Domain Not There Anymore

jonski · 10-02-2010 5:45pm #1

Sometimes I am not sure what the appropriate section is for a thread , this time I am not even sure what the title should be .

Here is the problem :

Brother in law dropped off some pc's at my house for me to have a look at and see if anything could be done with them , they are from a failed business venture . I have the user names and passwords to login to thme but they are all set to login to a a domain ie:Jonski's place ... a domain which is no longer there and when they can't connect to it they refuse to login to the OS . There are 2 os's ( never wrote os's before ) ., windows 2000 on what I assume was the server and win xp on the others .

So , is there any way I can get these to log in to the OS ??

Any help appreciated

JDxtra · 10-02-2010 6:05pm

You would be far better off just wiping them and installing a new OS from scratch. There are ways to reset the local admin password so you can login, but there is probably little point unless you need to retrieve data from them. They should have been securely wiped though before leaving the premises though, especially the server. Data protection laws and all that... I hope I was not a customer of the failed business!!

testicle · 10-02-2010 6:18pm

jonski wrote: »

Sometimes I am not sure what the appropriate section is for a thread , this time I am not even sure what the title should be .

Here is the problem :

Brother in law dropped off some pc's at my house for me to have a look at and see if anything could be done with them , they are from a failed business venture . I have the user names and passwords to login to thme but they are all set to login to a a domain ie:Jonski's place ... a domain which is no longer there and when they can't connect to it they refuse to login to the OS . There are 2 os's ( never wrote os's before ) ., windows 2000 on what I assume was the server and win xp on the others .

So , is there any way I can get these to log in to the OS ??

Any help appreciated

If they are not domain controllers, which it sounds like they're not, just change the "Log on to" on the logon screen.

jonski · 10-02-2010 7:48pm

testicle wrote: »

If they are not domain controllers, which it sounds like they're not, just change the "Log on to" on the logon screen.

I tried that .. didn't work

jonski · 10-02-2010 7:49pm

JDxtra wrote: »

You would be far better off just wiping them and installing a new OS from scratch. There are ways to reset the local admin password so you can login, but there is probably little point unless you need to retrieve data from them. They should have been securely wiped though before leaving the premises though, especially the server. Data protection laws and all that... I hope I was not a customer of the failed business!!

I was hoping to keep the installed OS's intact as I don't have the original disks..... all data has or will be wiped clean .

jamesd · 10-02-2010 8:49pm

Try
username: administrator
password: leave blank
Change domain to the local computer name
and Try and login

JDxtra · 10-02-2010 9:03pm

jamesd wrote: »

Try
username: administrator
password: leave blank
Change domain to the local computer name
and Try and login

Eek! I hope the local admin passwords are not blank. That would be IT security no-no #1!

JDxtra · 10-02-2010 9:08pm

jonski wrote: »

I was hoping to keep the installed OS's intact as I don't have the original disks..... all data has or will be wiped clean .

Its the licence key that is important, not the media. As long as there is a licence key sticker on the PC you will be able to get going. Believe me, you will save yourself a lot of hassle in the long run if you just wiped them. By all means login and note the drivers used. That is all I would do while in there though.

jonski · 11-02-2010 10:32am

JDxtra wrote: »

Its the licence key that is important, not the media. As long as there is a licence key sticker on the PC you will be able to get going. Believe me, you will save yourself a lot of hassle in the long run if you just wiped them. By all means login and note the drivers used. That is all I would do while in there though.

I understand what you are saying and tbh that is the easiest option for me ... but how am I going to do that without the disks ? ..... I was hoping to find a dell setup partition but there doesn't seem to be one .

JDxtra · 11-02-2010 10:55am

You will need to source a copy of the Windows XP CD and I assume it's the professional version you have.

You can actually request these from Dell (you will only need one). I can only find the US media request form online though...

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/en/backupcd_form?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&redirect=1

Otherwise, if you could borrow a CD from somebody else that would be fine too - as long as you use your licence keys.

jonski · 11-02-2010 11:06am

JDxtra wrote: »

Eek! I hope the local admin passwords are not blank. That would be IT security no-no #1!

Up until now I hadn't even bothered trying that as no one would be that stupid ..................... hmmmmm , ok they were that stupid . So I am into the XP one , but only because it let me choose the local computer as the domain . The win 2000 will only allow me to log to the business domain name , not the pc name .

testicle · 11-02-2010 11:27am

jonski wrote: »

Up until now I hadn't even bothered trying that as no one would be that stupid ..................... hmmmmm , ok they were that stupid . So I am into the XP one , but only because it let me choose the local computer as the domain . The win 2000 will only allow me to log to the business domain name , not the pc name .

Then it's the domain controller. I presume you have no domain passwords?

jonski · 11-02-2010 12:16pm

testicle wrote: »

Then it's the domain controller. I presume you have no domain passwords?

Yeah < I am beginning to think the paswords I have are not right . The full story behind the pc's are that they came from a business that left them behind when the vacated a premises owned by my brother in law , he is now trying to get them up and running so that he can use them in the FCA ( not called the FCA anymore are they ? showing my age now ) .
I know some of the older Dells had a restore partition accessed by pressing ctrl and f11 at the dell splash screen but these dont seem to . I have an XP pro disk and I have the keys from the pc's but to the best of my knowledge my disk is locked to my key when installing so thats no use . I am in one as administrator but can't seem to stop it loading that login screen at startup .

testicle · 11-02-2010 2:21pm

Disks and Keys are not locked to each other.

Capt'n Midnight · 12-02-2010 2:46pm

if you are in one as administrator then you could go into system properites in control panel and remove it from the donain

BUT if you have the original disks andlicenses and drivers form the vendors websit probably best to just reformat and put a clean install on the PC's because you don't know what has been done with them and what problems they have, windows has a half life and breaks down over time till you have to do a clean install

Domain Not There Anymore

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