Administrator Password lockout

[kavita11]

Hi,
I have a PC running Windows XP Professional. This was a stand alone PC that used to be part of a domain. I also have a laptop running Windows XP Home Ed. I wanted to network these 2 machines together on a workgroup. I logged into the PC and changed the settings for the PC to join the workgroup it was able to join the work group sucessfully and asked me to reboot. Now I cannot logon to the PC with the same admin password and I cannot remember any other user names that were created on this PC other than administrator. I can see the PC on my laptop as a part of the workgroup but it does not let me view the files. Is there a way I can acess the home PC without wiping it out as I need to access some files on the PC.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

Kavita

 

[electronicsfreak]

If you can login as administrator you can see what user names are on there. Just go to control panel , administrative tools, computer management. Then just look at local users and groups. That will let you know which users are on there.

 

[kavita11]

I cannot login as admin. That is the only password I know and it does not accept it. Any other options? I have tried safe mode but it comes to the user name and password prompt and does not accept the one I use. The same user name and password worked just fine when I logged in prior to connecting to the workgroup.

thanks for the help

Kavita

 

[electronicsfreak]

Without the adminstrator password unless you can use some type of program on an account that lets you install them that can find the password in the registry or system file there isnt much you can do that I know of. If anyone else has any suggestions feel free to help him but thats as far as I know.

 

[bcastner]

Changing from a Domain to a workgroup would not effect a valid local logon account.

Something is clearly wrong with this installation of XP. Site policies prevent discussing how to circumvent password issues, but it is an easy Google search.

 

[electronicsfreak]

Oh i apologize then if I broken any site policies. Sorry about that.

 

[lwarren01]

I have the same exact problem on a laptop with windows 2000.
I changed the setting from domain to workgroup, rebooted and now I cannot get past the windows login with my password.

 

[kavita11]

I was able to get around this issue by using a linux based script that I used to boot the system and it worked. As mentioned in a previous post site policies prevent us from discussing this but it is as easy as a google search. The administrator account was on the domain so that is why when you moved it to a workgroup that account doesnt exist anymore. I made a mistake of rebooting before I could create an account on the local PC.I am sure you will find an answer to this on google.