Windows cannot find local profile

[christopher]

We get a message saying Windows cannot load the locally
stored profile, possibly due to insufficient security
rights ro corrupt local profile . . . followed by a
message that it is signing them on to a temporary
identity.

MS has a Knowledge Base Article (812339) which basically
tells you to to create a new user . . . I want to restore
the original user.

MS also acknowledges this to be a problem with Windows XP.

Any thoughts, similar experiences, or more importantly,
any solutions?

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

if its a server / workstation system, just reboot,
login admin, and delete the local profiles. the server
will fix it when you log in as that person.

if its a "local only" profile, reboot, login admin,
and create a new user. copy desktop, my crap, favorites,
etc from the bad profile into the new one.

In my experience once the (local only)profile dies, you
cant fix it. Occasionally the server one will die but
you can patch that from a local copy, you always have a
good copy unless all machines die.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

If the profile is corrupt, then the Registry hive for that user is corrupt. Create a new account, as the article states, then use the following information to gain access to the old accounts documents and settings folder. This way you can recover the users files and copy them to the new account.

See Help and Support and search for "take ownership"

HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=308421