User names gone from Welcome Screen!!

[Guest]

I have been trying to resolve the problem of no user names listed on the to
begine click on your user name screen, I have tried to boot into safe mode
with no success either, I have tried to log on after hitting ctrl -alt -del
also with no success.

 

[Guest]

hi sam, i am having the exact same problem with my 'puter as well, it has
lost my sig on, but another user on the computer is present, but does not
have admin privleges, so i can't do a restore or even look at any files under
my sigon!. maybe if there are 2 diff people posting the same issue, more will
follow and hopefull a fix!! , thx TROY

 

[chuck]

My problem is similar.

Client turns on the PC and it brings up the Microsoft Welcome Screen
with no user names to click on. Normally the PC just boots directly
into Windows and the user never even sees the Welcome Screen. There
are two user accounts setup on this PC. One being the user and the
other being the Administrator. Both user names had blank passwords.
Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del twice brings up the login box, but entering
either user names displays the following message; "The system could not
log you on. Make sure your User name and domain are correct, then type
your password again. Letters in passwords must be typed using the
correct case."

I've seen this twice now in the last two months. My user has a stand
alone XP Pro OS with SP2 and all the latest service packs. The client
runs AV software and keeps it current. Client also runs AdAware &
SpyBot regularly and also runs MS-AntiSpyware.

I've tried the following with no luck: (May not be in the order that
I've listed here.)
1.) Booting in Safe Mode
2.) Last known good boot
3.) Reinstalling Windows over the top.
4.) Removed the drive & installed it as a slave in a second PC. (I can
see the files, I can access the files, etc.)
5.) Scanned the drive, (from a second PC), for Spyware using Spybot and
AdAware.
6.) Scanned the drive for viruses.
7.) I can even see the other PC when I attach it to our network. Tried
poledit but would not give me access.

The only way I was able to fix this is backup, format & reinstall.

Any ideas out there as to what might be causing this? And how to fix
it?

 

[Guest]

hey chuck, i was able to get back into my system by loggining in safe mode,
push f8 while booting up and it did allow me to log on under admistrator. i
then went into accounts and created a new user for myself and i can still
acess my orginal files (under my orginal user name) thru windows explorer. i
can't really walk u thru the steps i did it in, but i did read on how to do
the fix in thses newsgruops, and it is not an isolted problem. hope my hints
get u back on the right path, Troy

 

[chuck]

Thanks Troy,

My problem must be different. Safe mode won't even let me log into
either account. The user account or the Administrator account. I
appreciate the response.

I'm about ready to backup data, (I can view files if I connect this
hard drive as a slave on another PC), format & reinstall.

Thanks,

Chuck

 

[chuck]

Got it fixed.

Here is what I have discovered. Somehow all the user accounts were
missing. Even the system Administrator account. I discovered this
using a password hack tool on a bootable UNIX floppy that displays all
the user accounts in a list and then you select which user account you
want to change the password for. Well, the list showed no users.
That's why I couldn't run the System Repair from a XP boot CD. I
couldn't get past the Administrator password because the Administrator
account didn't exist.

But since I could see all the directories when I attached the drive as
a slave on a second PC, I decided to copy the "SYSTEM", "SAM",
"SECURITY", "SOFTWARE", & "DEFAULT" files from C:\Windows\Repair\*.*
files to C:\Windows\System32\Config\*.* (C: is actually the D: when
it's a slave)

Now the system will boot.

Then I went into the C:\System Volume Information folder and grabbed
the same files from a recent snapshot folder and copied these to a temp
folder.

Took the drive back out and put it back into the second PC as a slave.

Copied these files to the Windows\System32\Config folder and put it
back into the first PC.

Now the system boots. All users are back. All programs are back,
Everything is back.

I left out a lot of detail so these articles in addition to what I have
typed above will help. KB307545 - KB309531