Windows XP: Built-in Administrator account/profile damaged/corrupt

AndyPix

Do you still get the error when booting into safe mode ?

mro

that wrote: »

would suggest you get a bootable linux disk, or winpe and rename the admin profile.

It is rare for the account to become corrupt, but profiles regularly become corrupt

Just to be clear on exactly what you are saying.


What do you mean by Account & Profile ?

Do you mean by the Account, the overall account, all account features including Registry for Administrator account ?

Profile, do you mean the user Administrator folder in Documents & Settings ?

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mro

AndyPix wrote: »

Do you still get the error when booting into safe mode ?

Yes, got same error in Safe Mode.

mro

Neil_Jones wrote: »

The command line in XP works differently from later versions of Windows in which it doesn't specifically require Admin privileges to get stuff done, as opposed to Vista, 7 8 and 10.

Will try this next when I see computer in person, have been helping over phone so far.

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mro

that wrote: »

would suggest you get a bootable linux disk, or winpe and rename the admin profile.

It is rare for the account to become corrupt, but profiles regularly become corrupt

Does windows create a new Administrator profile if you do that, if you rename current profile.

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Neil_Jones

Don't just rename the profile folder (ie what you see as C:\Users\Administrator), because Windows will NOT create a new profile, it will just hang. It is expecting to see a profile folder called Administrator in a specific place (typically C:\Users) and if its not there there is no way for Windows to recover.

that

Neil_Jones wrote: »

Don't just rename the profile folder (ie what you see as C:\Users\Administrator), because Windows will NOT create a new profile, it will just hang. It is expecting to see a profile folder called Administrator in a specific place (typically C:\Users) and if its not there there is no way for Windows to recover.

Admitttedly, never tried admin profile, but it normally recreates other profiles when I deleted or rename their profile, think it uses the default profile as a template?

if you are correct Neil Jones, probably copying another profile from another xp box may be enough to get him in?

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mro, what is so special about this box? Why go through all this trouble? What exactly do you want to get off?Do they have a backup?

Also do not delete anything, but rename!

Do you have a backup image of that drive you can restore? You need this backup, and possibly different methods of backing stuff up!!!
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mro, if your disk is not corrupt, a bootable linux disk will give you access to the drive, and you should be able to copy files and directories (data) off that drive to a usb drive.

If you have bespoke software, with an embedded serial number, and the company has gone under, rebuilding Hives (registry) is a pita, and the mileage of the outcome may vary.

Are you sure the disk has not failed (hardware fault), because rebuilding on a faulty disk is a waste of time, possibly dangerous to your data too. If faulty, and you need that exact disk content back, you will probably need a disk of the same size or larger, and you may need to send your old drive to a recovery company

Neil_Jones

that wrote: »

Admitttedly, never tried admin profile, but it normally recreates other profiles when I deleted or rename their profile, think it uses the default profile as a template?

if you are correct Neil Jones, probably copying another profile from another xp box may be enough to get him in?

From experience (I've said before I used to work in fixing these things for a living) XP wil not recreate a profile (heck, one only occasionally had to connect a second drive with a set of profiles on it such as an old installation and if they matched the first one, XP would often try to use it for some reason. So if you disconnected the drive and restarted, XP would just hang. If it hangs in that situation it's most likely going to hang as well if the profile isn't there on the C drive).

I would personally not suggest copying a profile from another computer; if the command prompt is still working it will be better to generate a new profile that way, because that will generate a new profile on reboot (same as if you make one in Control Panel) as XP is expecting it. Renaming the profile folder on the disk is asking for trouble as XP will not regenerate it. In fact running XP under the Administrator account was the worst possible thing you can do as when the account breaks you're pretty much up a proverbial creek without a paddle.

that

Neil_Jones wrote: »

From experience (I've said before I used to work in fixing these things for a living) XP wil not recreate a profile (heck, one only occasionally had to connect a second drive with a set of profiles on it such as an old installation and if they matched the first one, XP would often try to use it for some reason. So if you disconnected the drive and restarted, XP would just hang. If it hangs in that situation it's most likely going to hang as well if the profile isn't there on the C drive).

I would personally not suggest copying a profile from another computer; if the command prompt is still working it will be better to generate a new profile that way, because that will generate a new profile on reboot (same as if you make one in Control Panel) as XP is expecting it. Renaming the profile folder on the disk is asking for trouble as XP will not regenerate it. In fact running XP under the Administrator account was the worst possible thing you can do as when the account breaks you're pretty much up a proverbial creek without a paddle.

I've done literally many 100's of xp profiles, it was the bread and butter call in our org. Non of my profiles were ever admin bar one though, but had to rebuild an admin account on a failed disk (my own). Also on a separate occasion partially rebuilt my own account as the cd drive entries got messed up badly and reinstallation of drivers would not fix it. However if you delete or rename a profile, the first time you log in it takes itself under 5 minutes to set itself up a new profile which is a long wait, users get worried and nearly always comment, and looks like the machine hangs. mro, YOU always rename the account and copy files by using a bootable cd, or bootable usb drive.

Also I have used hives from other system that were the exact same hardware spec and model.

if it goes wrong you can always delete what you put on and rename the old stuff back (it is just a collection of 0's and 1's), but if you get your sequencing wrong, or screw up there is always a disk image backup, and I made a file level backup too, which was the most important.

The aim of getting it booting perfect is very hard I did not achieve this, nor was this my objective. Just to get it to boot with errors was do-able but not easy and took me two weeks of evenings... but you have to know what you are more or less are doing in these uncharted waters. With respect to mro, who sounds inexperienced, this level may be well outside his skill level, think we do not have the whole picture, hence my questions in the precious post, we know what he wants, but not what he needs, and why he does just not start from scratch.

AndyPix

If the profile folder is renamed then XP should create another one OR log you on with a temporary profile.


OP - if you look at the profile list, is there one named something like administr~1 ??