Help - Can't log in after changing from domain to workgroup

Dave Mehi

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Oct 31, 2002, 10:10:00 PM10/31/02

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Hello,

I have a windows 2000 professional laptop workstation. I
used to belong to a domain on my network, but I recently
changed by network settings to belong to a workgroup.
Once I restarted my machine, it won't let me log into
windows 2000 at all! The error says wrong user name or
domain. For some reason, I think it's trying to access
the domain - even though I don't belong to it anymore.
Even when I'm not connnected to the network, I cannot log
into windows 2000 at all. How can I get into windows
2000? How can I change this?!

Thanks in advance,

Dave Mehi
dm...@yahoo.com

Robert L

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Oct 31, 2002, 11:05:15 PM10/31/02

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Dave,

You may have two options.

1. Restore the domain on your laptop and re-join the domain.

2. Keep the workgroup settings, but create a domain user account that
matches my win2000 local user account with the same password. You should be
able to access to the network resources. You may want to create a local
logon.bat to map the network and printer.

--
Robert Lin, CNE & MSCE
Free TechSupport, How to and Tips: http://www25.brinkster.com/chicagotech

"Dave Mehi" <dm...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
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Dave Mehi

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Oct 31, 2002, 11:15:39 PM10/31/02

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Thanks Robert for the reply.

Since I can't get into my laptop, how do I restore the
domain on my laptop without logging in? I don't have the
administrative password or anything. My userid password
doesn't work. The error message says "The system could
not log you on. Make sure your user name and domain are
correct ..."

I don't understand my windows 2000 does not let me log
into my own machine - just because I changed from a domain
to a workgroup?

Thanks!

>.
>

Robert L

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Nov 1, 2002, 9:32:50 AM11/1/02

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Dave,

I am confused. If you are not the member of administrators, how can you
change the domain settings? Can you logon local machine name instead of
domain?

Another thought. You may have other two options.

1. Can you have your company administrator help you?

2. If this is home network and since you have the domain, you should have a
server. Can you logon your server? If you can logon server, you should be
able to rejoin the win2000 into the domain.

--
For more information, go to http://www25.brinkster.com/chicagotech.

Robert Lin, CNE & MCSE

Free TechSupport, How to and Tips: http://www25.brinkster.com/chicagotech

"Dave Mehi" <dm...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

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Matt DuBois [MS]

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Nov 1, 2002, 5:57:22 PM11/1/02

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It seems like the following was the sequence of events:
1) You had an account you were logging into the laptop with, that had
administrator rights
2) You did not know the laptop's local Administrator password
3) You disjoined the domain.
4) After reboot you can't log in.

It sounds as if the account you were using in 1) was a domain account. When
you disjoined the domain, that account was no longer valid to log in to the
laptop with, since the laptop was no longer on the domain.

The short of it is that if you don't have the laptop's local Administrator's
password, or the password of a local account on the laptop with
administrative rights, thats pretty much the end of the road unless you have
a recovery disk (and most people don't create one). Without Administrator
rights on the laptop you can't join the domain, or recover the files in your
old user profile (assuming you were using NTFS). You also can't force the
laptop to join the domain without local administrator rights.

This is described in the following article:
Q321305 How to Log On to Windows XP If You Forget Your Password
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q321305

I would suggest that before you reinstall Windows XP as described in the
article, that you first do a "parallel" install to a different directory and
backup all of the files and information you wish to keep.

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"Robert L" <bobl...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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Robert L

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Nov 1, 2002, 10:22:21 PM11/1/02

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Matt,

Thank you for helping me to understand the situation.

Robert Lin, CNE & MCSE
Free TechSupport, How to and Tips: http://www25.brinkster.com/chicagotech

"Matt DuBois [MS]" <mdu...@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
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