Missing/corrupted admin accounts

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I am working on a Dell laptop that belongs to a friend of mine. She has a
history of deleting folders she doesn't think she needs (can't cuss at her
enough, it'll never stop!) Somehow she managed to end up with all of the
Admin accounts corrupted or missing. It was actually to the point that the
only User that would get past the login would fail afterwards and it would
load setting from "TEMP" user.

Anyway, the problem is that the only user left that will log in has the
lowest permissions level possible which means I can't do anything to correct
the problems. I actually managed to use the "Backup" utility to restore
enough of the one user that works so that it no longer fails and accesses the
"TEMP" user

There are two different accounts that had Admin status, both of these say
"access denied" if you clink on the folders, but if you just hold the cursor
over the icon there is a popup that says "empty", both of them.

I really don't know how she managed to delete all of this stuff in the first
place, but it has really left a can of worms behind. As I said before, the
low permission level on the one working user means that you can't do anything
about fixing the problem.

Any good ideas out there?
 
remihome said:
I am working on a Dell laptop that belongs to a friend of mine. She has a
history of deleting folders she doesn't think she needs (can't cuss at her
enough, it'll never stop!) Somehow she managed to end up with all of the
Admin accounts corrupted or missing. It was actually to the point that the
only User that would get past the login would fail afterwards and it would
load setting from "TEMP" user.

Anyway, the problem is that the only user left that will log in has the
lowest permissions level possible which means I can't do anything to
correct
the problems. I actually managed to use the "Backup" utility to restore
enough of the one user that works so that it no longer fails and accesses
the
"TEMP" user

There are two different accounts that had Admin status, both of these say
"access denied" if you clink on the folders, but if you just hold the
cursor
over the icon there is a popup that says "empty", both of them.

I really don't know how she managed to delete all of this stuff in the
first
place, but it has really left a can of worms behind. As I said before, the
low permission level on the one working user means that you can't do
anything
about fixing the problem.

Any good ideas out there?
Click to expand...

If it's XP Pro, do a repair install, password protect the built-in Admin
account with a really strong password that she doesn't know, then use group
Policy to deny her user access to EVERYTHING except her "My Documents"
folder!
 
It is XP Pro and I should have listed the things I have tried already, but
the list is pretty long and I'm not sure I even remember everything I did.
I did try to repair install, can't do it without Admin permissions. Just one
of many things you can't do.
I was hoping somebody knew of a way to change the one working user to Admin
permissions.
It looks to me like it will probably have to wiped clean and start over

Thanks
 
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