I did an upgrade from an OEM XP Home Edition. I bought the XP Pro upgrade and did the install. After several install attempts, the upgrade finally completed and took me to the "Setup Pro" page, where I answered questions about did I want to set up an internet connection, want to register, etc. During this process, a prompt asked me who will be using the computer. I put in my name and my wife's name. After a few minutes, up came the Windows login page with my name and the wife's name showing w/icons next to the names. In the Home edition we both had PW's set. When I clicked my name, I was prompted to enter a PW. I tried the one I was using w/Home XP. Unfortunately, I got an error saying that I could not be logged on to the domain it was unrecognized, etc. I tried the wife's and the same result.
After calling MS and them trying several things with me, their only recourse is for me to do a system recovery from the CD that shipped w/the computer. When I start that process, the recovery wants to reformat and create C: and D: drives and therefore all my data is lost.
The one option that MS used to try and help was for me to look in my setupact.log and look for the line "Random password for user xxxxx..." etc. That is found in KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;318026
I looked in setupact.log file (suggested in the previously mentioned KB article) and no such line about a "Random password...." etc is in there. I even copied the setupact.log file to a floppy and went to my wife's desktop computer and used windows search for the words (in notepad) and the words random, password, nor administrator appear. [As mentioned earlier, I had trouble with the install and several attempts at the install were made -- so in the KB article it mentions about random PW's being assigned when XP install doesn't complete.]
I've also tried logging on in safe mode and the login screen comes up w/an administrator account and my name account. However, hitting enter (w/out a PW) or no password I try works to let me in as administrator.
I don't want to lose my data, since I don't have anyway of saving my data to a mass sotrage device (w/out paying for it). Can anyone help me? Is there not a file or directory that stores PW's in XP Pro that can be deleted and then the upgrade disk be used to do a reinstall and in hopes that random Passwords would not be assigned again?
Please respond as soon as possible and thank you in advance.
After calling MS and them trying several things with me, their only recourse is for me to do a system recovery from the CD that shipped w/the computer. When I start that process, the recovery wants to reformat and create C: and D: drives and therefore all my data is lost.
The one option that MS used to try and help was for me to look in my setupact.log and look for the line "Random password for user xxxxx..." etc. That is found in KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;318026
I looked in setupact.log file (suggested in the previously mentioned KB article) and no such line about a "Random password...." etc is in there. I even copied the setupact.log file to a floppy and went to my wife's desktop computer and used windows search for the words (in notepad) and the words random, password, nor administrator appear. [As mentioned earlier, I had trouble with the install and several attempts at the install were made -- so in the KB article it mentions about random PW's being assigned when XP install doesn't complete.]
I've also tried logging on in safe mode and the login screen comes up w/an administrator account and my name account. However, hitting enter (w/out a PW) or no password I try works to let me in as administrator.
I don't want to lose my data, since I don't have anyway of saving my data to a mass sotrage device (w/out paying for it). Can anyone help me? Is there not a file or directory that stores PW's in XP Pro that can be deleted and then the upgrade disk be used to do a reinstall and in hopes that random Passwords would not be assigned again?
Please respond as soon as possible and thank you in advance.