Can't log into user account

shami

I'd really appreciate some help as I really can't figure out what's gone wrong or how to rectify it without losing my files.

I have a Lenovo N200 laptop with Vista Home Premium. Last night after browsing, I let the pc go on standby. The battery was charged up at the time.

This morning when I started up the laptop I noticed that the battery was totally flat. After plugging in and starting up I noticed that the laptop had rebooted rather than resuming (usually what happens if the battery runs out). However, when I tried to log in I got a series of error messages, eg. 'the file or directory \ProgramData\Microsoft is corrupt and unreadable. Please run chkdsk', 'application failed to initialize 0x800106'.

I am logged into a temp user account, which has no Administrative Tools, no system restore. Each time I restart the laptop the same thing happens, a temp user profile is created from scratch, as though i am using the laptop for the 1st time.

I can view the C: drive but not My Documents, which comes up with the error message 'the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable'.

I can go into the Lenovo Care, but would like to find/save my docs, pics etc. before attempting a recovery.

Please help! Thank you.

fwor

Some or all of the files that were open when the battery went flat will now be in an indeterminate state, and there's really only one option - open a command prompt and type "chkdsk c: /f". If Vista is the same as XP then it will check and correct the file system when you reboot.

If you really must try to save your docs somewhere before running chkdsk, the easiest way would be to run a bootable CD, such as SystemRescueCD or the Ultimate Boot CD and copy them on to a pendrive. However, if the part of the file system where your docs are is corrupt, the copy will probably fail.

If you need/want to "suspend" the laptop when not plugged into the power in future, you should use the "hibernate" option, as it stores an image of what's in memory onto the disk and then shuts down, and reloads it into memory when you next power it up. The "standby" option effectively keeps everything in memory and so uses power all the time it's in that mode.

shami

Hi thanks for the advice. Thing is, nothing was open at the time apart from IE. Also although I can access the control panel (to eg. look at add/remove programs), no programs - other than IE, media player and windows mail - are on the start up menu or in 'all programs'. Even windows accessories submenu is empty except for 'run', command prompt' and 'notepad'. No system restore etc.

After googling, I found MS guide to move files/folders to a new user account. However even this doesn't work, as each new account I create, when logged into, gives the error message '..programdata\microsoft is corrupted and unreadable'.

I also tried running chkdsk from the command prompt - all I get is run on next boot-up for which I enter yes, but nothing happens when I reboot.

Help!!

TonyLisaP

It is the all user profile that is corrupted I am afraid.
You may have to do a system restore

shami

But that's part of the problem. I can't find anyway of doing a system restore!

Also i just attempted to alter a program in add/remove programs - nothing happens.

fwor

A System Restore has got to be worth a try, though I'm not sure that it will restore user account profiles.

Although IE was the only program that you were using when it went into Standby, Windows itself would have had numerous files open at the time.

If you can't get chkdsk to run, I would try the TestDisk utility on the Ultimate Boot CD:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Unfortunately you'll probably need to get a friend to download and burn it to CD for you, as your laptop doesn't sound to be in any fit state for that...

Alternatively, if you have a Vista installation CD, there are utilities that you can use if you boot from that. If it's the same as XP, you can use chkdsk from the Recovery Console, although the command syntax is slightly different in that version of chkdsk.

shami

I don't know how to go about doing a system restore as it no longer appears in the windows accessories menu (in fact there is no 'system tools' anymore). You're right there isn't a lot I can do although at first appearance everything looks normal. Once I have logged in to whichever user account, and customised it from scratch - this happens whether I log into through original my username, or the newly created ones. I have to set up wireless internet connections etc. each time. IE launches as though for the 1st time etc.

I can then surf the web, but not much else as there are no files available for me to open (except the default MS sample folders containing music and pics) to see if the corresponding programs will open them, and of course they are no longer in the programs list.

I can press the Lenovo button on bootup to launch their recovery system, but I can't find any files in 'my documents' folder to back up (folder when selected shows as 0Mb). I do have a backup of everything to the end of Feb., but I don't really want to lose more recent stuff. Having said that important stuff is backed up on our home pc and external hard drive.

I am just hoping to find a way of resolving the corrupted user profile problem without having to lose any data. Also to avoid this problem in future by getting insight into what may have caused this.

thanks again.

fwor

Sorry to have to say the same thing over again, but your first priority has got to be to fix the corruption in the file system.

If you keep trying to add user profiles and stuff like that, chances are you will make things worse, and will increase the probability that you will overwrite data that would otherwise be recoverable.

Once the file system is back in shape, there are several tools (some referred to above) that you can use to find and save your data before trying to fix the damage to the system files.

amaseal

I posted today about a Lenovo laptop.
I have the same corrupt files and cannot get into the system restore because they are corrupt.
I did manage to download all of my files in safe mode.
I only realised once it had gone wrong that there are no back up disks.
I emailed Dabs and they have given me this number for Lenovo support:
0870 5500 900
I will ring them tomorrow. I am happy to reboot everything as I seem to have an Adloader Trojan according to Avast and cannot run any spyware properly.
Hopefully they will be able to send me the disks.
I don't know how to do the command prompt mentioned earlier in the post. I did switch off the pagefile feature to see if that helped but it hasn't - I cannot repair the registry. I had Diskeeper.exe errors too.
My problem came after the laptop cable failed and the battery went dead so perhaps its a common fault.

shami

amaseal wrote: »

My problem came after the laptop cable failed and the battery went dead so perhaps its a common fault.

That's interesting. Previously, my laptop battery has lasted for hours in standby so I was very surprised that the battery was flat, esp. as it'd been charged alst night.

Fwor, I guess you are right and i should try and get the OS working properly before attempting to get the files back.

shami

While looking in control panel > system, I see that Windows an activation code!! The laptop came pre-installed Vista Home Premium, no disks but recovery on hard drive. I rang Lenovo tech support, who said I would have to restore to factory settings to get Windows activated again. Is this correct? Grateful for any advice.