Can no longer log on in safe mode

  • Thread starter Thread starter LAS
  • Start date Start date
L

LAS

Last night I was booting up in safe mode repeatedly. Then I was suddenly no
longer able to logon on. It wouldn't accept any username password
combination. (I could have messed things up by shutting down with the
button at a wrong time.) The default username that's displayed in the
dialogue box must have changed because it has no domain, whereas the
password I was using successfully requires a domain.

I have tried these things:

"administrator"
<the password for admin that I've had taped to my laptop for years -
haven't tried it for years, but haven't changed it either>

<domain I use for normal logons>\<Name I use for normal logons>
<passowrd I use for normal logons>

<original username>
<my guess at my original standard password>

Is there anything I can do to get back the ability to log on in safe mode?

TIA
LAS
 
You could first ensure that the "Administrator" account still exists, type
the following into the "Run" box on the Start Menu :

lusrmgr.msc

....and press [ok]...

When the "Local Users and Groups" console opens, look under "Users" for the
"Administrator" entry, and after double-clicking on "Administrator", check
to see that the account is not disabled.

If it has been disabled, uncheck the box "Account is disabled" to re-enable
it.

Close the dialogue by pressing [ok] to save your settings and exit the
"Local Users and Groups" console.

In case this the problem is not with the integrity of the "Administrator"
profile, I will continue to look for alternative possible causes...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
 
Out of curiosity, how does one access the "Run" box in the Start Menu if
they can't get past the login screen?

Tim Meddick said:
You could first ensure that the "Administrator" account still exists, type
the following into the "Run" box on the Start Menu :

lusrmgr.msc

...and press [ok]...

When the "Local Users and Groups" console opens, look under "Users" for
the "Administrator" entry, and after double-clicking on "Administrator",
check to see that the account is not disabled.

If it has been disabled, uncheck the box "Account is disabled" to
re-enable it.

Close the dialogue by pressing [ok] to save your settings and exit the
"Local Users and Groups" console.

In case this the problem is not with the integrity of the "Administrator"
profile, I will continue to look for alternative possible causes...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




LAS said:
Last night I was booting up in safe mode repeatedly. Then I was suddenly
no longer able to logon on. It wouldn't accept any username password
combination. (I could have messed things up by shutting down with the
button at a wrong time.) The default username that's displayed in the
dialogue box must have changed because it has no domain, whereas the
password I was using successfully requires a domain.

I have tried these things:

"administrator"
<the password for admin that I've had taped to my laptop for years -
haven't tried it for years, but haven't changed it either>

<domain I use for normal logons>\<Name I use for normal logons>
<passowrd I use for normal logons>

<original username>
<my guess at my original standard password>

Is there anything I can do to get back the ability to log on in safe
mode?

TIA
LAS
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
LAS said:
Last night I was booting up in safe mode repeatedly. Then I was suddenly no
longer able to logon on. It wouldn't accept any username password
combination. (I could have messed things up by shutting down with the
button at a wrong time.) The default username that's displayed in the
dialogue box must have changed because it has no domain, whereas the
password I was using successfully requires a domain.

I have tried these things:

"administrator"
<the password for admin that I've had taped to my laptop for years -
haven't tried it for years, but haven't changed it either>

<domain I use for normal logons>\<Name I use for normal logons>
<passowrd I use for normal logons>

<original username>
<my guess at my original standard password>

Is there anything I can do to get back the ability to log on in safe mode?

TIA
LAS
Click to expand...

Make a backup of the disk first. I back up my laptop, using a Linux LiveCD,
an external USB2 hard drive enclosure, and the "dd" command. By booting Linux,
it doesn't matter how broken the hard drive is on the laptop, I can copy it.
It also gives me "bare metal recovery", in the sense that the laptop drive
can be completely erased, and I can put the image I made back, with one
dd command.

Once you've done your backup, for safety, then, well, have fun...

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

With the backup in hand, and the external disk disconnected, it doesn't
matter how wrong your experiments go, you can always get back to where
you were. Cost is $100 for the external drive, and the download time
for your Linux LiveCD (Ubuntu for example). I have a stack of Linux
CDs now, and continue to test new OSes, when I find them (currently
working on Solaris, but that one isn't looking good).

Paul
 
This sounds so "Linux" based. Can't I use any CD(s???) with an external
drive? How many CD's would I need to backup my whole system? I really,
really like the idea of backing up my whole system, but I suspect there may
be assumptions in your response that a luddite like myself isn't picking up.
 
I ran this (from being logged on in standard mode.... to "pip"), and the
Administrator account is there and not disabled.

Tim Meddick said:
You could first ensure that the "Administrator" account still exists, type
the following into the "Run" box on the Start Menu :

lusrmgr.msc

...and press [ok]...

When the "Local Users and Groups" console opens, look under "Users" for
the "Administrator" entry, and after double-clicking on "Administrator",
check to see that the account is not disabled.

If it has been disabled, uncheck the box "Account is disabled" to
re-enable it.

Close the dialogue by pressing [ok] to save your settings and exit the
"Local Users and Groups" console.

In case this the problem is not with the integrity of the "Administrator"
profile, I will continue to look for alternative possible causes...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




LAS said:
Last night I was booting up in safe mode repeatedly. Then I was suddenly
no longer able to logon on. It wouldn't accept any username password
combination. (I could have messed things up by shutting down with the
button at a wrong time.) The default username that's displayed in the
dialogue box must have changed because it has no domain, whereas the
password I was using successfully requires a domain.

I have tried these things:

"administrator"
<the password for admin that I've had taped to my laptop for years -
haven't tried it for years, but haven't changed it either>

<domain I use for normal logons>\<Name I use for normal logons>
<passowrd I use for normal logons>

<original username>
<my guess at my original standard password>

Is there anything I can do to get back the ability to log on in safe
mode?

TIA
LAS
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
LAS said:
This sounds so "Linux" based. Can't I use any CD(s???) with an external
drive? How many CD's would I need to backup my whole system? I really,
really like the idea of backing up my whole system, but I suspect there may
be assumptions in your response that a luddite like myself isn't picking up.
Click to expand...

You're perfectly free to use commercial software. I'm a cheap skate,
which is why my solutions don't cost money (for the software). Visit
the Acronis site, or using your search engine, look for terms like
"bare metal recovery" so you get the right kind of backup software.
Bare metal recovery means, even if your boot drive is erased, you're
supposed to be able to put your computer back together again.

You can even get certain versions of Acronis for free. For example,
say you buy a Seagate hard drive. Seagate has backup/transfer software
available for download from their web site. It likely checks, to see
that at least one of the hard drives involved is a Seagate drive.
A user manual is also available for download, and the Acronis brand
is mentioned in there. A reason I might not push this solution,
is reading the manual to find a sector by sector backup option,
might take me half an hour of reading. The manual is thick, like
all backup manuals. I hate stuff like that. With dd, I do

dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb

as a minimal command from a Linux terminal window as root, and I can
go make coffee. Additional work and parameters are needed, to enhance
transfer rate. The bare command does 13MB/sec, and if you provide
block size and block count parameters, the transfer rate jumps to
about 3x that amount (and with USB2 hard drives, the USB2 cable
is the limit, at 30MB/sec).

Some would ask "why don't you do file by file backup" ? I'm
a simple guy, and that one command above, captures everything
visible on the disk. I get a copy of the MBR, a copy of the
63 sector area that might be hiding a grub boot loader, a
copy of dynamic disk parameters hiding up near the end of the
disk and so on. Sure, a commercial backup program may capture
all the information as well, and, in a more efficient way,
beating my solution hands down. I like the simplicity of my
solution. I *do* have to read the manual page for dd, to
understand how it works, but it's pretty simple after that.

If you enjoy backup manuals, well, that's OK too. I remember
buying a copy of Retrospect years ago, and it took me two days
of solid reading and experimenting, before I got my first
backup done. That included, scripting all the partitions
(20 of them), so they'd get done in one shot. I let it go,
came back much later, and two out of twenty backups failed.
Meaning, I couldn't even trust it to complete the job on its
own. And I really liked Retrospect, because you could
open an archive, and get at individual files. There was
a fair time investment, to understand it. And more time
wasted, figuring out why two of the twenty backups failed.

The two things that will stop "dd" are disk errors, and
running out of space. Otherwise, I can go make coffee.

There are a ton of backup programs out there. In fact,
some of the external hard drives you can buy, have a
backup program stored on the drive when you take it out
of its box.

Paul
 
I was under the impression that the OP could boot normally without any
problems.

And that the problem he had was that he could no longer boot into
Safe-Mode.

That when he started the PC in Safe-Mode he could not logon using any
combinations of usernames and passwords.

I was asking the OP to check whilst in normal mode, that the
"Administrator" account is functional - i.e. that it still exists (has not
been erased) or is not in a disabled state.

This can be checked by using the "Local Users and Groups" Microsoft
Management Console [lusrmgr.msc] and can be re-enabled from there if that
was the problem.

The PC can only be started in Safe-Mode using the "Administrator" account,
so if it is has been damaged somehow or otherwise disabled, Safe-Mode will
be unavailable.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




pjp said:
Out of curiosity, how does one access the "Run" box in the Start Menu if
they can't get past the login screen?

Tim Meddick said:
You could first ensure that the "Administrator" account still exists,
type the following into the "Run" box on the Start Menu :

lusrmgr.msc

...and press [ok]...

When the "Local Users and Groups" console opens, look under "Users" for
the "Administrator" entry, and after double-clicking on "Administrator",
check to see that the account is not disabled.

If it has been disabled, uncheck the box "Account is disabled" to
re-enable it.

Close the dialogue by pressing [ok] to save your settings and exit the
"Local Users and Groups" console.

In case this the problem is not with the integrity of the
"Administrator" profile, I will continue to look for alternative
possible causes...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




LAS said:
Last night I was booting up in safe mode repeatedly. Then I was
suddenly no longer able to logon on. It wouldn't accept any username
password combination. (I could have messed things up by shutting down
with the button at a wrong time.) The default username that's
displayed in the dialogue box must have changed because it has no
domain, whereas the password I was using successfully requires a
domain.

I have tried these things:

"administrator"
<the password for admin that I've had taped to my laptop for years -
haven't tried it for years, but haven't changed it either>

<domain I use for normal logons>\<Name I use for normal logons>
<passowrd I use for normal logons>

<original username>
<my guess at my original standard password>

Is there anything I can do to get back the ability to log on in safe
mode?

TIA
LAS
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
For further investigation, I would try logging into your "Administrator"
account (in normal mode) to test it out.

As I mentioned in my reply to "pjp", the only account capable of being
started in Safe-Mode is the "Administrator" account, so it is essential
that this profile is in a working state.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




LAS said:
I ran this (from being logged on in standard mode.... to "pip"), and the
Administrator account is there and not disabled.

Tim Meddick said:
You could first ensure that the "Administrator" account still exists,
type the following into the "Run" box on the Start Menu :

lusrmgr.msc

...and press [ok]...

When the "Local Users and Groups" console opens, look under "Users" for
the "Administrator" entry, and after double-clicking on "Administrator",
check to see that the account is not disabled.

If it has been disabled, uncheck the box "Account is disabled" to
re-enable it.

Close the dialogue by pressing [ok] to save your settings and exit the
"Local Users and Groups" console.

In case this the problem is not with the integrity of the
"Administrator" profile, I will continue to look for alternative
possible causes...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




LAS said:
Last night I was booting up in safe mode repeatedly. Then I was
suddenly no longer able to logon on. It wouldn't accept any username
password combination. (I could have messed things up by shutting down
with the button at a wrong time.) The default username that's
displayed in the dialogue box must have changed because it has no
domain, whereas the password I was using successfully requires a
domain.

I have tried these things:

"administrator"
<the password for admin that I've had taped to my laptop for years -
haven't tried it for years, but haven't changed it either>

<domain I use for normal logons>\<Name I use for normal logons>
<passowrd I use for normal logons>

<original username>
<my guess at my original standard password>

Is there anything I can do to get back the ability to log on in safe
mode?

TIA
LAS
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
The PC can only be started in Safe-Mode using the "Administrator"
account, so if it is has been damaged somehow or otherwise disabled,
Safe-Mode will be unavailable.
Click to expand...

That is not true - I regularly log in to an arbitrary account in Safe
Mode. In fact, I disable the Administrator account completely on
systems I administer (after setting up an account with admin
privileges, of course). Safe Mode woks just fine with any account -
limited users included.

--
Zaphod

Arthur: All my life I've had this strange feeling that there's
something big and sinister going on in the world.
Slartibartfast: No, that's perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the
universe gets that.
 
Tim Meddick said:
For further investigation, I would try logging into your
"Administrator" account (in normal mode) to test it out.

As I mentioned in my reply to "pjp", the only account capable of
being started in Safe-Mode is the "Administrator" account, so it is
essential that this profile is in a working state.
Click to expand...

And as I mentioned in my reply to your reply to pjp, that is not
true - I regularly log in to an arbitrary account in Safe Mode. In
fact, I disable the Administrator account completely on systems I
administer (after setting up an account with admin privileges, of
course). Safe Mode woks just fine with any account - limited users
included.

--
Zaphod

Arthur: All my life I've had this strange feeling that there's
something big and sinister going on in the world.
Slartibartfast: No, that's perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the
universe gets that.
 
I seriously doubted that it was the only account capable of being started
in Safe-Mode, but was assured that it was (at some time, forgotten quite
what it was)...

I did try to do some extra research on the subject before I made my
statements, but got no clear answer (some mentioned starting in "a
Administrator-level" account, still others said "Administrator" was the
one).
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=e...ODE+using+an+account+other+than+Administrator

I guess my original information source was skewed, and I'm entirely sorry
that I did not spend more time researching it,

Thankyou for your diligence in pointing out the error that I now know it
undoubtedly was.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
 
Now that we're all in agreement that an administrator account is not
required to log in to safe mode, does anyone have any ideas about why NONE
of my accounts can be used to log into safe mode?

TIA
LAS
 
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