Lost Administrator account

[Jen]

I know my administrator password, but my account is gone
and I can't do anything from my user account w/o
administrator privileges.
When I was setting up my accounts, I created a user
account and gave it administrator privileges, then went
back to the original administrator account and switched
it to a limited user account. The next time I logged in,
the administrator account I created had disappeared.
I realized that was probably not the best route to
setting up the accounts, but I should have gotten a red
flag to tell me not to do that or I would lose my
administrator account.
Any suggestions?

 

[Gordon Burgess-Parker]

I know my administrator password, but my account is gone
and I can't do anything from my user account w/o
administrator privileges.
When I was setting up my accounts, I created a user
account and gave it administrator privileges, then went
back to the original administrator account and switched
it to a limited user account. The next time I logged in,
the administrator account I created had disappeared.
I realized that was probably not the best route to
setting up the accounts, but I should have gotten a red
flag to tell me not to do that or I would lose my
administrator account.
Any suggestions?

Firstly, you can't change the built-in Administrator account to a "Limited"
account AFAIK.
Secondly, you haven't "lost" the Administrator account. The Administrator
account is hidden by default when you create another user.
You don't say what version of XP you have, so,
For Home Edition, boot into Safe mode.
For Pro, at he welcome screeen, press Ctl-Alt-Del twice and the old
W2K-style logon box will appear. Simply type in the Administrator account
details and log on.

HTH