User accounts gone!

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MrCoffee

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I have XP pro on my laptop with the default administrator account and guest account, additionally I have the admin account I setup when windows was installed and a limited account.

I was logged into my admin account and enabled fast user switching so i could login to the limited accout as well, seemed ok and it sould have worked as I've done it before ok. However when I logged off and switched users it wouldn't accept my password for the limited account.. i thought fine, the account is locked, so I tried to log back in to my admin account but it wouldn't accept my password for that either!

i'm 100% certain I had the correct passwords but I was left with no choice but to shutdown the machine... upon reboot neither of my accounts presented themselves at the log on screen but both the guest and administrator accounts did (which didn't before).
I logged in as the administrator and went into the users applet and both of my accounts were missing! I tried to recreate one with the same name as before but it said user account already exists.

how do i get my accounts back?
 
Dont worry, I figured it out, topic was probably a bit premature.

i'd just enabled a bunch of security audits and the log had filled up, it was set to only overwrite items over 7 days old so it couldnt overwrite anything and windows saw fit to disable my accounts.

I was able to get back into my admin account by using group policy "force classic logon", expanded the security log and changed the parameter to "overwrite events as needed" and all is well.

:eek:
 
at the log on screen, you could have just pressed ctrl+alt+del a couple of times and then the classic log on screen would have popped up. Then you could have just typed in the username and password and it may have logged you in.
 
It's telling my password is wrong?
I only use 3 passwords or leave it blank for windows and well it's accepting neither...
 
logon to the administrator account, by default there is no password, from there you can change the password for your other account using the user accounts applet in the control panel.

If there is a password on the administrator account and you don't know what that is the check out the sticky thread by warez on this forum for recovering passowords.
 
The default Administrator account doesn't show up in control panel>user accounts, only when you right-click my computer and select manage.
 
scoobywrx said:
In the control panel in the User accounts Applet my correct Admin user account is missing :(

Umm, try using the snapin lusrmgr.msc (type that in the run box) if your account isn't listed under users then its gone. you could try to create a new account with the same name then copy your old profile into the new folder.
 
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