Windows Vista "account corruption" issue.

[zallison]

Co-worker of mine came to me just now with an interesting issue.

Vista machines are showing a message that basically states --
User can not log in to windows due to a corrupt account.

(Obviously not the exact message.)

However, the account operates properly in safe mode.

--

My request is threefold.

#1 - Prompt reply if possible.
#2 - What could cause this?
#3 - Is there a way to fix this *with out* doing a reinstall of the OS?

[Ippersiel]

#2 - Corrupt file for profiles, trying to find the info link....

#3 - Yes - create a different user profile. I had ran into this as well. Save all the user files from Documents and then create another user profile.

Let me find the link from Microsoft....

Add #1
While searching the info I did stumble on this:
How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151/

Add #2
Here's a KB from Microsoft about the error:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/812339

The solution is:

3. In Control Panel, click User Accounts.
4. Create a new user account. Windows makes a new directory for the account in the Documents and Settings folder.
5. Quit the User Accounts tool, and then restart the computer.


The message is:
Windows cannot load the locally stored profile. Possible causes of this
error include insufficient security rights or a corrupt local profile.

[zallison]

Thanks -

I'm still working. So I appreciate it.

EDIT -

Thanks so very much. Helped me out immensly.

Turns out this particular issue stemmed from a failing HDD, but the links helped us with 2 other cases we are working on.

[nihil]

Hi there za~,

A pure guess here as to what the cause might be. I have noticed that corrupted profiles are more common in XP than 2000, and I suspect that Vista takes more after XP?

I wonder if it might be that some machines are shutting down before they have properly saved the settings, thus corrupting the profile?

If you could find a machine where this was happening on a regular basis I would try setting the system to empty the pagefile on shutdown and see if that stopped the problem.

[zallison]

Thanks

I'll take a look into that.

Yeah, Vista takes quite a bit after Xp.