Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of C Emmons
C EmmonsFlag for United States of America

asked on

Fix Computer Account in Windows 2008 R2 Domain

I have a computer account for a Windows 2003 server - not running Powershell.  I inadvertently joined a second computer to the domain with the same name and messed up the computer account in the domain.  The error when trying to RDP is the domain controller is down or the computer account cannot be found.  We do not know the administrator password or password of any local account.  I've tried the Reset Computer from the AD GUI, also Delete and Add back.  Join says there is no trust relationship.  I do have some AD object backups and restored the computer object at time prior to the mishap -- it didn't help.

What can I do to get back into the is computer?  I don't understand how the object updates, could perhaps a more precise domain object restore help. I do have other backups?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Will Szymkowski
Will Szymkowski
Flag of Canada image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of C Emmons

ASKER

Is that with the local administrator account -- we don't know the password ..  That's my biggest obstacle to any approach I find.  We do not know the administrator password or password of any local account.

Thanks
If you just need to reset the local admin password use something like this.
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

Will.
If the computer EVER had a domain admin account login, you can DISCONNECT it from the network and then log in as a domain admin which will use cached credentials on that system.  (If the network is attached, it chokes, but if the cable is pullled, it should allow the cached credentials to work).  Once logged in as a domain admin you can reset the local admin password or create a new local admin account.

Otherwise, I'd use the Utilman.exe trick to reset the admin password.

Then you can disjoin and rejoin the domain using a different name.
This question has been classified as abandoned and is closed as part of the Cleanup Program. See the recommendation for more details.