Please help! I've screwed up royally!!!

[Guest]

Ok, now that I have laid the blame solely upon myself for doing something
stupid, let me tell you what I've done and beg for someone to help me fix it.

My fiancee's desktop comupter has Win 2000 Pro on her computer (for those
who might ask, it originally had Win XP Home on it, but it was previously
part of a big network and was upgraded to 2000 Pro for that purpose...and
then subsequently given to her when they upgraded their hardware).

I've been concerned about its vulnerability to some of the recent viruses
that have been attacking Win 2000 computers, so I've been trying to download
all of the various patches via Windows Update. Unfortunately, it won't
download any of them (including the Windows Geniune Validation Tool), so I
tried reinstalling Service Pack 4...no help there. So, I decided that I'd
try uninstalling all of the various service packs and hotfixes that I could
and then try to reinstall them, hoping that this would solve the problem.
Well, after installing one of them (which one, I am uncertain because I
wasn't writing anything down), I was asked to reboot. When I did, it took
forever, but when it finally got to the login, it says that it cannot log me
in because the domain does not exist (or something to that effect...I'm not
at home currently). I've tried restarting in Safe Mode, etc., but nothing
works.

I do not have the Win 2000 Pro installation CD, so reinstalling is not an
option. And I don't have the recovery CD either, so I can't do that. So,
I'm left with very few options, except to ask the fine folks here for
assistance. If you can help me in any way, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks,

Dan

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Ok, now that I have laid the blame solely upon myself for doing something
stupid, let me tell you what I've done and beg for someone to help me fix it.

My fiancee's desktop comupter has Win 2000 Pro on her computer (for those
who might ask, it originally had Win XP Home on it, but it was previously
part of a big network and was upgraded to 2000 Pro for that purpose...and
then subsequently given to her when they upgraded their hardware).

I've been concerned about its vulnerability to some of the recent viruses
that have been attacking Win 2000 computers, so I've been trying to download
all of the various patches via Windows Update. Unfortunately, it won't
download any of them (including the Windows Geniune Validation Tool), so I
tried reinstalling Service Pack 4...no help there. So, I decided that I'd
try uninstalling all of the various service packs and hotfixes that I could
and then try to reinstall them, hoping that this would solve the problem.
Well, after installing one of them (which one, I am uncertain because I
wasn't writing anything down), I was asked to reboot. When I did, it took
forever, but when it finally got to the login, it says that it cannot log me
in because the domain does not exist (or something to that effect...I'm not
at home currently). I've tried restarting in Safe Mode, etc., but nothing
works.

I do not have the Win 2000 Pro installation CD, so reinstalling is not an
option. And I don't have the recovery CD either, so I can't do that. So,
I'm left with very few options, except to ask the fine folks here for
assistance. If you can help me in any way, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks,

Dan

You need to talk to the network administrator of the company that
gave her the PC, and ask him to give you the password for the local
administrator account.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Pegasus! Unfortunately, I'm going to guess that I'm not going to be
able to get that...do you know of a workaround?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Why? Does the company who gave her the PC not know that
she has it?

 

[Dave Patrick]

Reset the password for the local administrator account
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Ok, now that I have laid the blame solely upon myself for doing something
| stupid, let me tell you what I've done and beg for someone to help me fix
it.
|
| My fiancee's desktop comupter has Win 2000 Pro on her computer (for those
| who might ask, it originally had Win XP Home on it, but it was previously
| part of a big network and was upgraded to 2000 Pro for that purpose...and
| then subsequently given to her when they upgraded their hardware).
|
| I've been concerned about its vulnerability to some of the recent viruses
| that have been attacking Win 2000 computers, so I've been trying to
download
| all of the various patches via Windows Update. Unfortunately, it won't
| download any of them (including the Windows Geniune Validation Tool), so I
| tried reinstalling Service Pack 4...no help there. So, I decided that I'd
| try uninstalling all of the various service packs and hotfixes that I
could
| and then try to reinstall them, hoping that this would solve the problem.
| Well, after installing one of them (which one, I am uncertain because I
| wasn't writing anything down), I was asked to reboot. When I did, it took
| forever, but when it finally got to the login, it says that it cannot log
me
| in because the domain does not exist (or something to that effect...I'm
not
| at home currently). I've tried restarting in Safe Mode, etc., but nothing
| works.
|
| I do not have the Win 2000 Pro installation CD, so reinstalling is not an
| option. And I don't have the recovery CD either, so I can't do that. So,
| I'm left with very few options, except to ask the fine folks here for
| assistance. If you can help me in any way, I would greatly appreciate it!
|
| Thanks,
|
| Dan

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

Well, after installing one of them (which one, I am uncertain because I
wasn't writing anything down), I was asked to reboot. When I did, it took
forever, but when it finally got to the login, it says that it cannot log me
in because the domain does not exist (or something to that effect...I'm not
at home currently). I've tried restarting in Safe Mode, etc., but nothing
works.

This page has several methods.
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

I have had a lot of problems with Windows Update in the past month, and I
traced it all to Zone Alarm. I replaced it with the last free version of
Kerio.
http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page7.html#Kerio Personal Firewall

 

[Guest]

No, I'm sure that they know that she has it. But I also know that they don't
have a network administrator...that company doesn't know its ass from a whole
in the ground! lol

 

[Guest]

Thanks Tom! I'll give that a shot!

We have Norton Internet Security on all of our computers, and I've tried
disabling it while I accessed Windows Update, so I'm not sure if that is a
problem or not.

--Dan

 

[Guest]

Pegasus,

Amazingly, I was able to get what I am assuming is the administrator
username and password. When I enter it, after waiting a few minutes, I get
an error message that says "The system cannot log you on now because the
domain DOMAIN is not available."

Any ideas?

--Dan

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

In my first reply I wrote "... ask him to give you the password for
the local administrator account". Your report suggests that you
received the details for a domain account instead. It must be a
***local*** account. Furthermore, when you log on you can
see three boxes:
- One for the user name
- One for the password
- One for the domain name.
(If you see only two fields, click the Options button to make all
three fields visible).

Open the "Domain Name" box and select the local machine name,
then enter the local user name and password.