Profile corrupted

[Andy Baker]

A friend of mine has a persistent problem with his XP machine in that every
so often when booting up he gets an error message to the effect that windows
is unable to load the default profile and is instead logging him on with a
temporary profile. The error message also says a registry file it has tried
to load is not in registry format. It then logs on with the default startup
wallpaper and sets up default settings for Internet Explorer, Outlook
Express etc

We can get it going again by doing a system restore, and it seems to work
for a few days, then the same thing happens again. If he leaves the PC on,
it works fine, then at the weekend, it presumably downloaded an automatic
update as when he got to the PC in the morning, it had hung up at the
'windows saving your settings' screen on shutdown. He left it for several
hours when nothing happened, then reset it, and on reboot got the corrupted
profile error message again. On trying to do a system restore, we had to go
back several weeks before we found one that worked, so it looks like the
profile was corrupted and it hadn't been noticed because the PC had been
left on all the time until the forced shutdown.

I understand what the message is saying and why the system restore fixes it,
but am at a loss as to why is it happening in the first place. It is also
very frustrating spending hours having to do several restores until we find
one that works. I have done virus / spyware scans and found nothing. There
was also obviously a shutdown problem after the automatic update (which I
have now turned off) as the PC hung while shutting down - don't know if this
is connected. It normally shuts down ok however, so it could be that the
shutdown problem was caused by the corrupted profile and not the other way
around. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Andy Baker

 

[spamlet]

Re: Profile corrupted


"Andy Baker" <abaker@NOSPAMvanputer.com> wrote in message
news:JOmdncdmu--HzmHVnZ2dnUVZ8h2dnZ2d@posted.plusnet...
>A friend of mine has a persistent problem with his XP machine in that every
>so often when booting up he gets an error message to the effect that
>windows is unable to load the default profile and is instead logging him on
>with a temporary profile. The error message also says a registry file it
>has tried to load is not in registry format. It then logs on with the
>default startup wallpaper and sets up default settings for Internet
>Explorer, Outlook Express etc
>
> We can get it going again by doing a system restore, and it seems to work
> for a few days, then the same thing happens again. If he leaves the PC on,
> it works fine, then at the weekend, it presumably downloaded an automatic
> update as when he got to the PC in the morning, it had hung up at the
> 'windows saving your settings' screen on shutdown. He left it for several
> hours when nothing happened, then reset it, and on reboot got the
> corrupted profile error message again. On trying to do a system restore,
> we had to go back several weeks before we found one that worked, so it
> looks like the profile was corrupted and it hadn't been noticed because
> the PC had been left on all the time until the forced shutdown.
>
> I understand what the message is saying and why the system restore fixes
> it, but am at a loss as to why is it happening in the first place. It is
> also very frustrating spending hours having to do several restores until
> we find one that works. I have done virus / spyware scans and found
> nothing. There was also obviously a shutdown problem after the automatic
> update (which I have now turned off) as the PC hung while shutting down -
> don't know if this is connected. It normally shuts down ok however, so it
> could be that the shutdown problem was caused by the corrupted profile and
> not the other way around. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.
>
> Andy Baker

Check this previous thread: 'User name assigned to a new profile!' Spamlet
30/9/08. A couple of people recently in this column have had similar
problems. In my case system restore had also been turned off, which did,
however, mean that I looked more deeply into the problem than otherwise I
might.

Related threads: 'How can I delete an account that I can't see?'. Also
there are a lot of handy links in 'Cleaning up windows registry' 30/9/08,
that tell you more about how profiles 'dat' files work.

It is quite tricky getting the right files associated with the right user
name because the security numbers that you can't see have to match; there
are several different places to look for the settings; and every time you
open an account whose 'dat' file is 'already in use' (because it has not
unloaded completely from the last time) a new set of default profile folders
with the user name you want to be with your original files, is added to
confuse the issue...

When you have your files back with the right user name, be sure to download
the free 'user profile hive cleanup service' from MS to make sure that
profiles unload completely after use.

That should get you sorted.

S

 

[Kelly]

Re: Profile corrupted

Suggestions:

Right click My Computer, Properties, Hardware, Device Manager. Locate the
entries for your hard disks and double click each entry. On the Policies
tab, uncheck Enable write caching.

You will see a performance decrease because of this, but if the corrupt
registry/user profiles problems cease, then you'll be certain of the cause.

Logon to another account with admin privilege and run System Restore.
Choose the most recent restore point and SR should restore the user
hives.

Or...

Boot into safe mode and log in as Administrator. Copy ntuser.dat from
%windir%\repair to "Documents and Settings\[your user id]". Now do a system
restore to a point in time prior to when the corruption message began to
appear.

Or...

Relocate NTUserdat

Look in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList and find the profile you want to change and
then change ProfileImagePath to the ntuser.dat folder that you want to use.
You must manually copy or move the ntuser.dat file there.

Corrupt Hive
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_sys32.htm

How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307545

Recovering XP using the Recover Console (Line 333) Right hand side:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

SupportSpace
www.supportspace.com/pages?aiu=kellyskorner

"Andy Baker" <abaker@NOSPAMvanputer.com> wrote in message
news:JOmdncdmu--HzmHVnZ2dnUVZ8h2dnZ2d@posted.plusnet...
>A friend of mine has a persistent problem with his XP machine in that every
>so often when booting up he gets an error message to the effect that
>windows is unable to load the default profile and is instead logging him on
>with a temporary profile. The error message also says a registry file it
>has tried to load is not in registry format. It then logs on with the
>default startup wallpaper and sets up default settings for Internet
>Explorer, Outlook Express etc
>
> We can get it going again by doing a system restore, and it seems to work
> for a few days, then the same thing happens again. If he leaves the PC on,
> it works fine, then at the weekend, it presumably downloaded an automatic
> update as when he got to the PC in the morning, it had hung up at the
> 'windows saving your settings' screen on shutdown. He left it for several
> hours when nothing happened, then reset it, and on reboot got the
> corrupted profile error message again. On trying to do a system restore,
> we had to go back several weeks before we found one that worked, so it
> looks like the profile was corrupted and it hadn't been noticed because
> the PC had been left on all the time until the forced shutdown.
>
> I understand what the message is saying and why the system restore fixes
> it, but am at a loss as to why is it happening in the first place. It is
> also very frustrating spending hours having to do several restores until
> we find one that works. I have done virus / spyware scans and found
> nothing. There was also obviously a shutdown problem after the automatic
> update (which I have now turned off) as the PC hung while shutting down -
> don't know if this is connected. It normally shuts down ok however, so it
> could be that the shutdown problem was caused by the corrupted profile and
> not the other way around. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.
>
> Andy Baker
>

 

[Andy Baker]

Re: Profile corrupted

Thanks for the tips. He has been switching the PC off after use, and the
profile has not corrupted again, so I have not had a chance to try your
solution - but I will next time. Will also install the MS cleanup service
you suggested.

Andy Baker

"spamlet" <spam.morespam@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:%23RhDZ0pMJHA.3588@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>
> "Andy Baker" <abaker@NOSPAMvanputer.com> wrote in message
> news:JOmdncdmu--HzmHVnZ2dnUVZ8h2dnZ2d@posted.plusnet...
>>A friend of mine has a persistent problem with his XP machine in that
>>every so often when booting up he gets an error message to the effect that
>>windows is unable to load the default profile and is instead logging him
>>on with a temporary profile. The error message also says a registry file
>>it has tried to load is not in registry format. It then logs on with the
>>default startup wallpaper and sets up default settings for Internet
>>Explorer, Outlook Express etc
>>
>> We can get it going again by doing a system restore, and it seems to work
>> for a few days, then the same thing happens again. If he leaves the PC
>> on, it works fine, then at the weekend, it presumably downloaded an
>> automatic update as when he got to the PC in the morning, it had hung up
>> at the 'windows saving your settings' screen on shutdown. He left it for
>> several hours when nothing happened, then reset it, and on reboot got the
>> corrupted profile error message again. On trying to do a system restore,
>> we had to go back several weeks before we found one that worked, so it
>> looks like the profile was corrupted and it hadn't been noticed because
>> the PC had been left on all the time until the forced shutdown.
>>
>> I understand what the message is saying and why the system restore fixes
>> it, but am at a loss as to why is it happening in the first place. It is
>> also very frustrating spending hours having to do several restores until
>> we find one that works. I have done virus / spyware scans and found
>> nothing. There was also obviously a shutdown problem after the automatic
>> update (which I have now turned off) as the PC hung while shutting down -
>> don't know if this is connected. It normally shuts down ok however, so it
>> could be that the shutdown problem was caused by the corrupted profile
>> and not the other way around. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in
>> advance.
>>
>> Andy Baker
>
> Check this previous thread: 'User name assigned to a new profile!' Spamlet
> 30/9/08. A couple of people recently in this column have had similar
> problems. In my case system restore had also been turned off, which did,
> however, mean that I looked more deeply into the problem than otherwise I
> might.
>
> Related threads: 'How can I delete an account that I can't see?'. Also
> there are a lot of handy links in 'Cleaning up windows registry' 30/9/08,
> that tell you more about how profiles 'dat' files work.
>
> It is quite tricky getting the right files associated with the right user
> name because the security numbers that you can't see have to match; there
> are several different places to look for the settings; and every time you
> open an account whose 'dat' file is 'already in use' (because it has not
> unloaded completely from the last time) a new set of default profile
> folders with the user name you want to be with your original files, is
> added to confuse the issue...
>
> When you have your files back with the right user name, be sure to
> download the free 'user profile hive cleanup service' from MS to make sure
> that profiles unload completely after use.
>
> That should get you sorted.
>
> S
>

 

[Andy Baker]

Re: Profile corrupted

Thanks for the suggestions. Disabling write caching sound like a good
starting point - I will get him to do that.

Andy Baker

"Kelly" <kelly@kelly.com> wrote in message
news:eqMTDLuMJHA.728@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Suggestions:
>
> Right click My Computer, Properties, Hardware, Device Manager. Locate the
> entries for your hard disks and double click each entry. On the Policies
> tab, uncheck Enable write caching.
>
> You will see a performance decrease because of this, but if the corrupt
> registry/user profiles problems cease, then you'll be certain of the
> cause.
>
> Logon to another account with admin privilege and run System Restore.
> Choose the most recent restore point and SR should restore the user
> hives.
>
> Or...
>
> Boot into safe mode and log in as Administrator. Copy ntuser.dat from
> %windir%\repair to "Documents and Settings\[your user id]". Now do a
> system restore to a point in time prior to when the corruption message
> began to appear.
>
> Or...
>
> Relocate NTUserdat
>
> Look in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
> NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList and find the profile you want to change and
> then change ProfileImagePath to the ntuser.dat folder that you want to
> use. You must manually copy or move the ntuser.dat file there.
>
> Corrupt Hive
> http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_sys32.htm
>
> How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307545
>
> Recovering XP using the Recover Console (Line 333) Right hand side:
> http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
>
> --
>
> All the Best,
> Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)
>
> Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
> http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm
>
> SupportSpace
> www.supportspace.com/pages?aiu=kellyskorner
>
> "Andy Baker" <abaker@NOSPAMvanputer.com> wrote in message
> news:JOmdncdmu--HzmHVnZ2dnUVZ8h2dnZ2d@posted.plusnet...
>>A friend of mine has a persistent problem with his XP machine in that
>>every so often when booting up he gets an error message to the effect that
>>windows is unable to load the default profile and is instead logging him
>>on with a temporary profile. The error message also says a registry file
>>it has tried to load is not in registry format. It then logs on with the
>>default startup wallpaper and sets up default settings for Internet
>>Explorer, Outlook Express etc
>>
>> We can get it going again by doing a system restore, and it seems to work
>> for a few days, then the same thing happens again. If he leaves the PC
>> on, it works fine, then at the weekend, it presumably downloaded an
>> automatic update as when he got to the PC in the morning, it had hung up
>> at the 'windows saving your settings' screen on shutdown. He left it for
>> several hours when nothing happened, then reset it, and on reboot got the
>> corrupted profile error message again. On trying to do a system restore,
>> we had to go back several weeks before we found one that worked, so it
>> looks like the profile was corrupted and it hadn't been noticed because
>> the PC had been left on all the time until the forced shutdown.
>>
>> I understand what the message is saying and why the system restore fixes
>> it, but am at a loss as to why is it happening in the first place. It is
>> also very frustrating spending hours having to do several restores until
>> we find one that works. I have done virus / spyware scans and found
>> nothing. There was also obviously a shutdown problem after the automatic
>> update (which I have now turned off) as the PC hung while shutting down -
>> don't know if this is connected. It normally shuts down ok however, so it
>> could be that the shutdown problem was caused by the corrupted profile
>> and not the other way around. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in
>> advance.
>>
>> Andy Baker
>>
>

 

[spamlet]

Re: Profile corrupted

One more point:

In C:\documents and settings, you will probably find a whole bunch of new
basic profiles - each one created every time you log on after getting the
message. In my case, the first one of these went into a 'Temp' folder, but
subsequent ones just built up in the docs and sets folders. Each time you
log on while your dat file is 'still in use' or 'can't be found', from the
same user account, XP puts a suffix on the new profile folder name, as you
can't have two folders with the same name.

These spare profiles may look empty, but if you have used say Google Earth
or Picasa with any of them, they will have big cache files (GE can be
500meg), so you want to delete them as soon as you know which is the one you
want to keep.

A very handy tool to help you sort out which folders are taking up the most
space is David Taylor's 'Showman', which gives you a pie chart of space
usage as a right click option in 'My Computer' (Free):
http://www.satsignal.eu/software/disk.html#ShowMan

All the basic profiles will have roughly the same pie chart appearance, but
the one with all your good stuff (Outlook.pst; Outlook Express dbxs !) will
be much bigger and very different from the others. (Incidentally, make sure
you have a regular back up copy of Outlook.pst, if you use that, because
these 'just making you a new profile' events, can lose all your email in one
go - OE has a different dbx for each folder, but Outlook, puts all its eggs
in one basket: and believe me, it is quite a shock when it turns up empty!

Take care,

S


"Andy Baker" <abaker@NOSPAMvanputer.com> wrote in message
news:tIudnXHKaJdMMGDVnZ2dnUVZ8qfinZ2d@posted.plusnet...
> Thanks for the tips. He has been switching the PC off after use, and the
> profile has not corrupted again, so I have not had a chance to try your
> solution - but I will next time. Will also install the MS cleanup service
> you suggested.
>
> Andy Baker
>
> "spamlet" <spam.morespam@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
> news:%23RhDZ0pMJHA.3588@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>
>> "Andy Baker" <abaker@NOSPAMvanputer.com> wrote in message
>> news:JOmdncdmu--HzmHVnZ2dnUVZ8h2dnZ2d@posted.plusnet...
>>>A friend of mine has a persistent problem with his XP machine in that
>>>every so often when booting up he gets an error message to the effect
>>>that windows is unable to load the default profile and is instead logging
>>>him on with a temporary profile. The error message also says a registry
>>>file it has tried to load is not in registry format. It then logs on with
>>>the default startup wallpaper and sets up default settings for Internet
>>>Explorer, Outlook Express etc
>>>
>>> We can get it going again by doing a system restore, and it seems to
>>> work for a few days, then the same thing happens again. If he leaves the
>>> PC on, it works fine, then at the weekend, it presumably downloaded an
>>> automatic update as when he got to the PC in the morning, it had hung up
>>> at the 'windows saving your settings' screen on shutdown. He left it for
>>> several hours when nothing happened, then reset it, and on reboot got
>>> the corrupted profile error message again. On trying to do a system
>>> restore, we had to go back several weeks before we found one that
>>> worked, so it looks like the profile was corrupted and it hadn't been
>>> noticed because the PC had been left on all the time until the forced
>>> shutdown.
>>>
>>> I understand what the message is saying and why the system restore fixes
>>> it, but am at a loss as to why is it happening in the first place. It is
>>> also very frustrating spending hours having to do several restores until
>>> we find one that works. I have done virus / spyware scans and found
>>> nothing. There was also obviously a shutdown problem after the automatic
>>> update (which I have now turned off) as the PC hung while shutting
>>> down - don't know if this is connected. It normally shuts down ok
>>> however, so it could be that the shutdown problem was caused by the
>>> corrupted profile and not the other way around. Does anyone have any
>>> ideas? Thanks in advance.
>>>
>>> Andy Baker
>>
>> Check this previous thread: 'User name assigned to a new profile!'
>> Spamlet 30/9/08. A couple of people recently in this column have had
>> similar problems. In my case system restore had also been turned off,
>> which did, however, mean that I looked more deeply into the problem than
>> otherwise I might.
>>
>> Related threads: 'How can I delete an account that I can't see?'. Also
>> there are a lot of handy links in 'Cleaning up windows registry' 30/9/08,
>> that tell you more about how profiles 'dat' files work.
>>
>> It is quite tricky getting the right files associated with the right user
>> name because the security numbers that you can't see have to match; there
>> are several different places to look for the settings; and every time you
>> open an account whose 'dat' file is 'already in use' (because it has not
>> unloaded completely from the last time) a new set of default profile
>> folders with the user name you want to be with your original files, is
>> added to confuse the issue...
>>
>> When you have your files back with the right user name, be sure to
>> download the free 'user profile hive cleanup service' from MS to make
>> sure that profiles unload completely after use.
>>
>> That should get you sorted.
>>
>> S
>>
>
>

 

[Kelly]

Re: Profile corrupted

Most welcome, good luck and keep us posted. )

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

SupportSpace
www.supportspace.com/pages?aiu=kellyskorner

"Andy Baker" <abaker@NOSPAMvanputer.com> wrote in message
news:zKSdnbgMSO4aMmDVnZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@posted.plusnet...
> Thanks for the suggestions. Disabling write caching sound like a good
> starting point - I will get him to do that.
>
> Andy Baker
>
> "Kelly" <kelly@kelly.com> wrote in message
> news:eqMTDLuMJHA.728@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> Suggestions:
>>
>> Right click My Computer, Properties, Hardware, Device Manager. Locate
>> the entries for your hard disks and double click each entry. On the
>> Policies tab, uncheck Enable write caching.
>>
>> You will see a performance decrease because of this, but if the corrupt
>> registry/user profiles problems cease, then you'll be certain of the
>> cause.
>>
>> Logon to another account with admin privilege and run System Restore.
>> Choose the most recent restore point and SR should restore the user
>> hives.
>>
>> Or...
>>
>> Boot into safe mode and log in as Administrator. Copy ntuser.dat from
>> %windir%\repair to "Documents and Settings\[your user id]". Now do a
>> system restore to a point in time prior to when the corruption message
>> began to appear.
>>
>> Or...
>>
>> Relocate NTUserdat
>>
>> Look in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
>> NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList and find the profile you want to change and
>> then change ProfileImagePath to the ntuser.dat folder that you want to
>> use. You must manually copy or move the ntuser.dat file there.
>>
>> Corrupt Hive
>> http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_sys32.htm
>>
>> How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry
>> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307545
>>
>> Recovering XP using the Recover Console (Line 333) Right hand side:
>> http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
>>
>> --
>>
>> All the Best,
>> Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)
>>
>> Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
>> http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm
>>
>> SupportSpace
>> www.supportspace.com/pages?aiu=kellyskorner
>>
>> "Andy Baker" <abaker@NOSPAMvanputer.com> wrote in message
>> news:JOmdncdmu--HzmHVnZ2dnUVZ8h2dnZ2d@posted.plusnet...
>>>A friend of mine has a persistent problem with his XP machine in that
>>>every so often when booting up he gets an error message to the effect
>>>that windows is unable to load the default profile and is instead logging
>>>him on with a temporary profile. The error message also says a registry
>>>file it has tried to load is not in registry format. It then logs on with
>>>the default startup wallpaper and sets up default settings for Internet
>>>Explorer, Outlook Express etc
>>>
>>> We can get it going again by doing a system restore, and it seems to
>>> work for a few days, then the same thing happens again. If he leaves the
>>> PC on, it works fine, then at the weekend, it presumably downloaded an
>>> automatic update as when he got to the PC in the morning, it had hung up
>>> at the 'windows saving your settings' screen on shutdown. He left it for
>>> several hours when nothing happened, then reset it, and on reboot got
>>> the corrupted profile error message again. On trying to do a system
>>> restore, we had to go back several weeks before we found one that
>>> worked, so it looks like the profile was corrupted and it hadn't been
>>> noticed because the PC had been left on all the time until the forced
>>> shutdown.
>>>
>>> I understand what the message is saying and why the system restore fixes
>>> it, but am at a loss as to why is it happening in the first place. It is
>>> also very frustrating spending hours having to do several restores until
>>> we find one that works. I have done virus / spyware scans and found
>>> nothing. There was also obviously a shutdown problem after the automatic
>>> update (which I have now turned off) as the PC hung while shutting
>>> down - don't know if this is connected. It normally shuts down ok
>>> however, so it could be that the shutdown problem was caused by the
>>> corrupted profile and not the other way around. Does anyone have any
>>> ideas? Thanks in advance.
>>>
>>> Andy Baker
>>>
>>
>
>