How can I fix this SAM database problem? (Windows 7 Pro SP1)

[Geza]

Hi Guys,


1. I forgot to make a backup of my system, so all I have that I have, no back up of any sort.


This is my story in a nutshell: I have been using my laptop as a regular user (no admin rights) and for whatever reasons I decided to change the password for the user account with admin rights. I was lazy to go the user manager to do it there, I opened a command prompt window with admin rights and did the usual "net username newpassword", I got the successful confirmation message. Then I thought, that since I'm already there, I will change the pwd. for the user Administrator the same way, and I did, got the successful confirmation. Then I exited the command prompt window with admin rights and tried to run an application as Administrator and to my greatest shock, it didn't accept the new password. (btw, I did write down the new passwords on a piece of paper and there was even a simple logic in the difference between the two passwords (for both users with admin rights)


I couldn't start the application with any of the passwords or any of the two admin users, of course the old passwords didn't work either.


(Btw., Does someone have any idea why changing the password at the command prompt wouldn't be successful?)


So, I was f..cked, logged in as a regular user and started to think how I could fix this problem. (this windows installation is fairly new, 2 weeks old and since I have a 512GB SSD drive in my laptop I disabled many features and services on my laptop to reduce writing to the SSD drive. I was planning on doing an image backup once I finished setting it up, but it's too late now.


Anyhow, I had a Hiren's boot CD from 2012, I thought I'll give it a shot, I managed to change the password for both the Administrator and the user with admin rights, I also saved the changes.


Rebooted the laptop and to my 1st shock the icon of the user with admin rights disappeared from the login screen, all I could see the icon for the regular user. My reaction was the usual f.ck!.


I logged in as a regular user and tried to launch a few applications as Administrator, to my 3rd shock, iI didn't get the option to enter the password for the username with admin rights, the username didn't even show up, all I had to click on the smart card reader.


So I could no longer start any application as admin when I'm logged in as a regular user.


Logged out and logged in as the user with admin rights by clicking on something like "login as a different user" or something similar, I had to type in the username and NEW password and that way I could log in with admin rights.


I went to user manager and these are some of the symptoms:


If I click on the group Administrators, it is blank. (two users should be listed there the admin the user with admin rights)


If I click on the user Administrator, I get the following error message:


---------------------------
Local Users and Groups
---------------------------
The following error occurred while attempting to read the properties for the user Administrator:

An internal error occurred.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------



If I click on the name of the regular user or the user with admin rights, it comes up fine.


Now, if I log out, I can only see the icon of the admin-user name on the login screen, the name of the regular user is missing.


So, does someone have any suggestion on how to fix this problem?


Geza

 

[TechnoMage2016]

My first option, if I created that mess, would be to do a restore of a recent backup, but failing that, I'd copy all my valuable data files to a USB stick and then do a Full RE-Install of Windows.

I've installed Windows XX so many times that it's like second nature to me.


Now, what ya gonna do?


TM

 

[Geza]

Today I did a reinstall from the fly, unfortunately it didn't detect the corruption in the SAM, therefore I'm back to square 1.


I also found a cool registry add on tweek that added "Run as a different user" option to the right click menu, so that solved my problem temporarily but since I still have a corrupt SAM, as you suggested I will have to do a full, clean install, just feel sorry for all the hours I put in configuring W7 and installing all the applications, Office, language pack, service pack for office, etc. what a waste of time...


I'll do the reinstall in a few days.


Thanks!


Geza

 

[Geza]

Oh, by the way, do you know why on fricken Earth the password didn't work once I changed it not in a GUI interface but at the command prompt? When I did it, it said that it was successful, but my whole nightmare started right after that because I couldn't log in as admin anymore. (I made a huge mistake changing the password for the Administrator AND the user with admin rights at the SAME TIME).


But I still want to find out why you cannot change the password in a Command Prompt window, I've done it gazillion times in Windows XP before without any hick ups.


Could you do a test for me and change the password for not a cricial user account at the CMD window on your PC and see if that password works after that?


I changed the password for TWO users at the same time and I messed it up for both of them. There is no way I would've forgotten or mistyped the password for TWO users when I even wrote them down as well.