Question : Unknown passwords assigned to WinXP Home user accounts & can't reset w/ some good tools

I have an interesting problem with a customer's laptop.  Customer calls me to say that she installed Apple ipod s/w and suddenly the user accounts were gone from the Welcome screen and that suddenly unknown passwords were assigned to all accounts, effectively locking her out.  There is no floppy built into the laptop, so many of the recovery tools I normally user are not available to me.  I've reviewed many postings about recovering passwords and tried Winternal's ERD Commander 2003, attempting to go the iso route.   I bootup into the ERD Shell and use the locksmith tool to change the p/w of administrator and her personal account which has admin rights.  I reboot and I still can't get in!  It's as though the locksmith feature is doing nothing.  I tried multiple times to no avail.  Anyone seen this before?  Once I boot up, I can get into the registry, but only to .classes and .local.  Can't get to user settings.  Any thoughts before I blow the partition away?  Thanks.

Answer : Unknown passwords assigned to WinXP Home user accounts & can't reset w/ some good tools

Hi spenadel
If  you feel that a bug is the problem, I think it would be wise to backup critical data which can be done from Commander, if necessary and try a system restore. You can always undo the restore, and even try another. They say you don't lose data during a restore, but it's always better to be safe. If you try another restore point after the initial,roll back the restore point and remember to flush the ERD cache before trying another. Restore could eliminate the "Bug" by restoring the corrupt file or more likely the old registry. Also check this document it seems to be pretty thorough and might help resolve your specific scenario.

GOOD LUCK
wrtechnology