Changed Name & Lost Access

  • Thread starter Thread starter Thomas
  • Start date Start date
T

Thomas

The vendor I bought my workstation from used "Preferred Customer" &
regrettably I tired of it & went into "Users and Passwords" in the Control
Panel on Win 2K Pro & entered my name instead. I checked NO boxes which
would require a password. I rebooted & now I get a log on screen (there was
none before) which when I enter my name, requests a password. Since I chose
none, I can't fabricate one. I CAN get into the O/S by typing
"Administrator" & hitting "Enter" w/o using a password, but I cannot access 5
1/2 years of desktop & other customizations. I can see program files through
"Computer Management" but recouping "Preferred Customer" access and settings
as my boot-up configuration is beyond me.
 
Thomas said:
The vendor I bought my workstation from used "Preferred Customer" &
regrettably I tired of it & went into "Users and Passwords" in the Control
Panel on Win 2K Pro & entered my name instead. I checked NO boxes which
would require a password. I rebooted & now I get a log on screen (there
was
none before) which when I enter my name, requests a password. Since I
chose
none, I can't fabricate one. I CAN get into the O/S by typing
"Administrator" & hitting "Enter" w/o using a password, but I cannot
access 5
1/2 years of desktop & other customizations. I can see program files
through
"Computer Management" but recouping "Preferred Customer" access and
settings
as my boot-up configuration is beyond me.
Click to expand...

Every account has a password, even if it is a blank one. Have you
tried this?

If you can log on under some account then you may be able to access
your files, provided that you have the required privileges. You may need
to seize ownership of your old folders in order to do so. Click Start /
Help and look for help on "Ownership" to see how it's done.

If this fails then you can reset the Administrator's password to a blank
by booting the machine with a boot disk from here:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html. It's scary
stuff but it works.

There is an overall issue here. How many sets of keys do you have
for your car. More than one? Why? How many admin accounts
do you have for your PC? Just the one? Don't know its password?
Why? Planning ahead and creating a second one would permanently
avoid this problem, provided that you lock its details away in a
safe place.

There is another problem too. If you have 5 years worth of files on
this PC without any backup then run a serious riks of losing the
lot some day. A 2.5" disk in an external USB case would make
a low-cost but highly effective backup medium.
 
Dear P:
Thanks for the suggestions. 1) I have all the files backed up on
another SCSI H.drive. in the case (there are 6 hd's w/ XP Pro & Vista Ult
besides the now screwed up Win 2K Pro). 2) There are 2 Administrator accts. &
I have access to both. 3) I know about taking ownership, but that is an
onerous & incomplete way to recoup my settings (desktop, favorites, etc.).
If the original boot screen as "preferred customer" was w/o any password
needing to be entered, how is it that simply changing the name now requires a
log-on screen & password, much less not being able to access/boot onto all
the desktop settings that existed. I was careful NOT to change ANYTHING
other than the name. Even the Computer name stayed the same. How is it
that changing the name both limited access & asked for a password when one
was never created in the first place?
If there is no other fix for the issue, when I get the nerve up, I'll
try the blank eunet site you linked below.
 
Since I cannot see your machine, I cannot tell you exactly
what happened and why. Here are some general pointers:

- The automatic/manual logon process is set in the Control
Panel / Users and Passwords. It is up to you to tick or
untick the check box you find there.
- If you cannot remember a password then you can reset
it (and make a written record of it!) while logged on as
an administrator. Here is one way to achieve this:
* Log on as administrator.
* Click Start / Run / cmd {OK}
* Type this command: net user thomas xxxyyyzzz
where xxxyyyzzz is the new password for the thomas account.
- You still write "when a password was never created in the
first place." As I said before: ***Every*** account has
a password, even if it is just a blank, so let's forget about
passwords that were "never created".
- So far you haven't stated clearly if you can log on as
Administrator or not. This would be a prerequisite for
changing the password for the Thomas account.

About your backup situation: Backing up your files to an
internal disk protects you against about 30% of the usual
mishaps. You're missing out on 70% of them, e.g. theft,
fire, lighting damage, partition/file corruption due to
malfunction and most important, user error. An effective
backup system is one that has the backup medium kept
well away from the main system for most of the time. A disk
in an external USB case meets this requirement.
 
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