OS experts opinion - Win 2000 - Ouch - Changed from dmain to a wrkgrp. Am I Screwed?

[DDogg]

I got myself in a big jamb and could use some help. I'm posting here as I trust D9 has more than its fair share of OS experts.

While helping a neighbor set up a wireless network, I changed to a workgroup name in their win2000 laptop that I did not realize was on a domain. Just did not think the kids hand-me-down laptop would still be setup like that.

Now, of course, I can't get past the security logon screen. Nor can I install XP fresh as the LapTop has no cdrom.

Is there a way to get past the damn Win2000 logon? I do realize this may be a dicey question, but hopefully you folks know me well enough so as not to question my reasons (PMs or email welcome).

Right now I have a black eye with a neighbor and would really like to make it right. I need to get back into the OS, or install XP...without a CDROM? Arghh!

ddog1953 at yahoo.com

[Bootsy]

You can log with the local administrator account. If you don't have the password, well there are tools to help you recover this password but I haven't any experience with this.

[ammck55]

Heyya, Ddogg!

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

There are four links at the bottom of that page that deal with recovering lost domain admin passwords on any Windows NT system. All of the manual fixes look doable for a man with your experience, but they appear to involve some pretty serious registry hacks, from what I can tell.

I don't have any "hands-on" experience to draw on with this one, this is one of those issues that was just barely touched on in the first (last, and only!) networking class that I took. It's not to a networking instructor's advantage to teach ya how to break into things, and from the feeling I got out of that class, you don't develope this level of trust until the third or fourth semester of working with any given instructor. :)

As far as guessing the password, IIRC, on a domain controller, a complex password is required--minimum of eight characters including a combination of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols.

I don't think you're screwed yet, but you may be close.... :) Good luck!

HTH's...ammck55

[DDogg]

ammck55, hey buddy :) Got it done and thanks. Whew! This one did it for me. Smooth as silk. http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

[ammck55]

Good to hear you got past the problem, I bet your rep as the neighborhood pc guru is still intact. :)

Like countless times in the past, I took a look at this one out of curiosity, and while I hope I never encounter this particular problem, the positive feedback of you finding your fix will give me a place to start should I ever get hammered by a domain controller/workstation problem like this one. These links are bookmarked. Forum life is good!

Cheers.....ammck55