Win7 User profile service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded.

Yes just let it do its thing, and let it reboot on completion. Let me know if it allows access, if not we will look at something else

Nope did not allow access. Still getting the message The User Profile Services service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded.

OK moving on…

At the command prompt type the following :

net user administrator /active:yes

Then try a reboot and you should be offered an additional Admin account.
Log in using that

Let me know if that works

I now have an administrator account. Now to just figure out how to access her photos and data in the original account. Thank you so much!

OK what you need to do now is create a normal administrator account (you are using the hidden system one at the moment)
Details here http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/create-new-user-account-in-windows-vista-7/

Then once the new account has been created copy all the old user data to this one. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151

You may need to take ownership, if so let me know and I will give a reg tweak to enable that by a right click option

New Administrator account created. I have not been asked to set a password yet. As far as copying the data, when I go to User Accounts my only choices are Create a password for your account, Change your picture, Change your account name, Change your account type, Manage another account and Change User Account Control settings. On the left hand side of the window is Control Panel Home, Manage your credentials, Create a password rest disk, Link online IDs, Configure advanced user profile properties and Change my environment variables.

As the following instructs state to use the Advanced tab, I do not see an Advanced tab.
Create a new user profile on the domain computer

Log on as the Administrator or as a user with administrator credentials.
Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Click User Accounts.
Click the Advanced tab, and then click Advanced.
In the left pane, click the Users folder.
On the Action menu, click New User.
Enter the appropriate user information, and then click Create.

As the following instructions state, there is not a Pick a task.
Create a new user profile on the workgroup computer

Log on as the Administrator or as a user with administrator credentials.
Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Click User Accounts.
Under Pick a task, click Create a new account.
Type a name for the user information, and then click Next.
Click an account type, and then click Create Account.

Thank you!

Would the difference be that the operation system is Windows 7 not XP?

My apologies I am sure I got the windows 7 steps :-[

As you now have the new admin account

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/fix-corrupted-user-profile#1TC=windows-7

Thank you! So far so good. I do have a question the instructions say

Select all of the files and folders in this folder, except the following files:

Ntuser.dat

Ntuser.dat.log

Ntuser.ini

I do not see those listed at all. Do I need to open each folder and move things individually or can I just highlight the 12 folders and transfer that way? The names of the folders are…AppData, Desktop, Downloads, Favorites, Links, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos, Saved Games, Searches and Tracing.

Select them all and when it gets to these files :

Ntuser.dat
Ntuser.dat.log
Ntuser.ini

it will ask whether you want to overwrite, answer NO. As those files are the cause of the problem

Well, I did not get asked about either of those, the folders transferred but they are all empty. Her AVG automatically found some items that is supposedly removed. Would that have removed actually photos etc?

No where were the photos stored, can she recollect ?

I think I just found them!!! I decided to click on Users then Owner which is her profile and I found photos!!! Going to ask her if this is all of them.

You may be able to keep the computer up and running, copy all the data to the new user profile (as well as backing it up). Then try it for a while and see if it works

In the process of transferring to the External Hard Drive. She has never done a back up!!! Said she doesn’t know what that means! We have all the photos and documents transferred. Transferring Videos now, then will check the folder for other items and transfer those as well. Once we get everything off of the laptop and on to the External Hard Drive, she says we can do what ever we need to do. I really want to uninstall McAfee and AVG and install Avast and MalewareBytes. Those are the programs I am familiar with and really love. Do I need to remove the old User profile that is no longer accessible? If so how do I do that? We are supposed to be having some major storms tonight and when they come in, we completely shut down our computers and unplug them. Better safe than sorry! Oh, by the way, my daughter said she wishes you were near by instead of another Country because she would give you a big hug. Our granddaughter is just 4 and there are many many many months of photos and videos you helped us to save.

Thank you very much!

Well now that I think I have all files transferred, I am unable to eject the External Hard Drive from the computer. She wanted me to eject it so as to not risk loosing any of the data that was transferred. For the life of me I cannot figure out what program is open that is still using it. Any ideas?

You could simply power down the Computer in the normal way.
Once the computer has turned off, it will be safe to remove the External Drive. :slight_smile:

That is what I was thinking about doing but wanted another opinion. Any chance some of the files are still transferring even though it looks like they are completed?

Avast Full Scan found two items and was not able to repair them so moved them both to chest. A boot time scan was needed to finish the clean up and some program would not let it do so. What I decided to do since I can’t leave the laptop running all night because of the storms that are coming in. I have scheduled a Boot time scan the next time we boot.

The two items that were found were…

win32:Adware-AZL (ADW)
win32:Notre

Now I am wondering if I need to do a virus scan of her external hard drive.

Thanks again!

Once you are sure you have everything transferred then just delete the corrupt account http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/delete-a-user-account

One hug accepted :slight_smile:

Powering down the computer will enable you to remove the external drive safely

For imaging the drives I use Macrium reflect and it works like a charm, I had to use it yesterday and I was back up and running in 15 minutes from start to finish http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

I can look at the computer for you to determine what malware is present and remove it

Please download Farbar Recovery Scan Tool and save it to your Desktop.

Note: You need to run the version compatible with your system. If you are not sure which version applies to your system download both of them and try to run them. Only one of them will run on your system, that will be the right version.

[*]Right click to run as administrator (XP users click run after receipt of Windows Security Warning - Open File). When the tool opens click Yes to disclaimer.
[*]Press Scan button.
[*]It will produce a log called FRST.txt in the same directory the tool is run from.
[*]Please copy and paste log back here.
[*]The first time the tool is run it generates another log (Addition.txt - also located in the same directory as FRST.exe/FRST64.exe). Please also paste that along with the FRST.txt into your reply.