Smegging NT problem! :(

[Scouse]

I know I've been here before but:

Need to create a local account under NT but cannot - I presume an account of the same name existed previously and has been deleted.

I need to create this account using this account name. I've checked profiles etc. and cannot find anything that already exists.

Any ideas?

 

[Gurnox]

I know I've been here before but:

Need to create a local account under NT but cannot - I presume an account of the same name existed previously and has been deleted.

I need to create this account using this account name. I've checked profiles etc. and cannot find anything that already exists.

Any ideas?

Have you had a look in the WINNT\profiles directory to see if the home directory for the old user still exists? If there is one, make sure it's empty or useless, and delete it.

Might be a bit churlish of me to suggest this, as I'm sure you have a good reason, but why not create the account with a different user name?

 

[Scouse]

Aye - checked all that. In all hardware profiles. It doesn't even have an entry in the registry that I can discern (although Sid's being what they are...)...

and it's a standard account name that needs to be added that I can't change unfortunately

 

[Gurnox]

Aye - checked all that. In all hardware profiles. It doesn't even have an entry in the registry that I can discern (although Sid's being what they are...)...

and it's a standard account name that needs to be added that I can't change unfortunately

Got me stumped to be honest. Other than the no-brainers (Logged on as local Administrator, not using a username the same as a system account e.t.c), you might want to try creating a user and then changing that users name to the one you want.

Have you tried the Microsoft.com support forums to see if anyone else has had the problem?

Other than that, it sounds like you might be quicker doing a rebuild. I'd wait and see if anyone else has anything to say on it though in case I'm being a dumbass.

 

[Scouse]

Sounds the same to me - but it's a pisser doing a standard NT build image for this one - I'd much rather just be able to recover this - as everything else is both "hunky" and "dory"


/sniff

 

[QuarkMan]

Have you looked in the event viewer to see if there are any errors from when you tried to create the accont?
If so what are the errors?

Sounds the same to me - but it's a pisser doing a standard NT build image for this one - I'd much rather just be able to recover this - as everything else is both "hunky" and "dory"


/sniff

 

[Xavier]

Hmm, three things hit me here, for starters make sure you're not creating a local username identical to the machine name, that just won't work.

Secondly, if you're re-creating a local user because of permissions it had or anything of that nature, in an effort to restore them, it simply won't work as the userID will be different.

If you're logged in as a local administrator, or domain administrator which has been added to the local admin group, and the user either doesn't already exist or have a username which matches the system name there's no reason whatsoever for NT to refuse its creation.

Xav

 

[Scouse]

Ta for the ideas guys, but I'd been through them all...


Problem was most likely a corrupt SAM Database. Hey-ho.

Rebuilt the f*cker from scratch and had to do nearly 2 fekking days of software configuration, tweaking, security and service pack updates before it was ready to be imaged.....works fine now tho (at least I hope it does - 18 of the fekkers have been built using the image and are out with field managers - come this morning when I mosey on into work I hope I don't get *any* shit off em


(but if I do it'll go straight to the support team - not me )


Ta anyway chaps!

 

[Mellow]

But seeing as NT is no longer supported by M$ you would probably be better upgrading to a more stable, and flexible NOS.

 

[Scouse]

In the real world Mr Mellow you'll find that upgrading corporate environments is a costly time-consuming series of major projects and business-driven, not IT-driven.


Plus - we're doing that later in the year (if I've still got a contract there)

 

[Gurnox]

But seeing as NT is no longer supported by M$ you would probably be better upgrading to a more stable, and flexible NOS.

This is not the most helpful of comments really.

 

[Mellow]

In the real world Mr Mellow you'll find that upgrading corporate environments is a costly time-consuming series of major projects and business-driven, not IT-driven.

Plus - we're doing that later in the year (if I've still got a contract there)

Yes, true. But if you point out the flaws and vulnerabilities in NT, compared to say, windows 2000/2003 then i'm fairly certain the people in charge may consider keeping corporate data secure is in a business's interest.

 

[Shovel]

They would, but that doesn't mean they will understand. For every person making a decision there will be a level of "secure enough". A lot of business decision makers wont understand that either, but one way or another you can't really win:

If you argue every 3 years about how much better the new OS is from the old one, they'll get fed up and say "sod it, we'll wait another 3 years and get one that's twice as good", I think that personally it's a case of doing what's right for you and the company - if NT4 runs ok, and if you're not in an especially vunerable situation for it to be exploited in the first place, what's the point in spending thousands of pounds upgrading?

It's a similar dilemma to using Windows at home: You know in your heart than running with administrator privilages would allow a virus to erase your C:. But you also know that at time of writing, a lot of older games don't like running in "Limited Account" mode, and MS don't include the Windows version of "su" by default anyway. You do what's right for you

 

[TdC]

Yes, true. But if you point out the flaws and vulnerabilities in NT, compared to say, windows 2000/2003 then i'm fairly certain the people in charge may consider keeping corporate data secure is in a business's interest.

such a perfect world you live in

the only reason The Powers(tm) at BigCompany let desktop's OS be upgraded is because MS (in this case) bribes them with cars, drugs and prostitutes. we *may* go to 2k some time this decade :/

 

[Mellow]

Active Directory = t3h win!

NT Domains = cluttered n00b

 

[Gurnox]

Active Directory = t3h win!

NT Domains = cluttered n00b

Because someone doesn't use the latest OS in their corporate environment, it does not make them a 'n00b'. If the phrase 'living in the real world' and the word 'not' hadn't already been used in this thread, I would certainly be using them now.....

Besides which, the term 'n00b' annoys the hell out of me no matter who it's directed at. Everyone was a 'n00b' at some point. These 'n00bs' then go on to learn and become programmers, sys admins or whatever else and to make a worthwhile contribution.

Unless of course they are put of by a bunch of, supposedly, 'l33t' people calling them 'n00bs'.

I wouldn't mind so much but Scouse is, quite clearly, someone who knows what they are on about and your comment is totally unjustified.

 

[Mellow]

I think you should shut up simply because I wasn't calling him a noob, I was calling the NOS a noob.

 

[Gurnox]

I think you should shut up simply because I wasn't calling him a noob, I was calling the NOS a noob.

Well, that makes absolutely perfect sense. Thanks for putting me right on that one

 

[Quige]

Yes, true. But if you point out the flaws and vulnerabilities in NT, compared to say, windows 2000/2003 then i'm fairly certain the people in charge may consider keeping corporate data secure is in a business's interest.

And even when management do recognise that the new OS is better, it still takes time ... when you've bespoke applications designed to run on NT4, which you are going to have to have rewritten to work, or maybe decide to commission new software with the functionality you require, and some new stuff as well while you're doing it, and generally get into a full on tendering process, it can take a very long time to get that all sorted out.

We're getting rid of our NT4 servers as quick as we can and it's been going on for a 2 or 3 years now, and still a way to go methinks.

We haven't even got all the client PC's onto 2000 yet!