You Cannot Log On After You Remove the Computer from the Domain (317049)

SYMPTOMS

After you reconfigure a Windows NT Workstation or Windows NT Server computer to change its membership from a domain to a workgroup, and then you restart the computer, you cannot log on with your previous user name and password, and may receive the following error message:

The system could not log you on. Make sure your user name and domain are correct, then type your password again. Letters in passwords must be typed using the correct case. Make sure that Caps Lock is not accidentally on.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because the user name and password that you previously used are available for logon only to a domain. Your computer is no longer a member of a domain, and therefore your logon attempt must be validated on the local computer by using the local security database. To log on to the computer, you must provide a user name and password that exists in the local computer's user database, or Security Accounts Manager (SAM).

RESOLUTION

Make sure that the local security database on the computer contains the default Administrator account from when the computer was first installed, along with any additional user accounts that have been created, in its local users security settings.

If you do not know your local user account and password, you cannot log on to the computer.

To resolve this issue, use a recent copy of the Windows NT Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) to restore the registry files on your system. This resolution permits you to restore the computer's user database (or SAM) to a version for which you have a correct user name and password.

Note that when you replace the SAM from the ERD, this replaces the user accounts and passwords with those that existed on the date that the ERD was created. Therefore, when you use an account created by this method, you will need to know that account's password on the date that the ERD was created.

Also, depending on the options used during the creation of the ERD (such as whether the /S switch was used or not), the ERD may not include all existing user accounts.

By using the ERD, you are also required to start your computer from either the Windows NT 4.0 CD-ROM or from a boot disk, and to select the Repair option. During the repair process, select only the Registry option in the first window. Later in the repair process, a second window will offer options for which registry hives to repair, and here you need to select the SAM option.

For additional information about ERDs and how to perform an emergency repair in Windows NT, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

156328 Description of Windows NT Emergency Repair Disk

122857 RDISK /S and RDISK /S- Options in Windows NT

WORKAROUND

If you do not have an ERD, you may install a parallel installation of Windows NT as a workaround.

A parallel installation will permit you to log on to the computer by using this installation and therefore gain access to, or copy your files from, the computer. However, this method will not permit you to retrieve either user names or passwords from the original Windows NT installation. After you have backed up all of your files by using the parallel installation, you have the choice to reformat your hard disk and then reinstall Windows NT, or to configure the new parallel installation for your needs and use it instead.

For additional information about how to perform a Windows NT parallel installation, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

259003 How and Why to Perform a Parallel Installation of Windows NT 4.0