i have this snippet saved from SQL 2000, which is supposed to add back Builtin\Administrators if it was removed;

i ran it on my SQL2008 without errors, but that doesn't technically prove anything.

does this help at all?

exec sp_grantlogin N'NT Authority\System'

exec sp_defaultdb N'NT Authority\System', N'master'

exec sp_defaultlanguage N'NT Authority\System','us_english'

exec sp_addsrvrolemember N'NT Authority\System', sysadmin

USE master

go

EXEC sp_grantlogin 'BUILTIN\Administrators'

go

EXEC sp_defaultdb 'BUILTIN\Administrators', 'master'

go

EXEC sp_defaultlanguage 'BUILTIN\Administrators', 'us_english'

go

EXEC sp_addsrvrolemember 'BUILTIN\Administrators', 'sysadmin'

go

IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM master.dbo.syslogins WHERE loginname='BUILTIN\Administrators')

PRINT '<<< CREATED LOGIN BUILTIN\Administrators >>>'

ELSE

PRINT '<<< FAILED CREATING LOGIN BUILTIN\Administrators >>>'

go