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Cannot get into XP

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5 replies

by red dragoon

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I'm working on an XP Pro computer. The guy who had this job before me uprgraded a customer's computer from ME to XP Pro. Now when I start up the computer, it asks for a password for the user Mike. No matter what I enter, it says that the 'specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.' The catch here is that there is no NIC in the computer and there does not appear to be a domain set up. When I press ctrl-atl-del, there is no domain field, just username and password. Is theresome way to bypass this or turn it off. I just need to know how to get into XP without getting rid of the user's files. I don't care about the programs.

5 replies

by riestg

You should be able to log in with a user name of Administrator. You should be able to leave the password field blank.

by deadly ernest

I gather that there is data etc on the system that you wish to save. If so the best answer is to remove the hard drive and place it in another pc as the slave and copy the data off it.

Then replace the hard drive in the original pc and reformat and rebuild the system. Then copy the data back.

The quick answer is go to the tech republic page on password cracking programs (forgotten its url but a search should find it) and download a program to find the user or administrator passwords for you. This should give you access but may leave other special settings etc in the system.

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