The user profile service failed the logon....

Hello,

Needed to send my laptop for repair. So took out my HDD and used it in an external enclosure, just working on data.

After getting my laptop, I put the old HDD in and now my User Profile is all messed up. I have 2 users - both Admin - and cannot log on. Keep getting
"The user profile service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded"

I started in safe mode. This time my Regular Admin password worked fine, was able to log in and see desktop, files etc.

Went to registry and see only 2 entries - No entry with ".bak".
Saw RefCount was "1" for both and changed both to "0".
Reboot normal but no luck.

Booted in safe mode and ran SFC /SCANNOW but it found no errors.

Now in safe mode, I went to Users Folder (which is in a different partition), right click on ONE profile folder, went to properties and under Security Tab see

System
Administrators
Account Unknown with a SID that does NOT match the SID in registry for this User Profile.

Should I just add my User Profile to Security tab for this User Folder and give Full Control?

Thanks,

Brink said:

Hello Kaufman, :)

For now, you might see if the method in the tutorial below may be able to help.

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

Thanks, I did look at that and also MS article:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...-error-message

before posting.

Afraid, paths under Option-1 to Fix the issue does NOT pertain to me.

Before going forward with Option-2, I wanted to try and see if my existing profile can be salvaged in any manner.

mitchell65 said:

What repair did you have done?

None yet, waiting to see what an optimum fix would be - Fix current profile or create new profile

Brink said:

It may be best to create a new profile, and copy over any files you wanted from the old one.

Twist for me is that
(1) I can log on to Safe Mode with User01/Pwd (Admin).
(2) Under my D:\Users\User01, Properties -> Security, I see
"Account Unknown(SID)"
which is different from my SID for this User01 in registry.

Hence, was wondering what could be the effect if I add "User01" with Full Control to D:\Users\User01, remove "Account Unknown" and then see.

Could that work? Is there something that could go wrong?

I have a Reflect Rescue media as well, wondering if that could help

Brink said:

"Account Unknown" is for an account that is currently not available. Usually, this is for a user from another computer. This most likely was from what you stated below for the account you worked on it from.

"So took out my HDD and used it in an external enclosure, just working on data."

Yes, that is what I thought could be the reason and hence mentioned in OP

Brink said:

You could try taking ownership of the folder to see if that may help.

Would like to know if Reflect Rescue Media can help in any way in restoring the user profile properly?

I did take ownership of folder, removed "Account Unknown" from Security/Permissions completely and now able to log in using User01. However, it does not seem to be working. Seems like a brand new but MESSED up profile. Cannot even create a folder on desktop, cannot save any settings etc. Can see my desktop with all files but all Outlook profiles, Favorites etc are gone.

So, before creating a new Profile route, if Reflect Rescue Media can help then can look at that first. If not, then creating a new Profile is what I'll do.

Thanks