PLEASE HELP, Cant log into Windows 2000 advnaced server as Administrator

[Adam Boote]

Hi,

We are getting the Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to logon, on our server. However
when we try to logon as the administrator with the password the loading
settings then saving settings flashes up but the we are taken back to the
Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to logon screen.

Can anyone help as we cant get into our server

Thanks
Adam

 

[Jerry Girard]

Boot into safe mode. Press F8 upon booting.

 

[Bill Curtis [MSFT]]

I would call into support on this one. Most likely your system drive
letter has changed and when you try to logon, your registry is pointing to
C:\Windows\System32\Userinit.exe and because this path is no longer valid,
you logon, so you are sent right back to the CTRL+ALT+DEL screen. (note:
this symptom only applies to Windows 2000 Member Servers. Domain
Controllers fail with an LSASS error as they cannot find a path to the
NTDS.DIT.

To resolve this issue, you should rename the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

After renaming this key, reboot and your drives will be reenumerated and
your drive letters will be reassigined. Hopefully, it will hit the right
one (it should).

That is a pretty easy fix, however it doesn't work all the time due to the
fact that you cannot log onto the system. There are many ways to get
around this, but you should be able to connect to your system using a
remote registry.

Check out the following KB article:

249321 Unable to Log on if the Boot Partition Drive Letter Has Changed
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=249321


- Bill Curtis [MSFT]
“This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.”

 

[Charles McMillan]

If you ghosted the server then the drive letters may have
swapped. If it is a DC then boot into Active Directory
Recovery mode and log on using the recover password and
account. Then right click on my computer and choose
manage. Then open Disk Management and change the drive
letter to the correct letters. If you are using several
drive letters it should probably be C with D next to it
and then anyother letter below them. Then save the
configuration and reboot the server. It will take about a
half hour, depending on your replication environment,
before you can log on.

 

[Adam Boote]

I have managed to login using my personal account and I am in the
administrators group. But we still cant login using the built in
Administrator account. None of the drive letters have changed, the WINNT dir
is still on C: where it was installed to.

I have tried loggin in as me, changing the administrator password then
logging in as the admin again gut this makes no difference.

The server is the PDC emulator

Thanks for the responses