Help I'm beyond my knowledge ! Lost administrator

I've had crashes before , but this one is a new one for
me. I lost a lot of programs . When it crashed I was in
Task manager looking to see why it was acting the way it
was when everything was closed. Anyway a file named
NOPDB.exe from the system was using all my CPU up. I
don't know what that is but I restarted Windows and lost
a lot of things , One thing I lost was being the
administrator of my own computer. I try to restore or use
Norton Ghost , I have no access ! Can't get into anything
being a guest on my computer.I had to reload Earthlink
just to get back online. When windows booted up . It went
to the screen that first came on when I loaded windows
for the first time. Even brought up the tutorial screen.
I also went to windows update , no access there either .
Because I am not the administrator HELP what do I do ???

On Sat, 6 Dec 2003 22:24:53 -0800, DAVE OB wrote:

I've had crashes before , but this one is a new one for
me. I lost a lot of programs . When it crashed I was in
Task manager looking to see why it was acting the way it
was when everything was closed. Anyway a file named
NOPDB.exe from the system was using all my CPU up. I
don't know what that is but I restarted Windows and lost
a lot of things , One thing I lost was being the
administrator of my own computer. I try to restore or use
Norton Ghost , I have no access ! Can't get into anything
being a guest on my computer.I had to reload Earthlink
just to get back online. When windows booted up . It went
to the screen that first came on when I loaded windows
for the first time. Even brought up the tutorial screen.
I also went to windows update , no access there either .
Because I am not the administrator HELP what do I do ???

Be suspicious whenever some event drastically changes your setup. Losing
Administrator status on your user account could fall into that category.
Only local administrators of an XP system should be able to change account
status. Virus or corruption of user data are two reasons that I can think
of that could cause this.

Suggest going over this system with a fine tooth comb and an up to date
antivirus program.

To address, possible data corruption for a user account: When this happens,
the account can corrupt to the point that you can no longer log on with it.
XP will provide a temporary user account for you to log on with but it is
intended for temporary usage only. You will want to create a new user
account for yourself and will need to log on with an account in the
administrator group to do so.

XP maintains a default administrator account and insists that there should
always be at least one admin account in existence. To access the built in
default account:

If you have XP Pro, press Ctrl+Alt+Del twice at the welcome screen. Then
type in Administrator as username and type in the password. If you never
assigned a password to this account, leave the password field blank.

If you have XP Home, boot to Safe Mode and log on with Administrator as
user name. Again, leave the password field blank if you have never assigned
one to this built in account.

Create your new user account in the Administrator group. Log off of the
builtin account and log on to this new account. As you sort through start
menus and document folders, you may find it necessary to regain access to
files you maintained under the old account. You do that by "taking
ownership." Details are in the Help file and here's a link to an MS
Knowledge Base article that also describes this process:

HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;308421

--
Sharon F
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User