Andy Lacey
andy at minstersystems.co.uk
Tue Jul 8 05:33:40 CDT 2003
Cross-posted to AccessD and dba-tech Thanks to Bryan Carbonnell I have a working PC again. I and my son (whose machine it is) are eternally grateful not just to Bryan but to all who helped or lent moral support. The DBA community strikes again. For anyone interested in what it was please strt by reading my reply to Bert-Jan below. This describes it but the problem was how to resolve it as I needed to get at the registry but with no Windows to do so. Bryan had the answer. He pointed me to a Linux boot disk and command-line reg editor that I could download. It scared me to death at first but what did I have to lose? Even then I nearly missed the error. I managed to read the registry hive and get to the appropriate key but it looked correct. Then I spotted it. Userinit.exe is in c:\windows\system32. The registry pointed to c:\windows\system. Rather than risk editing the registry with this utility I simply copied userint.exe into c:\windows\system, restarted and joy-of-joys, I'm in. Hallelujah! Andy Lacey http://www.minstersystems.co.uk PS Sorry to have generated so much OT on the list, but I hope you can understand why. > -----Original Message----- > From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Andy Lacey > Sent: 08 July 2003 10:24 > To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'; > dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com > Subject: [dba-Tech] RE: [AccessD] OT W2K Help!!!!!! > > > Cross-posted to AccessD and dba-tech > > Hi Bert-Jan > Thanks for your help. > > Yes I tried to login as administrator, but the same occurs. > And I now know it's not a password issue. The symptoms are > exactly as described in > http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;249321 > "After you try to log on to your Windows 2000-based computer > by using a valid user name and password, the Loading your > personal settings dialog box is displayed, followed by the > Saving your settings dialog box. However, the desktop does > not appear, and the Welcome to Windows logon screen is > displayed again" > > Essentially it seems to be that the file userinit.exe is in > one place but the registry is pointing to it in a different > place. I can now access the C: drive (it is fat32) via a > newer DOS disk, and the userinit.exe file is in > c:\windows\system32. That leaves me with the question of how > to interrorgate a W2K registry when I can't get W2k started. > And I have no other W2K machines and I'm not on a network. > Any of you kind and wonderful people any idea on that one? > > Andy Lacey > http://www.minstersystems.co.uk > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of > > Bert-Jan Brinkhuis > > Sent: 08 July 2003 10:11 > > To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving > > Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT W2K Help!!!!!! > > > > > > Andy, > > > > just some suggestions: > > > > - did you try loggin in as administrator? > > > > Are you using any security policies? Is C formatted as NTFS? > > (i think so when your dos boot disk doesn't see C:) We had > > soemthing of the same and the users couldn't log in because > > they were not granted access to 'personal settings' and thus > > could not log in..... And administrator could > > > > - Is any of the data in the windows system folders? (Windows, > > Winnt, my documents. My ...)? > > > > Because if it isn't you might consider the reinstall.... i > > had a problem reinstalling once, couldn't even startup the PC > > anymore. Someone asked me the same and said if i reinstalled > > there might be the possiblilty windows will instal over the > > same folders as it did before and the data might be accessed > > after reinstalling. Since that was my only option (recovering > > the data was far too expensive for a home pc) i tried it and > > all my data was accessable...! No guarantee this will work > > for you aswell... ;-) > > > > HTH > > > > Bert-Jan > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Andy Lacey" <andy at minstersystems.co.uk> > > To: "'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'" > > <accessd at databaseadvisors.com> > > Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 10:03 PM > > Subject: [AccessD] OT W2K Help!!!!!! > > > > > > > Would have posted to the new tech list but not sure how > many are on > > > that yet and this is a bit desperate. > > > > > > Have just finished upgrading my son's PC from W98SE to W2K > > so that he > > > can attach the iPod I just bought him. Fairly easy until it > > booted in > > > W2K for the first time. It asked me for a single password > > to use for > > > the existing account and for the new administrator account it has > > > created. I used my son's name and it took it fine, except > > that now I > > > can't log on at all. It kinda knows 'tom' (for so it is) > is correct > > > because when I enter that it takes it but just comes > > straight back to > > > ask for it again, whereas anything else I type gets rejected as > > > invalid. But a lot of b****y good that is when I can't get > > in. Reboot > > > after reboot, still no joy. Caps on, caps off. What on > > earth can I do? > > > I've scanned the web but software to crack W2K passwords > > has a price > > > around $2-300!!!! Help!!!! > > > > > > Andy Lacey > > > http://www.minstersystems.co.uk > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > AccessD mailing list > > > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > > > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > > AccessD mailing list > > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/a> ccessd > > Website: > > http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/a> ccessd > Website: > http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > _______________________________________________ > dba-Tech mailing list > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/d> ba-tech > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com >