HCHTech
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 4,443
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA - USA
When will I learn not to treat friends differently than customers? 
Ok, so the initial phone call was because my buddy couldn't log into Windows - unable to load profile. He has an 18-month old HP desktop.
I get there and that is indeed the error message. I can't log in from safe mode. I boot from a CD to test the hard drive, there are no recorded SMART errors and the short test passes without incident. I run a system restore to yesterday and I'm able to log in again, but nothing works. The permissions for the user are missing or incomplete for every file I look at, executables, word docs..everything. If I add full control for the user account to an executable, it runs.
No visible evidence of an infection, but I run a scan with the Kaspersky Rescue Disk = no hits. Same for MBAR. I boot into Linux and don't have any problem browsing the disk or getting to the internet, etc. I ran Memtest for about 10 minutes, not long enough to be thorough, but no errors nonetheless.
I go back into Windows and take a look at the logs - no disk errors, but tons of NTFS errors (literally thousands), all starting this morning. He does a nightly backup, so I run a full chkdsk on the C drive and leave to make a couple of calls. I checked the SATA cable, and reseated it just to be sure.
Visit #2. The chkdsk log shows it found and repaired about 6,000 errors. I decide to run the Seagate disk utility from UBCD and it also passes. I run a permissions repair from D7, but no change in behavior. I try to create a new user, which works, but I can't log into the new user, it's profile is unable to be loaded. At this point, I start preparing him for a reinstall, but he pleads and I agree to go home and do more research. I check the logs again and there are no new NTFS errors. All of the Windows automatic services are running except for the dot net frameworks, WIA & Software Protection - all looks normal. I start a long SMART test running, which he informed me a couple of hours later passed with no errors. Ugh.
If this were a customer, I would have gone the N&P route after the first hour, but I've spun my wheels for about 3 hours so far on this one. I can do a repair install I suppose, but I'm not exactly confident about that route at this point.
Is there anything I missed (other than a full hardware diagnostic, and the sense to quit when I was behind)?
Ok, so the initial phone call was because my buddy couldn't log into Windows - unable to load profile. He has an 18-month old HP desktop.
I get there and that is indeed the error message. I can't log in from safe mode. I boot from a CD to test the hard drive, there are no recorded SMART errors and the short test passes without incident. I run a system restore to yesterday and I'm able to log in again, but nothing works. The permissions for the user are missing or incomplete for every file I look at, executables, word docs..everything. If I add full control for the user account to an executable, it runs.
No visible evidence of an infection, but I run a scan with the Kaspersky Rescue Disk = no hits. Same for MBAR. I boot into Linux and don't have any problem browsing the disk or getting to the internet, etc. I ran Memtest for about 10 minutes, not long enough to be thorough, but no errors nonetheless.
I go back into Windows and take a look at the logs - no disk errors, but tons of NTFS errors (literally thousands), all starting this morning. He does a nightly backup, so I run a full chkdsk on the C drive and leave to make a couple of calls. I checked the SATA cable, and reseated it just to be sure.
Visit #2. The chkdsk log shows it found and repaired about 6,000 errors. I decide to run the Seagate disk utility from UBCD and it also passes. I run a permissions repair from D7, but no change in behavior. I try to create a new user, which works, but I can't log into the new user, it's profile is unable to be loaded. At this point, I start preparing him for a reinstall, but he pleads and I agree to go home and do more research. I check the logs again and there are no new NTFS errors. All of the Windows automatic services are running except for the dot net frameworks, WIA & Software Protection - all looks normal. I start a long SMART test running, which he informed me a couple of hours later passed with no errors. Ugh.
If this were a customer, I would have gone the N&P route after the first hour, but I've spun my wheels for about 3 hours so far on this one. I can do a repair install I suppose, but I'm not exactly confident about that route at this point.
Is there anything I missed (other than a full hardware diagnostic, and the sense to quit when I was behind)?
