Win7 Profile Recovery

RandomQ

I have a stable version of windows7 running on a laptop that has served me well for years, occasionally there is a crash but I have always been able to get it operational again.

I moved to SSD some time ago and this is the first crash I have had since the upgrade.

The system froze and I suspect that it was an error on a particular sector on the SSD, I left it overnight to see if it was going to sort itself out but nothing happened so I rebooted it.

At this point it would not boot Win7 and said it could not see Win7, I fixed that but when I logged into Win7 with my usual non-admin account it would no load the Windows Profile (loading a temp one instead).

I copied off the profile files and backed up the registry

I tried to copy the profile via Windoes Advanced Settings but none of the profiles except default can be copied. The profile in question was marked as Backup

I tweaked the registry settings in Profilelist to unset backup and set ref count etc but these did not resolve problem after reboot and it got set back to backup status.

I was hoping someone here might have some suggestions or utilities that may be able to help me in recoving this profile?

arciere

Rather than trying to recover a damaged profile on a (probably) damaged disk, why don't you just save as much data as you can and start over?

thorganby

RandomQ wrote: »

I was hoping someone here might have some suggestions or utilities that may be able to help me in recoving this profile?

Telling you to start over with a fresh install is not answering your question but is unfortunately a typical reply on here as a cure all.

Try following the steps here:
https://neosmart.net/wiki/corrupt-user-profile/#Fix_Corrupt_User_Profile_in_Windows_7

arciere

thorganby wrote: »

Telling you to start over with a fresh install is not answering your question but is unfortunately a typical reply on here as a cure all.

Sorry, but I don't think that in this case a fresh install is a 'typical reply'.
The drive is likely damaged, as well as the profile. Recovering a profile will not achieve anything useful if you are planning to use the same disk and the same Windows installation.
You will still need to replace the drive and/or install Windows from scratch.

If you manage to recover the profile and the drive is faulty, you will get the same problem over and over again.

RandomQ

Sorry I should have provided more detail.

The SSD is fine, I have done extensive tests on the drive and am confident in it.

I know of option to restart fresh but I do not want to do that, I have a lot "invested" in my profile and would appreciate any expertise anyone has regarding profiles.

It is a lot easier with a Windows Server when one can have the profile backed up etc but this is a standalone laptop.

Over the years the Windows Updates have reduced the functionality of Win7 it is irritating as I have been able to manage profiles before.

RandomQ

thorganby wrote: »

Telling you to start over with a fresh install is not answering your question but is unfortunately a typical reply on here as a cure all.

Try following the steps here:
https://neosmart.net/wiki/corrupt-user-profile/#Fix_Corrupt_User_Profile_in_Windows_7

Thanks I saw that, the download Fix it #50446 was not available, I found two versions online but could not get either of them to load, I think they have been disabled somehow.

I have a clone of my laptop with a working copy of my profile from about a year ago, I am going to try merging the profiles from that and my faulty one onto a different hard disk.

I am surprised that there are not more utilities, I did find a utility called DefProf, but it could not see the damaged profile, here is link in case a reader is interested

https://www.forensit.com/downloads.html

I think that this is a deny permission issue, maybe to a registry key, but not sure which one.

Normally the fix just involves renaming a key that is .bak in the profile list

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList]

and maybe changing settings like

"RefCount"=dword:00000001

to

"RefCount"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-21-5555555555-5555555555-495555555-1001]
"ProfileImagePath"=hex(2):11,00,2a,00,11,00,11,00,11,00,11,00,11,00,11,00,11,\
00,11,00,11,00,00,00
"Flags"=dword:00000000
"State"=dword:00000000
"Sid"=hex:01,01,00,00,00,00,00,01,11,00,00,00,11,11,11,11,fb,13,11,ca,11,ef,11,\
11,11,11,00,00
"ProfileLoadTimeLow"=dword:00000000
"ProfileLoadTimeHigh"=dword:00000000
"RefCount"=dword:00000001
"RunLogonScriptSync"=dword:00000000

I wonder if there is another registry key setting that is telling it to set it back to .BAK

that

that profile is normally consists of user files, items or links or shortcut (pick your own terminology here) on the start button, and registry settings. The registry settings specific for that account are the ones that normally screw up. The file name is ntuser.dat (there could be a secondary one called ntuser.pol) co could rename the ntuser.dat to ntuser.datx then rename the ,bak file to ntuser.dat

Think there is little chance in you fixing the settings or reviving the account easily, if at all.

What you may want to do is copy off your data and forget the rest? I have had mixed results with windows security and taking ownership as admin of files and directories like this, but it is the easiest method. Then copy the data to another folder, then rename that RandomQ folder to bad_RandomQ.
Go into windows as admin and delete the RandomQ user, then create the RandomQ and start from afresh.

The second easiest and quickest way was to use a live linux boot usb and copy the data to another folder, then rename that RandomQ folder to bad_RandomQ.
Go into windows as admin and delete the RandomQ user, then create the RandomQ and start from afresh.

The other harder way is from within windows. Go in as admin. Download from MS SubInACL.exe. Get a command prompt box. Go to a parent of the working folder. Use the file above to get the rights from a working folder then modify the RandomQ profile to the same as the working folder. Now you should have access to the files. copy the data to another folder, then rename that RandomQ folder to bad_RandomQ.
https://www.petri.com/subinacl-setting-permissions

There is also a bit of software around call takeown, which is easier, but found SubInACL.exe to be better but harder to use.

Or just be lazy and set up a new user called RandomQ2