Windows 7: User account corrupted, administrator account not accessible

My Windows7 suddenly displayed a default desktop. I then did an unsuccessful system restore, tried the undo and got stuck.

From there on, when I want to log in I end up at the error message "The user profile service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded".

I tried to activate the administrator account by using "net user administrator /active:yes". The command executes, but administrator never shows up on the login screen.

I cannot start Windows 7 in safe mode. A few seconds after the safe mode login screen appears the computer restarts automatically. No administrator account is listed here either.

I tried kb/947215, but only S-1-5-18, 19 and 20 show up (regedit from the command prompt, since I cannot log into Windows 7 in any mode.

The startup repair doesn't find a fault. What now? I want to avoid a clean install, if at all possible...

You could try a Repair Install: Repair Install

The instructions start with
Step 1: Start Windows 7, long into an administrator account.
I can't do that.

I tried creating a new administrator account with net user /add useraccount. The account shows up when I run a subsequent net user query, but when I restart it is gone.

In the absence of any other ideas, a clean install may be your only option.

If I could somehow get Windows started, my options would increase tenfold. I have an old backup of the registry, I wonder what would happen if I recreated the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-21-xxx
registry key.

this is easily solved following the tutorial below, thanks to brink who saved my bacon with it a few months back.


User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded. - Windows 7 Forums

Thanks for posting the link Julian, it's a fix I wasn't aware of.

Hey guys
Thanks for trying, but this is also not going to fly. I can't get into safe mode (for one or other reason the computer reboots before logging on), and even then I don't have the option of using an administrator account.
I can use regedit form the command prompt when using a repair disc, but it doesn't list a long S-1-5 key.

mmm , tricky one this .
can you do a repair install, it will save your user folder to windows old, then you could move the contents back over to your new user folder.

Repair Install - Windows 7 Forums

Thank you for the instructions and I will follow them. Will post problem tomorrow.