Active Domain gurus, I need help

[El Cazador]

New job, new laptop. This company is the largest by far I've ever worked for, and as such, their networking is far beyond me. Here's the deal:

I needed a printer to print some expense reports, but I'm a field guy, and the closest office is six hours away from me right now. So, I thought I would allow the work laptop to join my little workgroup at home and use my networked printer. I've done it before ...so I allowed the laptop to use the networking wizard to join my workgroup, and it needed to reboot to finish. That was the start of the problem. When it started back up and asked for the username and password, nothing would work. The really odd thing is that I have no drop down box to pick a domain to join or change to now. So I'm stuck with a work laptop I can't access, and I have only very limited access to e-mail from my personal laptop. I REALLY need to get into the servers for my files to update them. I've got a request into IT, but getting a timely response from them is like turning the SS Queen Elizabeth around on a dime.

Any help? I could sure use some. This stuff is too far above me to fix it quickly. I can bribe with reps, if necessary...

 

[gmviso]

I hate to tell you this, but you are screwed unless someone will give you the "Local Administrator" password. If you get that you could log on to the computer but I doubt your IT organization will tell it to you.

 

[Cwood]

Reboot and try to start in safe mode, if it will roll it back.

 

[HICKMAN]

what you ended up doing was removing that machine from the domain, blowing away your cached AD profile.

You'll have to get your domain admin to add it back.

If you HAVE to access your machine before they can do that:


do you have another machine that you can access the internet with and burn a CD?

EBCD: System Recovery Boot CD

You can burn the disk, boot from it and change the local admin password.


As an IT guy, I'd rather you take it back to work and let them do it.

 

[El Cazador]

I hate to tell you this, but you are screwed unless someone will give you the "Local Administrator" password. If you get that you could log on to the computer but I doubt your IT organization will tell it to you.

Yeah, I'm concerned that might be the roadblock here. I hoping that between my market manager and the fact our laptops are assigned to us individually with very strongly worded threats of ex-communication if we even look at each other's laptops, they MIGHT tell me that password.

Reboot and try to start in safe mode, if it will roll it back.

I've tried all the safe mode restarts, and none have helped. There's really nothing wrong with Windows, and the log on window still comes up without a domain choice.

 

[El Cazador]

do you have another machine that you can access the internet with and burn a CD?

Yep, I'm using my personal one right now

 

[Scutter01]

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor


This little guy will help you reset your local admin password...

 

[El Cazador]

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor


This little guy will help you reset your local admin password...

Emmm, the machine's using XP Pro, and I have a bunch of EFS files on here. Doesn't look like that will work, unless I missed something.

 

[Cwood]

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor


This little guy will help you reset your local admin password...

Emmm, the machine's using XP Pro, and I have a bunch of EFS files on here. Doesn't look like that will work, unless I missed something.

I have used that software before, it does work.

It will work on a XP Pro Machine

 

[El Cazador]

I have used that software before, it does work.

It will work on a XP Pro Machine

It uses an encryption program for the hard disk, and I have some encrypted files on board that I don't know if they are tied to the local admin password or not, or what might happen if I uploaded them to the server, and they were changed. So far, I kinda like this job. If it would tell me what the password was before it allowed me to change it, that would be nice.

 

[El Cazador]

what you ended up doing was removing that machine from the domain, blowing away your cached AD profile.

You'll have to get your domain admin to add it back.

If you HAVE to access your machine before they can do that:


do you have another machine that you can access the internet with and burn a CD?

EBCD: System Recovery Boot CD

You can burn the disk, boot from it and change the local admin password.


As an IT guy, I'd rather you take it back to work and let them do it.

I'm afraid that's what it's going to take, which means a day out of my week, and a drive to Louisville possibly or Pittsburgh probably. I'll see what the IT gurus say tomorrow sometime.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

What ever happens... Just be honest and forthright with them.

"I was hoping to be able to print this stuff from home since I wasn't issued a printer!"

Next time, try a direct connection with your home printer...save some headache.

-J-

 

[Feign]

Yeah workgroups are misleading. You could have just pinged the sharing computer's IP address, or connected directly to the printer if it's wireless/wired directly to the network.

And while you're on the phone with the IT staff, ask them why in the hell they allow disjoining the domain without proper credentials, let alone making someone a local admin. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

[El Cazador]

Yeah workgroups are misleading. You could have just pinged the sharing computer's IP address, or connected directly to the printer if it's wireless/wired directly to the network.

And while you're on the phone with the IT staff, ask them why in the hell they allow disjoining the domain without proper credentials, let alone making someone a local admin. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

In my best (and still weakest) defense, I was being lazy, and Windows led me by the hand down that rosy path. I mean, Windows/Microsoft wouldn't allow anything bad to happen, right? I should have just pinged the printer (and I did plan to), but...I didn't. (where's that Russian Roulette smiley?)

I highly doubt they'll allow me local admin rights, even for a moment. Realistically, I'm looking at a drive from Ft Wayne to Louisville, then back home to Indy to straighten this out. Beats driving to Pittsburgh and back. I'm just waiting on IT to confirm they won't allow me local admin rights.

 

[Cwood]

This thread makes me happy that I have admin rights at our site.