No user accounts on Welcome Screen

[n8jbrown]

So a friend dropped a computer off to me with this problem. He's got Windows Steady State installed and did a Windows Update and during the install "he say an error about Steady State and it told him to reboot". When you reboot, there are no users listed on the Welcome screen. This is all the information he gave me.

So, I've rebooted in Safe Mode, nothing.
Rebooted in Safe Mode and hit CTRL+ALT+DELx2 to get the regular login and every single user he had on there says "This user account has been disabled".

I'm at a loss at this point. Anyone have any ideas before i wipe this thing clean?????

Thanks in advance.

 

[wolluf]

Not knowing how Steady state works, can only suggest restoring a recent set of registry hives (ie, before problem) from System volume Information (where system restore saves them). You'll need something like BartPE disk or mount drive in another machine to do this.

Location something like

C:\System Volume Information\_restore{6406A2D0-3457-48F4-BA6A-4D01794A0FA4}\RP11\snapshot

backup files prefixed:-

_REGISTRY_MACHINE_ (sam, security, software, system)

_REGISTRY_USER_. (default)

real files live in \windows\system32\config

may need to change permission on system volume information to access it.

 

[smah]

In safe mode, does the administrator logon account work?

 

[goombawaho]

^^^^^ Agree with above to try a manual system restore to some point (date of RPxxx folder in Snapshot folder) when there was NO problem happening.

 

[n8jbrown]

Thank you everyone. I will try that restore option this weekend. Hopefully my next post will say "Thanks, It worked great!!!"

 

[n8jbrown]

Ok. One of 2 things happened. Either he had System Restore turned off, or my repair install of XP wiped out his restore points. Either way, there was a Registry backup on the HD. I restored it through Recovery Console and got the users back. I had to reinstall XP again, but everything else was good after that. A few programs needed to be reinstalled, but no biggie. Thank you guys so much for you insight. Without your suggestions, I never would have had the guts to try that. Thanks again.

 

[goombawaho]

A manual (or automatic) system restore will NOT wipe out other system restore points.

I'm wondering if he had any malware because they will often whack restore points as a self-protection mechanism.

 

[linney]

A repair install of XP will remove System Restore points too.

 

[goombawaho]

Ah yes - I missed that he had done that to get things working.