Thread: Noooooooo!

Well, that is tricky. You could use a tool like NTFSDOS to copy out the data (the free version will read but not write), but without a floppy disk you'd have to burn it to a bootable CD elsewhere. www.demolinux.org has a linux distro ISO that you can burn to 1 bootable CD that can read NTFS and also get setup on your network/ISP to send the data out.

However, I don't know if any of that is more trouble than simply reinstalling the OS.. If you have 2K upgrade, definitely a reinstall is in order I think.

In the future, you can create a bit of a back door for yourself by creating a non admin user that you can always log into. All you need to do is have enough write privileges to replace logon.scr with cmd.com (rename logon.scr so you don't loose it and copy cmd.com to logon.scr's name/locations). Then, when you're locked out, you can just wait for the logon screen saver to appear when suddenly up pops a command prompt. A command prompt with *tada!* admin rights. Run explorer.exe from winnt dir to bring up the whole system and do whatever you like from there. (If you get the pay version of NTFSDOS, you can do that now without any other user.)

Well, hope that was helpful.

-Justin

first you need to get back on to windows theres ways to do that I'll let you find out from microsoft support (tell me how long takes) then I think norton has a thing to retrieve lost data

If you need to save your data at all costs, the easiest way would be to install a second 2K parallel to your first. It will be able to access your whole HDDs. You might also reinstall over the old, though I don't know if user-data is overwritten.

Hint for the next install: The first rule I learned for Network Administration is keep a second user that has full priviledges on the machine. Use this user to do all your stuff. Never use the admin account. Accidents happen, but it's not that bad if you have a second chance. Everyone mistypes a password once in a while, and maybe even three times in a row.

why can't you just log in as "guest" and copy your data out? I know in XP pro there're lots of 'special' limited accounts that it installs for you.

I'm not sure if this would work but take your hard drive out throw it on another computer and see if you can get the stuff copied then put it back into the other computer reinstall 2k then copy everything back I'm not sure if this would work though