Vista - Help Security Account Problem

Hi, I moved my computer (Vista Business x32) from a domain (no longer available) to my work group. My domain account had local admin privileges on the machine so I was able to move the machine from the domain to the local work group (domain, admin, domain admin account are all gone). However, I forgot to create a local machine account before I rebooted and now I can't log in at all. Any ideas how I can log in or would I need to reinstall the OS? Thanks in advance for all your help, Feeling like a genius.

This is just a guess, but what about disconnecting the network cable, and then logging in to the domain, normally? While the domain does not actually exist, I believe Vista will use its cached credentials.

I have seen this work with domains as old as NT, but Vista may have "fixed" this. Good luck.

Thanks Rand. Actually, I was in the cached domain mode (as I mentioned in the original call for help the domain's gone) when I moved it to a work group. Seems now I have an OS in a workgroup without an account. It should be smart enough to detect a situation like that and not allow a machine to be moved to a work group unless local machine accounts (preferrably at least one admin) exist. http://www.vistax64.com/images/smilies/sad.gif The only way I can think of is to restore it to the last good restore point before changing from domain to work group and I'll need to log in to do that ...... http://www.vistax64.com/images/smilies/redface.gif

I see the whole picture now. Sorry for the lame suggestion.

I may be about make another lame suggestion, but how about the tapping F8 during boot up, and choosing the menu item for the last known good congifuration? Also, can't you do a system restore from the Safe Mode Console (again, in the F8 start up menu)?

You can try to disconnect the network cable at time when you try to login. And then reconnect it when you have logged back in.

Thanks! Tried that, hoping against hope. Last known good config is for hardware/drivers malfunction when something changes so it doesn't help me. Safe mode console wanted me to provide an admin pwd or reset it using a diskette or floppy device and i have neither. Hence feeling like a genius.

Thanks Tanuj. I can't log in. Period. The machine's already in the work group, so my domain account (cached or not) with local admin privileges is gone and I never created a local account prior to moving it to the work group.

Well, I guess you could mount your drive in another Vista computer and pull the data off. No password should be required for that.

Have you tried the Ultimate Boot CD? It is a free boot CD ISO that has all kinds of recovery tools in it. Google the words in bold to find it.

Thanks a million Rand and Tanuj for trying to help. My plan was to mount the drive in another machine to pull off data in case I had to reinstall the OS. I just didn't want to spend the time if I could avoid it. I found a couple of very useful links, reproduced here in case anyone ever needs it: PS: Forgotten/Lost Administrator Password - Windows All Offline NT Password & Registry Editor Both refer to the same (linux) tool. The first URL does a better job of explaining the steps while the second URL is the actual site for the tool. I was able to create a bootable USB drive, boot off of it (you can create a bootable CD if your bios doesn't support booting off USB) and I was done in a matter of minutes. Turned out to be a life saver. I am going to check out the Ultimate Bood CD for the next time I get myself in a mess. Thanks a lot once again.

Just checked out the Ultimate Boot CD web site. It uses the same tool for password resets as the one I mentioned in my previous post. Thanks again.