V
victorlim1
Hi,
I have a really, really specific problem so I'm not sure if anyone will be able to help, but I have to try. I realize I've made some dumb mistakes throughout this process, but I'm just listing everything down so as to be as thorough as possible in giving details.
Basically, I am selling my old laptop that I've owned for many years. When I was clearing the hard-drive, I covered all the usual suspects like cleaning up disk, my files, any programs etc. But even after deleting virtually everything from the normal list, my local disk said that that it was still something like 70GB out of 90 GB used. So I started looking through the local disk and deleting anything I thought was unnecessary--for example some program files data that remained even though the app was deleted, etc. So I deleted a ton of files from C:\Program Files, C:\ProgramData, C:\Users, etc, perhaps deleting files a bit recklessly. This is where I think I made big mistake #1, as I might've deleted some important program files...? Not sure.
Even though I already reset all my personal data, I couldn't delete all my user data from the laptop, as I've only ever logged in with one account. I renamed my user from "Victor" to "Laptop" and removed all passwords. I still couldn't delete my info from C:\Users\Victor, so I created a new user "Computer", and gave it admin access, thinking that I could shift the default to the new user and then just delete my original user all together. As such, I set the admin rights to "Computer" and set my own user "Laptop" to standard rights (big mistake #2).
After I logged out of "Laptop", I tried logging into "Computer" and got the error message "The User Profile Service service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded." So I logged back into "Laptop" (my original account) to try and change the settings back. But anytime I try to change something, I get the normal system message that I need to log in as administrator to effect those changes. HOWEVER, after I type in the admin password and process the request, nothing happens. I don't see the user account settings or files created anywhere in the device. In the local disk, under users there are two: "Default" and "Victor".
I checked all the communities and forums, which suggest running regedit from admin or various methods to try and force change the admin rights. From user account "Laptop", I can run regedit normally (but not much functionality here as the account is not an admin account), but when I right click regedit to try and run as admin I get the error: "Windows cannot find 'C:\Windows\regedit.exe'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again."
When I try to run system restore, I get the notification: "Windows cannot find 'C:\windows\system32\rstrui.exe.' Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again."
When I try running a command "Net User..." suggested by some forums, the cmd prompt tells me "'Net' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file."
When I log into the admin account "Computer" in Safe Mode, I cannot change any admin settings in User Accounts, and I can't seem to find regedit anywhere when I search.
In my guess, I think the problem is rooted in one of two problems: 1.) either the newly created user data for "Computer" wasn't registered properly, therefore Windows is having difficulty locating the account when I try to log in (accessing this account I think would solve all my problems) OR 2.) I deleted some important files that help basic programs run, hence the messages "Windows cannot find....".
Sorry for the long post, and thank you all so much in advance.
Continue reading...
I have a really, really specific problem so I'm not sure if anyone will be able to help, but I have to try. I realize I've made some dumb mistakes throughout this process, but I'm just listing everything down so as to be as thorough as possible in giving details.
Basically, I am selling my old laptop that I've owned for many years. When I was clearing the hard-drive, I covered all the usual suspects like cleaning up disk, my files, any programs etc. But even after deleting virtually everything from the normal list, my local disk said that that it was still something like 70GB out of 90 GB used. So I started looking through the local disk and deleting anything I thought was unnecessary--for example some program files data that remained even though the app was deleted, etc. So I deleted a ton of files from C:\Program Files, C:\ProgramData, C:\Users, etc, perhaps deleting files a bit recklessly. This is where I think I made big mistake #1, as I might've deleted some important program files...? Not sure.
Even though I already reset all my personal data, I couldn't delete all my user data from the laptop, as I've only ever logged in with one account. I renamed my user from "Victor" to "Laptop" and removed all passwords. I still couldn't delete my info from C:\Users\Victor, so I created a new user "Computer", and gave it admin access, thinking that I could shift the default to the new user and then just delete my original user all together. As such, I set the admin rights to "Computer" and set my own user "Laptop" to standard rights (big mistake #2).
After I logged out of "Laptop", I tried logging into "Computer" and got the error message "The User Profile Service service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded." So I logged back into "Laptop" (my original account) to try and change the settings back. But anytime I try to change something, I get the normal system message that I need to log in as administrator to effect those changes. HOWEVER, after I type in the admin password and process the request, nothing happens. I don't see the user account settings or files created anywhere in the device. In the local disk, under users there are two: "Default" and "Victor".
I checked all the communities and forums, which suggest running regedit from admin or various methods to try and force change the admin rights. From user account "Laptop", I can run regedit normally (but not much functionality here as the account is not an admin account), but when I right click regedit to try and run as admin I get the error: "Windows cannot find 'C:\Windows\regedit.exe'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again."
When I try to run system restore, I get the notification: "Windows cannot find 'C:\windows\system32\rstrui.exe.' Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again."
When I try running a command "Net User..." suggested by some forums, the cmd prompt tells me "'Net' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file."
When I log into the admin account "Computer" in Safe Mode, I cannot change any admin settings in User Accounts, and I can't seem to find regedit anywhere when I search.
In my guess, I think the problem is rooted in one of two problems: 1.) either the newly created user data for "Computer" wasn't registered properly, therefore Windows is having difficulty locating the account when I try to log in (accessing this account I think would solve all my problems) OR 2.) I deleted some important files that help basic programs run, hence the messages "Windows cannot find....".
Sorry for the long post, and thank you all so much in advance.
Continue reading...