Changed from Domain to Workgroup. Password stopped working!

[Guest IWantXPBack]

The company that I worked for went out of business. They let me keep my

laptop.

 

I decided to get this laptop onto my home network, so I changed the

information for the computer. I changed the name of the computer. I removed

the old Domain information and I added the computer to my local Workgroup.

 

When I reboot the computer, my old username was in the Username field of the

login screen, without the preceeding domain information. But, no password is

working now. Not my old password, not my new password.

 

Does anyone know what username/password the system is looking for now? It

must be looking for some specific set, but I've tried everything I can think

of and it's not letting me log on.

 

I'm starting to get that icy feeling of panic.

[Guest R. McCarty]

Re: Changed from Domain to Workgroup. Password stopped working!

 

Opps, common mistake. You should have created a non-domain account

prior to switching from Domain membership to Workgroup. That however

depends on whether you knew the local Administrator password to log in.

 

At this point there is no existing account for the local machine other than

the Administrator account.

 

What you'll need to do is get a password reset ( Null ) utility, run it to

null

out the local machine or Workgroup Administrator account. Once done log

in as Administrator & then create your local machine or Workgroup account.

 

One Password reset tool can be found here:

http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

 

 

"IWantXPBack" <IWantXPBack@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:0665AA54-FCAB-4A7A-9F43-E41EC261880F@microsoft.com...

> The company that I worked for went out of business. They let me keep my

> laptop.

>

> I decided to get this laptop onto my home network, so I changed the

> information for the computer. I changed the name of the computer. I

> removed

> the old Domain information and I added the computer to my local Workgroup.

>

> When I reboot the computer, my old username was in the Username field of

> the

> login screen, without the preceeding domain information. But, no password

> is

> working now. Not my old password, not my new password.

>

> Does anyone know what username/password the system is looking for now? It

> must be looking for some specific set, but I've tried everything I can

> think

> of and it's not letting me log on.

>

> I'm starting to get that icy feeling of panic.

[Guest Malke]

Re: Changed from Domain to Workgroup. Password stopped working!

 

IWantXPBack wrote:

> The company that I worked for went out of business. They let me keep my

> laptop.

>

> I decided to get this laptop onto my home network, so I changed the

> information for the computer. I changed the name of the computer. I

> removed the old Domain information and I added the computer to my local

> Workgroup.

>

> When I reboot the computer, my old username was in the Username field of

> the login screen, without the preceeding domain information. But, no

> password is working now. Not my old password, not my new password.

>

> Does anyone know what username/password the system is looking for now? It

> must be looking for some specific set, but I've tried everything I can

> think of and it's not letting me log on.

>

> I'm starting to get that icy feeling of panic.

 

Your computer is behaving as expected. Your old user account/password was

for your *domain* account. Now that you've removed the computer from the

domain, that account no longer is available to log into (although any data

for that account will still be on the machine). You need the local

Administrator password to get into the machine. Once you've logged in as

local Administrator, create a new user account for yourself and copy any

data you want from the old domain account to it. You can delete the old

domain account. You'll find the old domain account under

C:\Documents and Settings\old-domain-account.

 

If you don't know the local Administrator password, you can change it to a

blank with NTpasswd.

 

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

 

Frankly, in cases like yours it is really better to do a clean install of

Windows since there can be many domain settings/restrictions in place that

will still affect a local account.

 

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows - What

you will need on-hand

 

Malke

--

MS-MVP

Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

[Guest IWantXPBack]

Re: Changed from Domain to Workgroup. Password stopped working!

 

 

 

"Malke" wrote:

>

> Your computer is behaving as expected. Your old user account/password was

> for your *domain* account. Now that you've removed the computer from the

> domain, that account no longer is available to log into (although any data

> for that account will still be on the machine). You need the local

> Administrator password to get into the machine. Once you've logged in as

> local Administrator, create a new user account for yourself and copy any

> data you want from the old domain account to it. You can delete the old

> domain account. You'll find the old domain account under

> C:\Documents and Settings\old-domain-account.

>

> If you don't know the local Administrator password, you can change it to a

> blank with NTpasswd.

>

> http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

>

> Frankly, in cases like yours it is really better to do a clean install of

> Windows since there can be many domain settings/restrictions in place that

> will still affect a local account.

>

> http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To

> http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows - What

> you will need on-hand

>

> Malke

> --

> MS-MVP

> Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

> FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

>

>

 

Thanks to both of you for the information. I'll try using the tool you've

recommended. I've written to one of the IT folks from the former company, so

maybe they'll be able to get me the admin credentials, but I'm not going to

hold my breath.

 

And yes, I already bought a new copy of XP to install once I get my personal

files off this machine.

 

Thanks again!

[Guest Malke]

Re: Changed from Domain to Workgroup. Password stopped working!

 

IWantXPBack wrote:

Thanks to both of you for the information. I'll try using the tool you've

> recommended. I've written to one of the IT folks from the former company,

> so maybe they'll be able to get me the admin credentials, but I'm not

> going to hold my breath.

>

> And yes, I already bought a new copy of XP to install once I get my

> personal files off this machine.

 

You're very welcome, but please know that you don't have to boot into

Windows in order to get your files off. Here are a few suggestions:

 

1. Pull the drive and slave it in a computer running a working install of

XP/Vista. Depending on the target drive's characteristics, you may need a

drive adapter; i.e., laptop-to-IDE or a SATA controller card, etc. A

usb/firewire external drive enclosure works very well, too. Use the working

Windows Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard drive and

then burn the data to cd or dvd.

 

2. Or you can boot the target computer with a Linux live cd such as Knoppix

and retrieve the data that way. Here is general information on using

Knoppix for this:

 

You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw OR

a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an external

usb/firewire hard drive formatted FAT32 (not NTFS)*. To get Knoppix, you

need a computer with a fast Internet connection and third-party burning

software. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your bootable cd. Then boot

with it and it will be able to see the Windows files. If you are using the

usb thumb drive or the external hard drive, right-click on its icon (on the

Desktop) to get its properties and uncheck the box that says "Read Only".

Then click on it to open it. Note that the default mouse action in the

window manager used by Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead of

the traditional MS Windows' double-click. If you want to burn CD/DVDs, use

the K3b program.

 

*My understanding is that you can now write to an NTFS partition from Linux.

If you wish to do this, Google for instructions.

 

http://www.knoppix.net

 

Malke

--

MS-MVP

Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

[Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Re: Changed from Domain to Workgroup. Password stopped working!

 

 

"IWantXPBack" <IWantXPBack@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:0665AA54-FCAB-4A7A-9F43-E41EC261880F@microsoft.com...

> The company that I worked for went out of business. They let me keep my

> laptop.

>

> I decided to get this laptop onto my home network, so I changed the

> information for the computer. I changed the name of the computer. I

> removed

> the old Domain information and I added the computer to my local Workgroup.

>

> When I reboot the computer, my old username was in the Username field of

> the

> login screen, without the preceeding domain information. But, no password

> is

> working now. Not my old password, not my new password.

>

> Does anyone know what username/password the system is looking for now? It

> must be looking for some specific set, but I've tried everything I can

> think

> of and it's not letting me log on.

>

> I'm starting to get that icy feeling of panic.

 

Perhaps this icy feeling of panic will encourage you to review your backup

policy after you've resolved your problem with the help of the other

respondents in this thread. Important files must ***never*** reside on just

one medium. If they do then you're asking for trouble. A 2.5" disk in an

external USB case is a low cost but highly effective backup medium. Time to

think about getting one.

[Guest Ray Parrish]

Re: Changed from Domain to Workgroup. Password stopped working!

 

Here's a link to a site that has a downloadable CD image which you can

burn, then boot from to recover or reset your Windows XP password.

 

http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

 

Later, Ray Parrish

 

Pegasus (MVP) wrote:

> "IWantXPBack" <IWantXPBack@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> news:0665AA54-FCAB-4A7A-9F43-E41EC261880F@microsoft.com...

>> The company that I worked for went out of business. They let me keep my

>> laptop.

>>

>> I decided to get this laptop onto my home network, so I changed the

>> information for the computer. I changed the name of the computer. I

>> removed

>> the old Domain information and I added the computer to my local Workgroup.

>>

>> When I reboot the computer, my old username was in the Username field of

>> the

>> login screen, without the preceeding domain information. But, no password

>> is

>> working now. Not my old password, not my new password.

>>

>> Does anyone know what username/password the system is looking for now? It

>> must be looking for some specific set, but I've tried everything I can

>> think

>> of and it's not letting me log on.

>>

>> I'm starting to get that icy feeling of panic.

 

--

http://www.rayslinks.com/ Web index of human reviewed links.

<http://www.rayslinks.com/Troubleshooting%20and%20fixing%20Windows.html>

Trouble shooting and Fixing Windows

http://www.writingsoftheschizophrenic.com My poetry in web pages

[Guest Bruce Chambers]

Re: Changed from Domain to Workgroup. Password stopped working!

 

IWantXPBack wrote:

> The company that I worked for went out of business. They let me keep my

> laptop.

>

> I decided to get this laptop onto my home network, so I changed the

> information for the computer. I changed the name of the computer. I removed

> the old Domain information and I added the computer to my local Workgroup.

>

> When I reboot the computer, my old username was in the Username field of the

> login screen, without the preceeding domain information. But, no password is

> working now. Not my old password, not my new password.

>

> Does anyone know what username/password the system is looking for now? It

> must be looking for some specific set, but I've tried everything I can think

> of and it's not letting me log on.

>

> I'm starting to get that icy feeling of panic.

 

 

By changing the computer from the domain to a workgroup, you've

destroyed the trust between the domain and the machine. In doing so,

you've also rendered your domain login credentials as invalid. You'll

need to be use a local account with administrative privileges to the

computer to create a new local user account for yourself.

 

 

--

 

Bruce Chambers

 

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