Windows 11 Logon stuck on corrupt profile

[Jammie Dodger]

The available space on my C "system" volume was low, so I moved the Users folder to my D "data" volume and edited the registry accordingly.

After rebooting, I logged in to my "1st" account and checked everything was okay. So far, so good.

Then I rebooted and tried to log in to my "2nd" account and got the error message:

The User Profile Service service failed the sign-in.​

User profile cannot be loaded.​

I am stuck on this login screen, with no option to switch to my "1st" account, even after a reboot. No alternative accounts are shown in the usual place at the bottom-left of the screen.

Unfortunately, I don't have any System Restore points or any kind of backup to rely on.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[ChatGPT]

It seems that moving the Users folder to another drive and editing the registry has caused an issue with your user profile. This can sometimes happen when you manually change the location of the Users folder.

To resolve this issue, you can try the following steps:

1. Restart your computer and boot into Safe Mode. You can do this by pressing the F8 key repeatedly after the BIOS screen appears.

2. Once you are in Safe Mode, press the Windows key + X and select "Command Prompt (Admin)" from the menu.

3. In the Command Prompt window, type the following command and press Enter:

```bash
net user <your_username> /add
```

Replace `<your_username>` with the name of your personal account.

4. Next, type the following command and press Enter:

```bash
net localgroup administrators <your_username> /add
```

This will add your personal account to the Administrators group.

5. Restart your computer and try logging in to your personal account again.

If the above steps do not resolve the issue, you can try repairing your user profile. Please note that this method may cause some data loss, so proceed with caution:

1. Restart your computer and boot into Safe Mode.

2. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box, then type `regedit` and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.

3. Navigate to the following registry key:

```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
```

4. Look for the subkey that corresponds to your personal account. The subkeys are named with a long string of numbers and letters, followed by `.bak`. For example, `S-1-5-21-1234567890-1234567890-1234567890-1001.bak`.

5. Right-click on the subkey that ends with `.bak` and select Rename. Remove the `.bak` extension from the subkey.

6. Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer.

7. After restarting, try logging in to your personal account again.

If none of the above steps work, you may need to create a new user profile for your personal account. This will involve creating a new account and transferring your personal files and settings to the new profile.

I hope this helps resolve your issue. Let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

 

[Jammie Dodger]

I cannot get into Safe Mode. Pressing F8 at BIOS screen takes me into WinRE.

 

[ChatGPT]

I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble logging in to your second account. When you moved the Users folder to a different volume and edited the registry, it can sometimes cause issues with user profiles. I'll do my best to help you resolve this.

Here are a few steps you can try to fix the issue:

1. Restart your computer: Start by restarting your computer to see if the issue resolves itself. Sometimes a simple restart can fix temporary glitches.

2. Safe Mode: Try logging in to your second account in Safe Mode. To do this, press the F8 key repeatedly after restarting your computer until you see the Advanced Boot Options menu. Use the arrow keys to select "Safe Mode" and press Enter. If you can log in successfully, it may indicate that there is a problem with a startup program or service conflicting with the user profile.

3. User Profile Fix: If the above steps don't work, you can try fixing the user profile issue manually. This involves modifying the registry, so it's important to proceed with caution and create a backup of your registry before making any changes. Here's how to do it:
- Restart your computer and log in to an account with administrative privileges.
- Press Win + R, type "regedit" (without quotes), and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
- Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList" in the left pane.
- Look for a subkey with a ".bak" extension and the same name as your affected account. Right-click on it and select "Rename." Remove the ".bak" from the end of the name.
- Find the subkey with the same name as your affected account (without the ".bak" extension) and click on it.
- In the right pane, double-click on the "ProfileImagePath" value and make sure it points to the correct user profile folder location. If it doesn't, modify it to reflect the correct path.
- Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer. Try logging in to your second account again.

If none of the above steps work, there might be a more complex issue with your user profile. In this case, you could try creating a new user account and transferring your files from the old, inaccessible account to the new one. This can be done by copying the contents of the old user profile folder (located in the new location on your D volume) to the new account's profile folder on your C volume.

I hope these steps help you in resolving the issue and regaining access to your second account. Let me know if you have any further questions or need additional assistance.