Question

restore deleted user account

Asked by: mattjp88

I am running windows server 2003.  I had an account "matt" that was a local user.  I then installed active directory to make the machine a domain controller.  I then decided to remove the roll of domain controller from the machine.  Once it restarted, the local account "matt" is deleted.  The contents of the profile is still there, but can't login.  How do I restore the user account?

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Asked On
2009-06-30 at 15:03:11ID24534925
Topics

Windows 2003 Server

,

Windows 2000 Operating System

,

Microsoft Windows Operating Systems

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
4

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Answers

 

by: demazterPosted on 2009-06-30 at 15:09:15ID: 24750084

I believe when you DCPromo a server the local SAM account is removed and recreated with only the ADDRM Administrator account in it.

Therefore if you were to DCPromo down the server the only account that would be available would be an Administrator account.

The profile ( I am assuming you are talking about the one in C:\Documents and  Settings) would not have been removed as part of the DCPromo.

You will need to re-create this account if you require it as a local user after the DCPromo

 

by: mattjp88Posted on 2009-06-30 at 15:22:05ID: 24750180

I recreated the user "matt", but it made a new user profile at c:/docs and settings/matt.machine/ .  Will renaming the old profile directory to the new one cause problems?

 

by: demazterPosted on 2009-06-30 at 15:24:15ID: 24750201

Yes because it contains the user part of the registry, if it's just the desktop/shortcuts/favourites etc your after then you can copy them from the old profile to the new one.  Just make sure you don't copy NTUSER.dat as this will cause you a few issues.

Also try to avoid the application settings as this section may also have mappings to the old profile.

 

by: mattjp88Posted on 2009-07-25 at 00:46:16ID: 24941010

I ended up finding a solution somewhere that involved changing the path of a user's home directory in the registry.  It worked out well because the old user account was "mattuser", the new one was also "mattuser".  So when I changed the home directory of the new "mattuser" from "mattuser.machine" to just "mattuser", everything worked nicely.  I would assume that if the usernames had been different, terrible things would have happened.

Thanks for your help.

-Matt

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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