The specified domain either does not exist of could not be contacted

Okay, this is a tough one, Ive been working on this computer for a friend for a few days now. Last week his HD crashed, at least to the point that he was booting into a blue screen running windows XP pro. He has some important documents he wants me to save for him, and for me to get into his computer as well so he can back it all up before his warrenty HD comes in. So I first went into recovery console and ran a chkdsk /r and it found and repaired many errors, and then when I boot it'd come to the login screen and ask for the password and I would get a popup error message saying somethign about lsass and if you clicked ok, the computer would reboot. So I tried a repair, and the blue screen came back, but this time a different one about corrupt registry files.

THen I tried a fresh install of windows in a new directory, that succeeded, but when it finished I keep getting the above error message in the topic. Researching it all I could find was information about when you actually are trying to join a domain, but thats not happenning here. Ive tried everything, and I know its not any kind of encryption or added security measures since when I hit shift+f10 in the XP setup I get the command promt no problem and I can access every directory fine, including his files, but I have no way of getting them off of his computer. Can someone PLEASE help, this is driving me crazy.


edit: in title should be "or" instead of "of"

 

Was the computer originally on a domain ?

Try logging onto the local computer rather than the domain (When you get the login screen click the 'options' button so it gives you the option of the domain or the local computer.

 

No, it was never on a domain an dnever has been, and if doesn't even give you the option for local machine versus domain. (I have to hit ctrl+alt+delete to switch to standard login screen since the welcome scren is still coming up. and there are no domain options there.)

But yeah, I shoudl of mentioned that before, this computer has never been on a domain.


Personally I think the parallel installation of windows I made is being denied access to a file it needs to complete the logon process and it just isn't smart enough to realize its not a remote file and just assumes there is a domain. But Im not sure.

 

Do you have a second computer at all ? A simpler option might be to remove the HD from the 'not working very well' system and put it in another system as a slave.

You will probably have to 'Take Ownership' of some folders to get permissions to access files and folders but I can walk you through that later if you can get the drive in another box.

 

yeha, thats more complicated, and I know Id have to take ownership, the problem is its a laptop and I don't have a converter bay.

 

You mentioned he has a second HD coming ?

When that arrives you could remove the current one and instal a fresh copy of windows on the new one then insert the 'not working properly' one as a slave and then recover the documents.

 

Its still a laptop, and has the problem of no secon hardrive location for a slave.

 

Oh I see, sorry my mistake.

I'm at a bit of a loss now, its always harder when you can't see the other computer. Other than buying a USB Case for the drive (which isn't too expensive) I can't think of anything right now but check back regularily as someone else may have an idea.

 

Thanks for the time though. Does anyone else have ANY suggestions at this point?

 

have you tried booting into safe mode without networking?

 

Yep, first thing I tried.

 

here i just found this take a look:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/c29621675.mspx

this isn't a fix for out problem but we at least know now what it is that we're dealing with. scroll down the page untill you see Logon Phase and read that section of the article. i'll start seeing what i can dig up on this.

 

here i found this. give it a try, i don't know if it'll work or not but it's a start.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us