Strange Lockout on WinXP Pro

  • Thread starter Thread starter ggg
  • Start date Start date
G

ggg

Hi,

I wonder if anyone has run into this one before, and point me towards
some information on how to fix it.


Here at work, one of my computers with Windows XP Pro is not letting
me log in and claims it can not reach a domain when I try. There is no
domain in its network and never was. It is only a member of a small
workgroup. Interestingly the name of the domain, which it claims not
able to reach, is actually the name of the computer itsself.

The first thing I need to be able to do is log in and fix what is
broken or some way of fixing the data on its disks using an other
computer. I'm not sure what I would actually have to fix or what needs
looking at.



Thank you for the bandwidth,

t.d.
 
I don't like the sound of that. Try booting into Safe Mode to see if that
makes a difference though I tend to doubt that it will. It seems the
computer thinks it is a member of a domain which could be due to operating
system corruption or malware. If you can access it remotely from another
computer try using Computer Management [action - connect to another
computer] to view it's security/application/system logs for anything that
may help and you would need to logon to the remote computer as the local
administrator on your locked out computer. I would tend to think this is a
compromised computer and to take appropriate action such as backing up
needed data [hopefully none is EFS encrypted] and rebuilding the computer
and taking steps to hopefully minimize future problems. Other than EFS
encrypted files you can place that computers hard drive into another
computer as a secondary/slave drive to access data files for backup and if
you do that I would first scan that drive for viruses. --- Steve

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxpsp2/Default.mspx
-- Protect Your PC tips
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/support/checklist/default.mspx ---
small business security guidance.
 
Hi Steve,

Thanks for the kind words...

I've already tried most of what you suggest.

I've also tried getting into the machine using live systems from
Ubuntu Linux (5.04 & 5.10). Ubuntu freezes after several minutes of
setting itsself up. On all other computers, which I have tested, the
live systems boot just fine. I personally tend to towards a problem
with the disk hardware, which has caused partial corruption of the
"main" harddisk.

I'll have to try a rebuild of Windows XP from scratch, which I had
hoped to avoid.

Thank you,

t.d.
 
I'm now reading files from the harddisk using a linux live system!

Where can I find the various XP Pro system logs (events, errors,
etc.)?


t.d.
 
The event logs are .evt files are in the \windows\system32\config folder but
I tend to doubt you will see anything useful in them with what you are
using. Take a look at Bart's PE where you use your copy of XP to built a
bootable cdrom of XP for troubleshooting. Another thing to try is to copy
the contents of the \windows\repair folder to the \windows\system32\config
folder AFTER backing up the contents of the \windows\system32\config folder
somewhere else just in case you need some of it. --- Steve

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ --- Bart's PE
 
I looked at the files in windows\system32\config but they all look
like binary data. I'm not going to waste time figuring out the format
of these files.

I'll now just rebuild my system fronm scratch. Thanks to Samba and the
Linux live system, I have rescued my really important data.

Thanks for your time.

t.d.
 
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