Registry corrupted, temporary user only?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lawrence G. Mayka
  • Start date Start date
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Lawrence G. Mayka

My nephew's notebook computer runs Windows 2000 Professional (because it was
originally business-issue). The other day, he suddenly began to encounter
(on boot) a message or messages roughly like this:

Could not load file into registry, wrong format. Could not load local
profile, creating temporary user profile instead.

I gave him instructions to try loading the Last Known Good Configuration,
but that yields the same error. To my profound shock, Windows 2000 (which I
thought was an advanced, reliable operating system) apparently only retains
one previous registry version, unlike Windows 98 (whose ScanReg keeps 5
days' worth) or Windows XP (whose System Restore keeps even more). I myself
am primarily familiar with Win98 and WinXP, hence my ability to help my
nephew is limited.

So does the error message mean that the registry itself is corrupted, or
something else that gets read into the registry? If the registry itself is
corrupted, do I stand a good chance of fixing it via the Registry Repair
tool that I see on Microsoft's Web site (and which requires 6 floppy disks)?
If something else is corrupted, how do I fix it?

Note that my nephew ordinarily logs in as the Administrator, and I am afraid
that his computer may not have any other user profile with administrative
privileges. If the registry is corrupted, does that mean that the computer
will not validate his administrative privileges? And does that mean the
computer will resist any attempts to fix it?
 
FYI looking in;
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Select
you'll find the D_Word values for
"Current"=dword:00000001
"Default"=dword:00000001
"Failed"=dword:00000000
"LastKnownGood"=dword:00000002

CurrentControlSet is volatile and will always be an image (at boot) of
what's defined in ControlSetx where x = the value of "Current"

Choosing last known good boots the system with the control set that last
successfully booted your system. Control sets contain system configuration
information such as device drivers and services.

Without the exact error message it's hard to say but it appears the current
user hive (ntuser.dat) may be corrupt. If so while logged on as local
administrator you can rename the corrupt profile. Then when the user next
logs on a new profile will be created from an image in \default user

You can then copy over the needed items from the old profile. Use the import
function of your mail software.

This may also help.
User Profile May Become Corrupted After You Perform a Clean Windows 2000
Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=296834


--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
Microsoft Certified Professional [Windows 2000]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect


:
| My nephew's notebook computer runs Windows 2000 Professional (because it
was
| originally business-issue). The other day, he suddenly began to encounter
| (on boot) a message or messages roughly like this:
|
| Could not load file into registry, wrong format. Could not load local
| profile, creating temporary user profile instead.
|
| I gave him instructions to try loading the Last Known Good Configuration,
| but that yields the same error. To my profound shock, Windows 2000 (which
I
| thought was an advanced, reliable operating system) apparently only
retains
| one previous registry version, unlike Windows 98 (whose ScanReg keeps 5
| days' worth) or Windows XP (whose System Restore keeps even more). I
myself
| am primarily familiar with Win98 and WinXP, hence my ability to help my
| nephew is limited.
|
| So does the error message mean that the registry itself is corrupted, or
| something else that gets read into the registry? If the registry itself
is
| corrupted, do I stand a good chance of fixing it via the Registry Repair
| tool that I see on Microsoft's Web site (and which requires 6 floppy
disks)?
| If something else is corrupted, how do I fix it?
|
| Note that my nephew ordinarily logs in as the Administrator, and I am
afraid
| that his computer may not have any other user profile with administrative
| privileges. If the registry is corrupted, does that mean that the
computer
| will not validate his administrative privileges? And does that mean the
| computer will resist any attempts to fix it?
|
|
 
Dave Patrick said:
user hive (ntuser.dat) may be corrupt. If so while logged on as local
administrator you can rename the corrupt profile. Then when the user next
Click to expand...

But if the Administrator profile is the one that is corrupt, does the
temporary user profile (that we get instead) still have adminstrative
privileges?
 
Dave Patrick said:
user hive (ntuser.dat) may be corrupt. If so while logged on as local
administrator you can rename the corrupt profile. Then when the user next
logs on a new profile will be created from an image in \default user
Click to expand...

The user with the corrupted profile is Administrator itself. How do I
rename its profile? And after doing so, will I still be able to log in as
Administrator?
 
Check the link to 296834 for instructions on replacing the local
administrator profile.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
Microsoft Certified Professional [Windows 2000]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect


:
| But if the Administrator profile is the one that is corrupt, does the
| temporary user profile (that we get instead) still have adminstrative
| privileges?
|
|
 
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