error 80070402 deleting user account on win xp home

[Guest]

Hi, I am abysmally unlucky using newsgroups. I tend to get no reply at all.
If I do something wrong, please let me know. I do need help.

I am getting an error trying to delete a user account on a Windows XP Home
machine which was heavily infected (virus, mal-ware, dialers, etc).

I tried to delete the user account and specified to save the files. I got
the message "The specified local group does not exist" and every other
attempt yields "Could not complet the operation due to error 80070402". I
have googled around and I am seeing this message turn up, but I am finding no
resolution steps that will work on the XP Home OpSys.

I'm open to suggestions,
-g

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

9 times out of 10 a "machine which was heavily infected (virus, mal-ware, dialers, etc)"
should be reformatted and a "Clean Install" performed. They is no telling how much
damage was done by all the malware.

Clean Install Windows XP
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Hi, I am abysmally unlucky using newsgroups. I tend to get no reply at all.
| If I do something wrong, please let me know. I do need help.
|
| I am getting an error trying to delete a user account on a Windows XP Home
| machine which was heavily infected (virus, mal-ware, dialers, etc).
|
| I tried to delete the user account and specified to save the files. I got
| the message "The specified local group does not exist" and every other
| attempt yields "Could not complet the operation due to error 80070402". I
| have googled around and I am seeing this message turn up, but I am finding no
| resolution steps that will work on the XP Home OpSys.
|
| I'm open to suggestions,
| -g

 

[Guest]

Carey, Thank you for your reply.

I'm afraid that reformatting is not a real good option at this juncture.
There is software on the machine which cannot be re-installed because the
client does not have the discs. It is amazing how many of my clients fail to
keep the most basic re-install stuff. This situation could be the subject of
a rant, but I'll leave off on that.

Anyway, Do you (or anyone else) have a method to delete the user account? I
can delete the data, but I would like to be clean about the whole thing and
get rid of the user accounts entirely. I tried to use the snapin, but alas,
Home is crippled in that regard and it won't operate.

-g

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Try the following:

User Profile Hive Cleanup Service
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6d-8912-4e18-b570-42470e2f3582&displaylang=en

What's User Profile Hive Cleanup Service (UPHClean)?
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/Print.cfm?ArticleID=42257

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Carey, Thank you for your reply.
|
| I'm afraid that reformatting is not a real good option at this juncture.
| There is software on the machine which cannot be re-installed because the
| client does not have the discs. It is amazing how many of my clients fail to
| keep the most basic re-install stuff. This situation could be the subject of
| a rant, but I'll leave off on that.
|
| Anyway, Do you (or anyone else) have a method to delete the user account? I
| can delete the data, but I would like to be clean about the whole thing and
| get rid of the user accounts entirely. I tried to use the snapin, but alas,
| Home is crippled in that regard and it won't operate.
|
| -g

 

[Guest]

Carey,

Thank you again. I tried that but it didn't seem to help. I don't want to
log the accounts which I am trying to delete. I went to the event log, clear
it and re-created the error. Nothing showed up in the event log.

Alas, I can go no further. I tried to do an XP repair run, but #(%*&%&# the
XP HOME OEM disc that I have is not valid with the user's XP HOME OEM COA
number on their machine. Just when I though "Great, no more lost numbers," I
find that I can't use my discs when the user's no longer have theirs. Curses
& very frustrated. How is a repair shop to function in this environment?

Anyway, thanks for your help. Please consider this closed with no resolution.

 

[Guest]

Hi,
I also had the "Could not complete the operation due to error 80070402"
problem. I tried everything. THis is what finally worked for me. I logged
into the account I was trying to delete. Went to settings and removed
administrer privileges. Set the account to limited. Next logged out of that
account went to an administrator accont and removed the account with the
error message. It deleted the problem account.

 

[monkeywrench]

resolution

Thanks guest, I had the same problem and this worked for me. any other success stories are helpful for anyone just discovering they have this problem. It shows that there is/are way/s to solve this particular M$ annoyance.

 

[melthree16]

Solution to your problem...

To resolve this issue, do the following:

1. Go to Start
2. Run
3. Type "control userpasswords2" (without the quotes)
4. Then in the User Account screen, select the user you want to delete
5. Click "Remove"
6. When it asks you "Are you sure?" click Yes.

and that will delete that account...