Help Resetting Passwords on XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mark
  • Start date Start date
M

Mark

I posted earlier about Windows Updates screwing up and not accepting
any passwords (it would login and then quickly log out). Good I
was able to get the Recovery Console to give us access to the disk. We
can see C and D drives and all files are there.

Is there a way to clobber/reset passwords from the command prompt?

Our first instinct was to stick a USB Drive in and copy stuff, but the
USB drivers don't appear to be there on the recovery console.
 
XP Home Or Pro?

XP Home.. Start System in safe mode, Use Administrator Account, Goto
Control Panel, User Accounts and Reset the passwords for accounts.

XP Pro.. See www.lostpassword.com

To have access to USB devices is DosMode you must add the USB drivers to
your boot disk.

Regards

John
 
It's XP Home, and I guess I wasn't clear enough.

My wife was doing windows updates, then the machine asked to reboot.
She clicked "ok", and when it rebooted it brought up the usename and
password window. When she typed in her account and password, it would
log in, and then immediately save settings and logout, ending up back
at the login window. All accounts on this machine do this. You type
your password, up comes your personal backround for a sec, then it
saves setting and logs you out.

We got an XP Home Upgrade CD (I have no idea which computer it belongs
to as we have five in the house). I was able to get the System Restore
Console up from "boot from CD", and then login with "no password". Now
we can "see" our files on C and D, but we cannot copy or access them.

What should we do now? Are we completely screwed because windows
update screwed up our password file? Or, is there something else we
should try from the System Restore Console?

Thanks...
 
Right, this is typical of the Blazefind issue mentioned in the article I
linked to. Your passwords and accounts *are* being recognized and accepted,
it's the userinit value that is screwed up.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Hi
Try doing a system restore from the command prompt.

1.. Restart the computer.

2.. As the computer restarts, begin pressing the F8 key until the Windows
Advanced Options Menu screen appears.

3.. On the Windows Advanced Options Menu screen, use the arrow keys to
select Safe Mode with Command Prompt, and then press the ENTER key.

4.. On the Please select the operating system to start screen, select the
Microsoft Windows XP operating system, and then press ENTER.

5.. At the login screen, log on as the administrator or a user who has
administrator rights.

6.. At the command prompt, type: c:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe.
Press ENTER.
 
Hi Rick,

But why would it happen during windows update? My wife had firewalls
and AVG antivirus, and she's not prone to DL'ing strange files and
visiting nefarious websites - at least as far I know :)

I'll see if I can look at those files using the Rovery Console....

Regards,

Mark
 
Since you started a new thread, you probably didn't see or read my reply!!
How about logging into safe mode option menu and
1) Last Known Good Configuration OR
2) Regular Safe mode and running system restore?
3) If not regular safe mode, then safe mode w/command prompt only?

See if "Administrator" account works?
The "Administrator" account password is usually blank (ie no password)!

Once in Safe mode you can repair the other her user login!!

Well, I'm surprised. You are following both threads!!
So why start a new, though?
 
Why would it happen due to one of the updates? Perhaps one of the updates
was the malicious software removal tool and it did its job in removing the
nasty, but the reference to it in the userinit value is still there.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Hi John,

I've done the FIXMBR using the XP Home CD Recovery Console.

Then I pulled out the CD and tried to boot regularly, but I still get
the same thing: password accepted, correct background picture
displayed, saving settings, logging off. Argh!

I tired booting to Safe Mode Command Prompt, and it hangs while
installing drivers...

....\Mup.sys
....\agp440.sys
....\iomdisk.sys
HANGS HERE FOREVER (though disk light is ON!)

Any more ideas? I can sense that we're close!

Regards,

Mark
 
Rick,

I copied userinit.exe over to wsaupdater.exe and rebooted....but still
had the same login-autologout problem. Any other ideas?

Mark
 
(e-mail address removed) (Mark) wrote:

|>I posted earlier about Windows Updates screwing up and not accepting
|>any passwords (it would login and then quickly log out). Good I
|>was able to get the Recovery Console to give us access to the disk. We
|>can see C and D drives and all files are there.
|>
|>Is there a way to clobber/reset passwords from the command prompt?

Hiren's BootCD will reset your passwords
http://www.9down.com/story.php?sid=2979

Burn the ISO to a CD and boot up with it, applications listed on the
home page.

Also if you were using ERUNT
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
your recovery would be much easier. After the fact I know...

|>Our first instinct was to stick a USB Drive in and copy stuff, but the
|>USB drivers don't appear to be there on the recovery console.

Got a USB pen drive? I can post how to boot up with one.
 
Yeah...I have several USB flash drives. Can you point me to software
that would let me boot and then get access to files on C and D? All I
really want to do is back them up to CD and then do a fresh reinstall.

Note that the BIOS does not have a boot-off-USB option...
 
Hi,

Yes, but it involves editing the registry remotely or via a BartPE disk. You
need to look at the userinit string, and the only way you are going to be
able to do that is to load the registry remotely (unless you are able to
login successfully in Safe mode).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
He doesn't need to clear the password, as I've already pointed out this is
not the issue. The login/logout behavior is caused by a damaged userinit
value, not a bad password. If the password were the problem, the system
would not begin to login at all.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
(e-mail address removed) (Mark) wrote:

|>Yeah...I have several USB flash drives. Can you point me to software
|>that would let me boot and then get access to files on C and D? All I
|>really want to do is back them up to CD and then do a fresh reinstall.
|>
|>Note that the BIOS does not have a boot-off-USB option...

Can't help then, you've got to be able to boot USB.

Hiren's BootCD will install USB drivers, you should be able to access
your drive with.

BartsCD has been mention'd it, should also be able to do the same, but
I've never used it.


|>On Sun, 01 Jan 2006 10:33:27 -0800, Trax <[email protected]>
|>wrote:
|>
|>> (e-mail address removed) (Mark) wrote:
|>>
|>>|>I posted earlier about Windows Updates screwing up and not accepting
|>>|>any passwords (it would login and then quickly log out). Good I
|>>|>was able to get the Recovery Console to give us access to the disk. We
|>>|>can see C and D drives and all files are there.
|>>|>
|>>|>Is there a way to clobber/reset passwords from the command prompt?
|>>
|>>Hiren's BootCD will reset your passwords
|>>http://www.9down.com/story.php?sid=2979
|>>
|>>Burn the ISO to a CD and boot up with it, applications listed on the
|>>home page.
|>>
|>>Also if you were using ERUNT
|>>http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
|>>your recovery would be much easier. After the fact I know...
|>>
|>>|>Our first instinct was to stick a USB Drive in and copy stuff, but the
|>>|>USB drivers don't appear to be there on the recovery console.
|>>
|>>Got a USB pen drive? I can post how to boot up with one.
|>>
|>>--
|>>50 Best Firefox Extensions for Power Surfing
|>>http://tinyurl.com/9usdj
 
Mark said:
Rick,

I copied userinit.exe over to wsaupdater.exe and rebooted....but still
had the same login-autologout problem. Any other ideas?

Mark
Click to expand...

You're getting deeper into trouble all the time. Much of what
you do is futile, because the facts are as Rick Rogers stated them
a moment ago:

1. There is nothing wrong with your password.
2. Your drive letters are messed up.
3. To fix them, you need to access the registry directly.

I pointed this out a long time ago but you chose to ignore it.

Here are four ways to edit the registry:
a) Via a networked PC.
b) By temporarily installing the disk as a slave
disk in some other WinXP/2000.
c) By booting the PC with a Bart PE CD (www.bootdisk.com)
d) By booting the PC with a Nordahl boot disk
(http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html)

a) is easy, b) is not easy, c) is not easy and time consuming,
d) is quick but difficult.

If you stop shopping around and if you take your pick from
the options above then I'll spend the time to give you the recipe
to fix the machine.
 
Pegasus,

Please understand that I have my wife pounding on me every 10 minutes.
Hence my "skittery rabbit" reaction to try and fix this thing. I have
tried just about everything.

Earlier you said the fixmbr (you gave me the link) should fix the
screwed up disk problem...but it didn't.

I've recently tried option "d", which you said is hard.

"d) By booting the PC with a Nordahl boot disk
(http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html)"

I've been able to DL the SW and make a boot CD and gain access to C.
This allowed me to grab a few floppies of files that my wife needed,
hence making me a momentary hero.

Can you explain how to do the regedit to sort out the logical drives?
The site on "d" doesn't do a good job of explaining the issue and
solution.

Thanks for your help,

Mark
 
Rick,

I think you are dead-on-right. The password seems to be accepted, then
the custom background is shown (mine is airplanes, my wife's is a pic
of the kids), then we're summarily logged off.

Note that I grabbed userinit.exe off the kid's PC (also XP Home SP2)
and copied it to wsaupdater.exe on my wife's as you suggested. I noted
that it's exactly the same size. In the end it didn't help.

Ideas?
 
Hi Mark,

Yes, as it's not the file itself, it's the registry entry for userinit -
probably missing the trailing comma (very common).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
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