hi, i just upgraded my win 98 to win2k (using the upgrade to win2k option instead of installing a new win2k) when i boot up, entering the page where i key in the acount and password, after keyin the username and password, it shows a "loading" and "saving settings" then it returns to the same page where it asks for the username and password. it happens again and again and i'm stuck on that page. is there anything i can do about or another way to boot my windows so i can reinstall it or something? i can't format the drive for a new installation because i have important data inside. help would be greatly appreciated. thanks

I'm assuming Windows 2000 Professional. Is that correct? This type of problem is usually a result of insufficient user rights (ie, the right to logon interactively) You will need to logon as the administrator (you would have created the account and password during the windows 2000 setup) and either grant your user account more privledges (make them a memeber of Power Users, or Administrators group. Or, edit the local security policy to give the other account rights to logon interactively. Brian Delaney MCP, A+

hi, thanks for your reply. my problem is i can't even log on to windows much less change any settings. I've been trying to log on as the administrator. i think the problem is not with the accounts but with the OS itself. It didn't mention any wrong passwords or anything. it's like it just jumps back to the original screen asking for the acount and password. is there any other way to bypass this log on thingy? or other modes? or boot disks? thinking of reinstalling the windows (upgrade to win2k once again) but i would need to be in windows to do that. thanks for the help

Hi Chris, The only way to sneak in from the back,(if i recall correctly) is to use an NTFSDOS for Win2k bootdisk. There is a utility that will allow you to view the SAM. Be prepared to pay alot of money. I paid about $250 for my disk. Irene :o)

Use a ERD boot disk for NT, 2k and XP It will boot to an O/S run from the CD and let you use LockSmith Tool to reset the Admin password! I've used it and it works! Good luck... Jabba

what is an ERD boot disk? where can i get/download it? thanks

These logon problems sound very similar to ones I had after I restored a drive image of a W2K partition. The most likely explanations seemed to be, drive letter the is being assigned to the root partition isn't the same as the letter that W2K is trying to use, permissions are being inherited incorrectly stopping the SYSTEM from having the appropriate access to be able to log you on, or the page file isn't where it's supposed to be. There's a Microsoft article about the first of these, but it's not easy to do much about it unless your PC is networked and you have authorised remote registry updating. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=249321 "After you try to log on to your Windows 2000-based computer by using a valid user name and password, the Loading your personal settings dialog box is displayed, followed by the Saving your settings dialog box. However, the desktop does not appear, and the Welcome to Windows logon screen is displayed again." "This problem can occur if your Windows 2000 boot partition drive letter does not match the drive letter assigned during the initial Windows 2000 Setup. Windows 2000 maintains a record of drive letters in a registry based database and re-assigns drive letters based on Globally Unique Identifiers (GUID) recorded for each volume. Should the volume GUID change or be duplicated (by hard drive cloning software), the original drive letter may not be re-assigned to the boot volume." I never did manage to solve my problem, and ended up deleting the partition and re-installing W2K.