I have repaired my XP pro installation but now it asks for a password to log on to the existing accounts, which was not needed before the reinstallation, so that I don't know what to enter!(typing "enter" only won't work). I don't want to lose 1 year's work with a clean install, so please help! Details: Having interrupted XP during a search for disk space that was lasting forever, it wouldn't launch any more at reboot so I had to repair it using the XP setup CD-Rom. (just before that I played a bit with the recovery console and I might also have changed a few things in the Windows directory). Anyway I repaired the installation using the XP Setup CD-rom, it didn't ask me anything about the accounts (probably having found the relevant data in the existing files) but when it boots it asks for a password to log on any one account (including the administrator account in safe mode). I didn't need passwords previously so I don't know how I can access my accounts. Whatever I enter (be it only pressing the ENTER key) it says "The system cannot log you on due to the following error: The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted. Please try again or consult your system administrator" Many thanks for your help

You can delete the SAM file located in c:\windows\system32\config or use this to change the administrator's password. Note: If you delete SAM you also lose all user account too so think about that. __________________________________________________________ The greatest risk is not taking one

You've got several solutions on hand: 1) Use windows XP recovery console to manually go in to c:\windows\system32\config and delete the SAM file. this will delete ALL user accounts on the PC, including the adminstrators account. next time you logon, admin password will be blank. 2) Use winternals ERD commander to blank or change the admin password. www.winternals.com 3) Theres a great free utility to change all NT core based passwords. It's a trusted and efficent applications, and it creates it's own bootdisk. I found it very useful many times, even when ERD couldn't solve the problem. here's a link to the page: http://home.eunet.no/%7Epnordahl/ntpasswd/ And a link directly to the bootdisk Image: http://home.eunet.no/%7Epnordahl/ntpasswd/bd040116.zip The app itself is very technical, so don't get awed by all the technobabble going on the screen :) just press alot of [Enter] and wait until it asks you for a new admin password. Enter the new admin pass, press "!" , then "q", confirm all the write actions, and reboot for changes. Hope this helps..... Wesley I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough Without ever having felt sorry for itself. -- D.H. Lawrence

Nice try Wes....(You gotta love Google) __________________________________________________________ The greatest risk is not taking one

Actually I've got it saved in a text file on my pc, for just such an occasion. Beats the hell out of typing it. Hell, I learned everything I know off the net anyway. lol, Wesley I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough Without ever having felt sorry for itself. -- D.H. Lawrence

Wish people would just use it rather than just acknowledging its existence..... __________________________________________________________ The greatest risk is not taking one

Thanks to both of you. I tried http://home.eunet.no/%7Epnordahl/ntpasswd/ and resetted the passwords (which were, as I expected, blank) but that did not change the result. From what I read in Microsoft's support website this might have to do with a mismatch between the domain name and something else (I'm no techie as you'll have gathered). I went to recovery console and renamed the sam file. Now I am struggling with an lsass.exe error message (error status 0xc0000001) explaining that the security accounts manager has failed and suggesting to reboot into safe mode. Problem is this appears also in safe mode... I'm stuck. Any suggestions?