How can I change back to an offline Domain from a workgroup?

[DSL News]

Please help,

I have been using a machine for two years that I used to use at work. I
have always continued to login to the work domain even though there is no
server. It simply used cashed settings. This has worked fine for 2 years.
However, I have a few other machines in the house 98 and xp all running via
cat 5 to a dsl router. I wanted to be able to connect to each other to
share files, etc so I changed the 2K pro machine to a workgroup same as the
others. I got the message welcome to the workgroup but still could not see
any PCs. Also logging in in the workgroup I have lost my profile from the
domain. Can I get this back to use in the workgroup? i.e. I have lost all
my settings and email, etc.

To get back to being able to work again, I attempted to change back to the
domain but it attempts to find it and gives the error saying there is no
such domain. How can I get it to use it's cashed settings, etc?

Any help appreciated

Charles
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Dave]

you should still be able to get to your cached settings by logging in with a
user name that specifies the domain like "domain\username". you will not be
able to rejoin the domain without a server for it being available as far as
i know though.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Don't think you'll be able to log in to use your old cached domain profile
now, since you've removed your computer from the domain. If you log in with
the local administrator account, do you still see your cached profile info
in documents & settings? You can take ownership of them if they're there but
inaccessible....copy the data over to your new local profile folder or
wherever you want. I personally prefer c:\data for all locally stored files,
rather than the default folders.....also check in control panel | system for
your old profile, as well, and see if you can copy it to the new local
profile.

 

[Egburt]

Thanks.
I shall try copying the things over locally and overwriting the parts of the
local profile. As for going in through control panel, I can see my old
profiles. They are listed as 'Umknown User' but when you click on them, the
copy button remains inactive. If you try to login with
'olddomainname\oldusername' you just get the same error message telling you
to check the domain name or user name. I have even tried,
olddomainname\Unknown User but this just produces the same result. - not
good :-( Any further ideas or are you sure copying the files over will do?
Which files do I need exactly?


"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

 

[Scott D. Pearson]

I faced this same situation. I placed my pc into a Workgroup (thus removing
me from the Domain) and I was unable to rejoin the Domain later. Here is the
trick: You must have somebody with Admin privileges ON THE DOMAIN SERVER get
you back into the Domain.

My profile info was still on the Domain server and my pc, but with the Admin
password FOR THE DOMAIN SERVER ITSELF, I was unable to rejoin the Domain.

I sort of understand the logic behind that restriction but, geez, it was
frustrating to know that I had an account on the Domain Server yet I was not
allowed to log into it! But that's the way the Domain Server user account
security is set up.

So just realize that you can take yourself OUT of a Domain from your local
pc, but you can not put yourself back IN to the Domain unless you know the
Admin login password for the Domain Server.

Good luck.

Thanks.
I shall try copying the things over locally and overwriting the parts of the
local profile. As for going in through control panel, I can see my old
profiles. They are listed as 'Umknown User' but when you click on them, the
copy button remains inactive. If you try to login with
'olddomainname\oldusername' you just get the same error message telling you
to check the domain name or user name. I have even tried,
olddomainname\Unknown User but this just produces the same result. - not
good :-( Any further ideas or are you sure copying the files over will do?
Which files do I need exactly?


"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

Don't think you'll be able to log in to use your old cached domain profile
now, since you've removed your computer from the domain. If you log in with
the local administrator account, do you still see your cached profile info
in documents & settings? You can take ownership of them if they're there but
inaccessible....copy the data over to your new local profile folder or
wherever you want. I personally prefer c:\data for all locally stored files,
rather than the default folders.....also check in control panel | system for
your old profile, as well, and see if you can copy it to the new local
profile.