Windows deleted my user account

[andyrooKettle]

A) While I was using it. B) On a new install of windows 7.
Explorer crashed and I received the message:
"No mapping between account names security IDs was done"
When trying to open various programs (including windows explorer) I get the above error message.
What's more it would appear my user account has been deleted! I still have a folder in C:\Users\ but when I go to manage user accounts I have no profile picture (and I cannot add a new one), also I cannot "manage users". So I have no way of adding a new user account.
This happened yesterday and I used safe mode to make a new account. Today when starting "ASUS AI Suite" (a tool for general computer hardware control) the problem reoccurred. Clearly something is seriously wrong.
When this happened before I rebooted my PC and at the login screen there was no user to click on to login, only a blank "user name" and "password" field to fill in. I tried putting my username and password in but to no avail. (that's when I used safe mode to create a new user)
I've left my PC running this time to try and investigate what the problem is.
If no one has any advice for me I planning on going back to a system restore point just after installing the new operating system
If that doesn't work, then I'm looking at a clean install...

*I have not tried to rename or in any other way alter my user account

UPDATE:
Running system restore gave a VSS error, so I'm running system restore from the boot menu, which seems to be working - yay

System restore worked, I'm now reinstalling stuff. Thanks for everyone's help! And I shall avoid using AI suite, I might try contacting ASUS about it, perhaps try and recreate what happened using a different user profile too.

 

[derekimo]

Welcome to the forum,

Here's a couple things to try,

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

I was thinking about this,

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

Since you can't get to a user account that wouldn't work.

 

[andyrooKettle]

UPDATE:
After some -more- googling something mentioned the profile list in regedit:
I've looked in: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\
And it contains entries for my old user, my new user (the one I am currently running) and Administrator.
All the keys are the same for each of the users except:
ProfileImagePath - C:\User\User1,2,Administrator etc
RefCount - some number
and State.
The value of the state key is ZERO for both the old and new users and 0x00000304 (772) for admin.
I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be zero for the user I'm currently running. Anyway I hope this helps find a solution.

 

[andyrooKettle]

Hey, thanks for the quick reply.
I'm currently running sfc /scannow (as I'm still logged in as a user, although how I'm not entirely sure as windows doesn't seem to think my user exists anymore).
I'll stay logged until the scan is finished so I can post the results.
Many thanks derekimo!

UPDATE:
The scan did not find any integrity violations (I feel almost disappointed)

I'll try going back using a restore point, fingers crossed.

 

[derekimo]

Sounds good, keep us posted.

 

[Capt.Jack Sparrow]

Hello !! Welcome to SF !!

Essentially, the reason you are getting the "No mapping between account names and security IDs was done" is because you now have an orphaned user account. This occurred when you deleted your old user name which was still in use by the system as each user name has a unique SID or a corrupted User.

Go to the Safe Mode backup your user settings the delete the Users all of them. Not the User called "Administrator" then create a brand new User and Administrator then reboot to normal mode.

If you already have a Restore point try doing a System restore.

Good Luck,
Captain

Edit: Wow i was taking too much time in researching the issue. Good replay Derek !

 

[andyrooKettle]

Hi Capt.Jack Sparrow,
What you're saying seems correct, but I never deleted my user account, at no point did I try to rename it either. Windows seems to have done it all on it's own. After the first crash, I rebooted, when confronted with a blank login screen I used safe mode to make another user. At no point did I delete anything!
I just tried a restored point (before the install of AI Suite - which I think is where the problems started), but it gave the error message:
"VSS encountered problems while sending events to writers. (0x80042315)"
I'm going to keep trying earlier restore points to see if I can get it to work. If I can't then it looks like I'll be using DVD to do a repair.
Thanks for the help!

 

[Petey7]

The value of the state key is ZERO for both the old and new users and 0x00000304 (772) for admin.
I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be zero for the user I'm currently running. Anyway I hope this helps find a solution.

State is zero is for my account in my registry, so I think that is fine.

 

[andyrooKettle]

The reason for restore not working is because the VSS service is "stopped". I right clicked and selected "Start service" only to get:
"The operation could not be completed. Access denied"
Which I assume is due to my orphaned user account, sigh!
I'll try logging in as administrator (safe mode) and running restore point from there, I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Petey7]

Can you set the service to automatic, or is it already auto?

 

[andyrooKettle]

Ok, VSS now seems to be running (I ran restore point again, and it started). But I still get the same error message about not being able to send events to writers... weird