workstation lost connection to domain, local accounts disabled

Question

I encounted a unique situation on a network I recently took over. A windows Vista SP1 workstation lost its connection to the domain, displaying the error message "The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed".

Normally, in the rare instances when I've seen that occur, I simply logged in as the local administrator, disconnected the computer from the domain, and re-connected it to the domain.

However, the local administrator account is disabled and was likely never enabled.

The local user that was used to initially configure the workstation is either disabled, or uses a password I don't have a record for.

The domain user who normally logs into the workstation cannot log in (the cached credencials have likely expired).

Is there anything I can do?

Answer 1

I found a loophole. I unplugged the network cable, rebooted, then logged in as the domain administrator. Then, enabled the local administrator account and disconnected/re-connected to the domain.

Answer 2

There is a tool out there called the "offline NT password and registry editor" which can unlock user accounts and reset their passwords.

http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/