

The company that I worked for went out of business. They let me keep my
laptop.

I decided to get this laptop onto my home network, so I changed the
information for the computer. I changed the name of the computer. I removed
the old Domain information and I added the computer to my local Workgroup.

When I reboot the computer, my old username was in the Username field of the
login screen, without the preceeding domain information. But, no password is
working now. Not my old password, not my new password.

Does anyone know what username/password the system is looking for now? It
must be looking for some specific set, but I've tried everything I can think
of and it's not letting me log on.

I'm starting to get that icy feeling of panic.

By changing the computer from the domain to a workgroup, you've
destroyed the trust between the domain and the machine. In doing so,
you've also rendered your domain login credentials as invalid. You'll
need to be use a local account with administrative privileges to the
computer to create a new local user account for yourself.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot