Windows 7: Interactive Logon Process Initialization Has Failed....HELP

I have a dell laptop Studio 15. Windows 7 Home 64bit. Tonight I got some strange error saying it couldn't find some file. Then it restarted it self. Did a disk check. Found tons of errors, fixed them, and then when it restarted I got the error "Interactive Logon Process initialization has failed. Please consult the event log for more details.

# 1 How do I consult the event log when I can't even get to a command prompt?

#2 Is there a fix somewhere for this? Dell didn't give me a windows 7 operating system disk. Called them and had them send it to me but it will be 1-2 business days. Hoping to get this fixed tonight though if possible.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Melissa

I found a Windows 7 Recovery tool for those that don't have the windows 7 cd rom. It did a scan and this is what it found.

Diagnosis and repair details:

Registry is corrupt

Repair action: registry rollback

Result Failed: Error Code = 0x20


I tried to do a restore point to restore it to a previous state. That failed as well.

Right now am doing a chkdsk /r on the drive. Hope that works. Otherwise. I'll have to wait until Dell sends me the windows 7 operating system disk and then just hopefully reinstall windows over itself. That should fix the registry issue. It has in windows xp in the past. Will this work with windows 7?

Mel

Option #2 making a repair disk. Give this a look.
After making the disk you can do a repair install and other options.
System Repair Disc - Create

Mike

Its not clear to me what all you can access. If you can browse to folders, navigate to

C:\windows\system32\config\regback

Inside that folder, you'll find backups of registry hives. Check the date, if they pre-date the problem, copy them to the config folder. See if that helps.

It appears you dont have a Windows 7 install dvd, otherwise a repair install would have been in order. Best to wait for the Dell disks to turn up. Once you are on your feet again, image the system drive with macrium or the inbuilt tool, that'll care of future situations like this.

I did find a solution. I hit F8 and a repair option came up. Then I tried one of the last restore points again after Check Disk found errors and fixed them. The restore point worked and now it's back up and running.

What is the macrium or the inbuilt tool? Is there a tool in windows where I can create an image back up so that in then future I just reload the image to the drive?

I guess one good thing came out of this. I now will have a windows 7 operating disk for the computer

Thanks!
Mel

Macrium is a free tool that can be used to create and restore system images. Its highly recommended by many people here.

Imaging with free Macrium

Windows 7 also has a good inbuilt backup restore tool.

Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Dont forget to look at the other tuts linked on that page.

Macrium Reflect is a very good image backup free program.

For future reference, your Dell should have a factory Image restore, which is what you have instead of a DVD.

Check your manual, it should look something like this, my Dell laptop manual is for Vista but yours should be similar.

Quote:

Windows Vista: Dell Factory Image Restore


1 Turn on the computer. When the Dell logo appears, press <F8> several times to access the Vista Advanced Boot Options window.

2 Select Repair Your Computer. The System Recovery Options window appears.

3 Select a keyboard layout and click Next.

4 To access the recovery options, log on as a local user. To access the
command prompt, type administrator in the User name field, then click OK.

5 Click Dell Factory Image Restore.

NOTE: Depending upon your configuration, you may need to select Dell Factory Tools, then Dell Factory Image Restore.

The Dell Factory Image Restore welcome screen appears.

6 Click Next.
The Confirm Data Deletion screen appears.

NOTICE: If you do not want to proceed with Factory Image Restore, click Cancel.


7 Click the check box to confirm that you want to continue reformatting the hard drive and restoring the system software to the factory condition, and then click Next.
The restore process begins and may take five or more minutes to complete. A message appears when the operating system and factory-installed applications have been restored to factory condition.

8 Click Finish to reboot the system.

It's much easier to use Macrium Reflect and restore the image from you current running system.

Just wanted to give Bill2 +1,000,000 internet points for helping me fix this problem. Our manufacturing line is back up and running thanks to you!

a google search eventurally led me to this fourm, i did my registration just to give BILL2 his credit. you saved my computer and my job

Welcome to our Forum John. Bill2 has been off line for some time but we all do thank you for your kind words.

Please come back and see us often and check out Tutorials at the top of each page. A lot of great information.