Windows XP Pro repair "hangs"

[mpolta]

Have a system that lost the Administrator (don't know how they did
it...) but now there are no permissions to do much of anything on the
computer.
Tried to do the Windows repair procedure, several times and it hangs at
13 minutes to completion. Chkdsk reports no problems and I pulled the
hard drive and virus scanned it on another system. It came up clean.
Any help would be appreciated. We have about 35 pieces of software
installed that will be a chore to reinstall.
TIA

 

[Sharon F]

Have a system that lost the Administrator (don't know how they did
it...) but now there are no permissions to do much of anything on the
computer.
Tried to do the Windows repair procedure, several times and it hangs at
13 minutes to completion. Chkdsk reports no problems and I pulled the
hard drive and virus scanned it on another system. It came up clean.
Any help would be appreciated. We have about 35 pieces of software
installed that will be a chore to reinstall.
TIA

When XP is installed it creates a default administrator account also
referred to as the "built in" Administrator. This account usually has the
name "Administrator." In XP Home, the account is available through Safe
Mode only. In XP Pro, it will appear on the welcome screen until another
account with the administrator group is created - at that time it
disappears. The reason for its disappearance is that this account is not
intended to be used for everyday use. It is a reserve account to be used if
the profiles for other administrator accounts corrupt. This is normal
behavior - "by design."

To log on to this account in XP Home, boot to Safe Mode.

To log on to this account in XP Pro, press Ctrl +Alt+Del twice at the
welcome screen. When the classic style logon prompt appears, type in
Administrator for user account (if the account was renamed, type that name
instead). If a password was used, enter that too. Otherwise leave password
field blank.

It sounds like the user of the system in question was using the default
administrator account for everyday use. Then created another account within
the administrator group. If being denied access to documents and other data
belonging to the old admin account, take ownership of the folders and files
first.

How To Take Ownership of a File or Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

Another option: Using Tweak UI for XP, you could force the default
Administrator account back onto the welcome screen. Not viewed as a "best
practice" though as having a spare administrator account that is not
corrupt for troubleshooting or other maintenance is desired.

TweakUI for XP is one of the power toys that can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

 

[mpolta]

When XP is installed it creates a default administrator account also
referred to as the "built in" Administrator. This account usually has the
name "Administrator." In XP Home, the account is available through Safe
Mode only. In XP Pro, it will appear on the welcome screen until another
account with the administrator group is created - at that time it
disappears. The reason for its disappearance is that this account is not
intended to be used for everyday use. It is a reserve account to be used if
the profiles for other administrator accounts corrupt. This is normal
behavior - "by design."

To log on to this account in XP Home, boot to Safe Mode.

To log on to this account in XP Pro, press Ctrl +Alt+Del twice at the
welcome screen. When the classic style logon prompt appears, type in
Administrator for user account (if the account was renamed, type that name
instead). If a password was used, enter that too. Otherwise leave password
field blank.

It sounds like the user of the system in question was using the default
administrator account for everyday use. Then created another account within
the administrator group. If being denied access to documents and other data
belonging to the old admin account, take ownership of the folders and files
first.

How To Take Ownership of a File or Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

Another option: Using Tweak UI for XP, you could force the default
Administrator account back onto the welcome screen. Not viewed as a "best
practice" though as having a spare administrator account that is not
corrupt for troubleshooting or other maintenance is desired.

TweakUI for XP is one of the power toys that can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Tried most of that - system said Administrator account did not exist. As
of now, we are beyond all of that with the hung repair starting over at
each boot up. When all else fails, reinstall, I guess. I did Ghost a
backup to a spare hard drive so the data can be salvaged.
Thank you for the input..