Admin Password Corrupted - HELP!

[Sunrise12]

This morning I discovered that my admin password is no longer working. I entered it correctly but am unable to run administrative tasks in my regular account. I've had no problems until this morning.

I get an error message: Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password.

I am on a home network and not a domain.

In my regular user account, I can see the following user accounts:

- Me1 (Admin account) with no directories or files in it
- Me2 (regular account that I'm using)
- Public (with directories and files)
- TEMP (with no directories or files)

I'm not sure when or how the TEMP user profile was created. But it is still there when I log off and back on to my regular account.

I am unable to create a new admin account from my regular account and cannot access my admin account.

I want to:

- Fix my corrupted admin password or create a new one.

- Delete the TEMP profile.

At the moment, I am unable to update my anti-virus protection software until I resolve this. I was hoping to avoid anything too complicated but I guess there is no way around that.

I stay offline most of the time anyway but will stay offline completely until I get this resolved.

Please help.

 

[Pauly]

The problem you have is whether the problem is the admin password or corrupt account and i suspect the latter

If it is password issue then you can go at it from different ways

*edit*

found brinks excellent tutorial for you
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/238737-user-account-reset-password-windows-7-a.html

 

[Sunrise12]

Stupid question: how would the account get corrupted if I never open it or use it?

 

[Pauly]

? How does anything break on a computer

I would try to bypass the password see if you can get in
Might also be good to run a sfc scan to check for any general system file corruption
Start>type cmd>right click, run as admin>type sfc /scannow

 

[Sunrise12]

That sounds interesting but I cannot run anything as an admin.

 

[Sunrise12]

Okay, I am going to attempt to do a System Restore of the passwords for the User Profile accounts according to the link that you provided:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/65207-password-reset-using-system-restore-windows-7-a.html

However, I am uncertain what CD I will boot into.

Is it the actual Windows CD that will boot into the System Restore?

 

[Pauly]

You can use the original windows 7 DVD (or usb) you installed from or a recovery disc if you created one, either will work

 

[Sunrise12]

Ok, thanks. I never created a recovery disk (but meant to do so) so I will try the original installation disk and hope that does not get corrupted in the process.

Maybe I should make a copy of it in case. I'm tired of making mistakes and learning the hard way.

 

[Pauly]

For reference the recovery disc can be created on any win 7 machine of the same type ie 32 or 64
Or can be downloaded from net in iso format and burned to disc but if you have install disc you won't need it, create one when u get up and running again then you don't need to keep getting your install disc out

 

[Sunrise12]

Good to know. Thanks!

 

[Sunrise12]

Okay, so I am going to attempt to restore my computer to a good date when my User Profiles were correct. I have not done so yet.

I'd like to create a bootable System Repair CD or flash drive (not sure which yet).

Is there a way to boot into System Repair without messing with the BIOS? I would rather avoid doing that.

That is, if I put a System Repair CD or USB in a drive and restart the computer, will the computer pick up on it and boot into it?

Edited to add:

I found this article that makes it easier. I think this applies to Windows 7:

http://www.ehow.com/how_8716237_boot-recovery.html

I can just hit F8 when the computer is booting up to access the System Recovery Menu where I can select the Restore option.
It's the same as accessing Safe Mode.

It appears that messing with the BIOS is not necessary.

 

[Pauly]

Thats correct if you change in bios it will make the boot order permanent (until you change it back) or via F8 is a one time thing

 

[Sunrise12]

Good to know! The instructions on here make it seem like you have to mess with the BIOS and that isn't necessary.

 

[Sunrise12]

System Restore reset my computer back to the way it should be so I have my admin account back! Yay!

All I did was hold the F8 key after turning on my computer to access the System Repair menu. (No boot disk was necessary.)

I chose "Repair Computer" (the first option).

Then I chose "System Restore".

At first it only showed one restore date which was the wrong one and the date of the corruption.

But I was able to click on "Show Other Restore Dates" (or something like that) and select a date prior to that one.

The process was painless and fast and it brought me back to Windows the way it was before it got corrupted.

All's well that ends well!

 

[Pauly]

Glad it was an easy fix for you

 

[Sunrise12]

Thanks for your help!

 

[Sunrise12]

The same thing happened to me again and I had to restore my settings to a previous good setting to get my admin account back and remove the temporary account that was created in place of the admin account. (I just deleted the Temp account from the Explorer menu within my regular account when I logged back into it.)

It appears that I lose my admin account after I run a program as an admin from within my regular account. I don't know why that would trigger the problem but it seems to be the cause of the issue.

I stopped using Malwarebytes Anti-malware because it requires running it as an admin in order to update the security definitions. I figured out that it crashed my admin account the first time that I had that issue.

Sure enough, when I attempted to run another program as an admin the other day, the admin account was destroyed again, so that seems to be the cause.

 

[Pauly]

Did you ever go back and run the sfc scan after you regained admin control
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

This will check the integrity of system files and attempt to repair or replace them if any damage or corruption is found

 

[Sunrise12]

Nope, I never tried that but it doesn't look like it would hurt.