XP Pro lost its passwords

[DanaK]

I took an XP Pro workstation out of the domain to move it
into the new domain I'd created by using the Network I.D.
function in Control Panel and when I tried to enter the
administrative password for the workstation's
administrative account it wouldn't accept it. It won't
accept ANY logon request saying the user account or
password is invalid.

I've been looking at KB articles 308402 and 321405 to use
the Recovery Console but I don't think these apply to
changing passwords on the accounts. Where do I go from
here? Wipe it and reinstall? The teacher that this
belongs to needs to get some information off of the drive
before I wipe it, if that's necessary.

Thanks.

 

[NeoSadist]

I took an XP Pro workstation out of the domain to move it
into the new domain I'd created by using the Network I.D.
function in Control Panel and when I tried to enter the
administrative password for the workstation's
administrative account it wouldn't accept it. It won't
accept ANY logon request saying the user account or
password is invalid.

That's because it verifies passwords with the domain, not the local system
(due to it being configured that way).

I've been looking at KB articles 308402 and 321405 to use
the Recovery Console but I don't think these apply to
changing passwords on the accounts. Where do I go from
here? Wipe it and reinstall? The teacher that this
belongs to needs to get some information off of the drive
before I wipe it, if that's necessary.

1) Tell the teacher that they're supposed to keep their information backed
up, first off. You two wouldn't be having that conversation if they did
their duty as smart computer users.
2) You can try various things, including searching the internet for "how to
hack winXP". You'd be amazed what's possible.
But my suggestion is stick your tongue out at the teacher while wiping the
hard drive and then installing winxp. You can technically reinstall
windows without doing so, like adding a windows operating system basically.
Just reboot the machine and put the winxp disc in. However, unless it's
winXP pro, you'll be forced to call microsoft and beg for understanding.

 

[squidfoot]

you need 321305 not 405

 

[Nathaniel Roewe]

I would say use the admin shares (C$) but since it has
been disjoined from the domain you will still need a
password. I would say you are probably out of luck unless
you want to use a tool like ERD commander from winternals.

http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecovery/

 

[DanaK]

This is basically what I was afraid of. Security isn't
worth much if it's easily overcome, I suppose, is it?

No, the password is known to both the teacher and
myself. I'd used it a week or so before that when I was
setting the workstation up on the first domain.
Something zigged when it should have zagged when I took
it out of the domain and back to its workgroup this
time. None of the former accounts are recognized. I
wanted to reinstall all the workstations' OS's this
summer but didn't have time. They've been at the mercy
of these people for over a year before I showed up so
there's no telling what they've done to them

The really bad thing is there's no room on the drive for
another partition to set up another installation. I
guess I could put in another drive and put another
installation of XP on it. That way you should be able to
view and take off the documents and other things from the
original drive. That's the only way I know to view
another NTFS partition.

Thanks for all your suggestions.