Logon Problem

[Tractor]

I am working on a client's computer. Windows comes up to Welcome screen, but
no user icons are showing. I crtl+alt+del and get logon screen, user name and
password does not work and administrator and password doesn't work either.
How do I get into the computer to reset the passords?

 

[John John (MVP)]

What happens when you try to logon? What error message are you
receiving when you try to logon? Did you try booting to the Last Known
Good Configuration or to Safe Mode?

John

 

[Tractor]

I have tried both Last Known and Safe Mode. I can't get past the logon. I get
error can't logon check user name and password.

 

[John John (MVP)]

You can try this tool but I'm not sure it will help:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

It sounds like the Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database is missing
or damaged. If the above tool cannot help then you will have to mount
the disk in another machine or use a PE boot disk to repair this. Try
the above tool and post again if it doesn't help.

John

 

[Tractor]

I have connnected to another machine. I can read the drive okay and I am
backing up files. How do I clear the SAM database on this slave disk?

 

[John John (MVP)]

Rename or move the SAM file out of the \windows\system32\config\ folder
and replace it with the SAM file from the \windows\repair\ folder.

Try and boot the machine, if the user had a System State backup restore
from the backup or try restoring with System Restore, however note that
System Restore does not store or restore passwords. You can also create
new accounts and restore their old profiles by pointing the users
profile at the registry's ProfileList key to the users' folders, see
here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314045 The article is written
for Windows 2000 but it's the same thing for Windows XP.

Finally, before you do the above you may want to run a chkdsk on the
drive and see if it corrects the problem. Be advised that running
chkdsk may lead to loss of data, but if the SAM file became corrupted I
think it would be a good idea to run a chkdsk on the drive, if you don't
check the drive this problem may rear its ugly head down the road again.

John

 

[Tractor]

Thank you very much. I am back in the computer. Changing the SAM folder did
the trick. Thanks again.

 

[John John (MVP)]

You're welcome, thanks for the follow up.

John

Thank you very much. I am back in the computer. Changing the SAM folder did
the trick. Thanks again.

:

 

[Neil]

Hi Guys,

I am having the same problem on a friends laptop, however starting in
safe mode, or safe mode with command prompt still takes me to the
welcome screen with no user accounts.

I can ctrl-alt-del but they dont know their password as it always auto
logged in.

I have put the windows xp cd in and when I attempted a system recovery
it asked for a administrator password which I dont have (i tried
blank, "password", "admin" etc to no avail).

Everything I try to do still takes me to the welcome screen. Is there
anyway to get to a command prompt?