Accidentally deleted my main user account !!! HELP

shayden · 07 Sep 2013

Hi everyone.

So i get back from a beautiful Holiday in Australia and my Laptop (a sony Vaio running windows 7) comes up with a message like this....."User Profile Service service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded".

So i found this link on you tube User Profile Service service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded - YouTube and checked out what he had to say and it sounded like it would fix my issue. I ran it in safe mode, searched for regedit - went into the profile list and deleted the double up profile that ended with .bac . But now i cannot find my User when i log out. It only runs as the administrator and looks like it does when i first got this laptop.

However when i do a search in the c/Drive my user is there with all the contents in it????? and also when i go int control panel my user is also there.

SO my question is, what on earth have i done and how can i get my beloved user back hahahaha

would much appreciate your help. I want my user back haha.

gregrocker · 07 Sep 2013

Have you tried Startup Repair I'd also run a full scan with Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware to get that out of the way first.

Since your files are there you can enable Built-in Administrator - Enable from WinRE, create a new Admin-level account, copy your files over from the failed one and once you are sure you have everything delete it. If you have hidden appdata just google the program (e.g. outlook) to find out where the data is stored so you can unhide the file to copy it too.

Once you've got the new profile set up and running well, you can hide the Built In Admin acct again.

This may be easier than trying to repair, but if you want you can from within the built-in Admin acct work through the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7, particularly to check for infections, run SFC, possibly Repair Install. It's easier to just make a new account though, unless that fails too in which case you'll need to do the steps - leading up to possible reinstall.

shayden · 07 Sep 2013

Thanks so much for a reply. so you think just copy all my files over will be the safest bet

gregrocker · 07 Sep 2013

Yes, would be easiest if System Restore can't undo what you did from System Recovery Options then I would open the Command Line to enable Built In Admin as shown in the link earlier.

Rereading your post it seems you have an Admin account that works. You might also want to use it if performance hasn't been affected.

If I came home from a trip and my User account was bollixed I'd suspect someone using it, possibly getting it infected. So it's good to check for infection now either way you decide.