Changed from doman to workgroup - login no longer works

  • Thread starter Thread starter haighttrader
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haighttrader

I brought a machine home that was part of a domain and changed it to be part
of my home workgroup. On the first reboot of the machine the login no longer
works. Other than changing from belonging to a domain to belonging to a
workgroup nothing else changed. Is it possible to login or do i have to
reinstall XP
 
haighttrader said:
I brought a machine home that was part of a domain and changed it
to be part of my home workgroup. On the first reboot of the
machine the login no longer works. Other than changing from
belonging to a domain to belonging to a workgroup nothing else
changed. Is it possible to login or do i have to reinstall XP
Click to expand...

A computer cannot (natively) be a part of a domain and a workgroup at the
same time (or multiple workgroups or multiple domains.) What you did was
unwise and obviously unresearched (and you have - as of yet - obviously
still not researched what you have done - or you are pretty bad at Internet
searches. *grin*)

There was no need to remove the machine from the domain/join a workgroup in
order to use the resources your home workgroup offered.

You need to (one of these):
- Obtain the local administrator logon information (this would allow you to
logon and create new accounts or logon and rejoin the domain if it is
available to you where you are and you have rights to join the machine
back.)
- Take the machine back to work and have your system rejoined to the domain
so you can again use your domain credentials to logon (all your stuff is
still there.) I would be surprised if the IT staff allowed you to continue
with administrative rights on the machine in question - so this would be
less likely to occur again.

While you could wipe the machine and start fresh - I do not see that as a
viable option *unless* your "brought a machine home that was part of a
domain" means you are now the sole owner of the machine, it belongs to you
100% and never has to be returned to anyone in anyway. If that is true -
then your first thing to do *should* have been to wipe it and install clean
anyway - so do that. ;-)
 
haighttrader said:
I brought a machine home that was part of a domain and changed it to
be part of my home workgroup. On the first reboot of the machine the
login no longer works. Other than changing from belonging to a
domain to belonging to a workgroup nothing else changed. Is it
possible to login or do i have to reinstall XP
Click to expand...

Is this computer now to remain permenantly part of your home network? If so,
you should "flatten" & reinstall it from scratch anyway. Even though you
know where it's been, it will still retain some "shards" from its previous
incarnation. Best to start over - reinstall the OS and all your needed
applications.

If it's a notebook you'll be taking back into the office, you will need to
have the IT people there rejoin it to the domain. I suggest bringing them
some cookies :-)

There are ways to change the default admin credentials, but that won't get
your old domain user profile back. http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/
 
haighttrader said:
I brought a machine home that was part of a domain and changed it to be part
of my home workgroup. On the first reboot of the machine the login no longer
works. Other than changing from belonging to a domain to belonging to a
workgroup nothing else changed. Is it possible to login or do i have to
reinstall XP
Click to expand...


By changing the computer from the domain to a workgroup, you
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 physically connected to the domain network, you'll need to
have administrative privileges to the workstation, and you'll need to
have sufficient privileges on the domain. Then you can add the machine
back on to the domain, after having first deleted the computer's old
domain account (unless you've also renamed the computer).

Take the computer to your company's IT department for repairs.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
 
Thanks for the help. I have all the privileges but the domain add so i will
have the IT department do the repair. It's a bit of a complicated situation
but the bottom line is that there is no longer a need or requirement for
belonging to the domain as I've switched to a new project that isn't part of
the old, or any domain.
 
haighttrader said:
I brought a machine home that was part of a domain and changed it
to be part of my home workgroup. On the first reboot of the
machine the login no longer works. Other than changing from
belonging to a domain to belonging to a workgroup nothing else
changed. Is it possible to login or do i have to reinstall XP
Click to expand...

For replies:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...rity_admin/browse_frm/thread/cbde3a143f68c220
Thanks for the help. I have all the privileges but the domain add
so i will have the IT department do the repair. It's a bit of a
complicated situation but the bottom line is that there is no
longer a need or requirement for belonging to the domain as I've
switched to a new project that isn't part of the old, or any domain.
Click to expand...

It's not all that complicated.

You probably did not need to be a member of the domain originally in order
to access the resources of said domain (although it may have been simpler
for the tech support and possibly met some of their requirements without
modifying much.)

You definitely did not need to be a member of any given workgroup to access
the resources of said workgroup.

Essentially - it is very possible that your machine was joined to a domain
out of either laziness, convenience or (less likely) some internal
requirements. It is almost surely a fact that you did not need to join any
given workgroup for any reason other than convenience.
 
haighttrader said:
I brought a machine home that was part of a domain and changed it to be part
of my home workgroup. On the first reboot of the machine the login no longer
works. Other than changing from belonging to a domain to belonging to a
workgroup nothing else changed. Is it possible to login or do i have to
reinstall XP
Click to expand...

Do you actually have an account on the local computer? Just because you
had a domain account doesn't mean you have one on your local host (other
than Administrator). Did you try to use the local Administrator account
to login?

When on the login screen, did you use the drop-down listbox to select
your local hostname or was it still selecting the domain name?
 
There is no drop down box at login - it has just filled in my login name
without the domain prepended. My domain login had administrator priviledges,
but i don't know the password for the administrator account. I have been
working for several months prior to my changing to a workgroup membership
without any connectivity to the domain or domain server so i guess i'm not
sure if that is a local account or not.
 
<entire conversation thus far>
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...rity_admin/browse_frm/thread/cbde3a143f68c220


Do you actually have an account on the local computer? Just
because you had a domain account doesn't mean you have one on your
local host (other than Administrator). Did you try to use the
local Administrator account to login?

When on the login screen, did you use the drop-down listbox to
select your local hostname or was it still selecting the domain
name?
Click to expand...
There is no drop down box at login - it has just filled in my login
name without the domain prepended. My domain login had
administrator priviledges, but i don't know the password for the
administrator account. I have been working for several months
prior to my changing to a workgroup membership without any
connectivity to the domain or domain server so i guess i'm not sure
if that is a local account or not.
Click to expand...

There would not be a dropdown box *now* that you removed yourself from the
domain. If things were expanded before that - you would have seen a box
(dropdown) allowing you to choose your domain and one of the choices would
have been the local machine.

You may not know the password for the actual local administrator account -
but the facts are that you have pretty much unlimited physical access to
this machine and you have some time (more than enough anyway) to be able to
reset/blank out/possibly even hack the local administrator password.
(Anyone able to do an Internet search these days can find tools to do this
for a machine such as the one you mentioned having.)

Your ability to work without actually contacting the domain is known as
'cached logon' - the computer remembered your domain credentials and allowed
you to continue using them. It is not - technically - a local account.
Everything *is* stored locally - but it is not classified as an actual local
account.
 
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