'User Profile Service service failed the logon

[george1dful]

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Can someone PLEASE help me... My computer hasn't loaded for 3 days now. It just comes up with:

User Profile Service service failed the logon.

User Profile could not load.

What do I do? I cant get on the computer at all, because i only have one user profile on my computer. I'm in school, and I don't really know much about computers. What could have caused it? And how do I fix it? Please help, I really need to get to some of the files on my computer... Please!

Many times, that's the kiss of death. Unless, you have an
image backup, you might have to reinstall Vista.

You might try booting into safe mode and running
System Restore. Or, using the install disc to boot from
and running System Restore or CompletePC Backup.
Have you ever made a CompletePC Backup? That option
is only available for the Ultimate and Business versions.
You could try the repair option offered when booting
from the disc. Don't think it'll work for that though.

Sometimes rebooting a few times will "fix" that particular
problem.

If you want, there's one more option- try a "repair install",
Scroll down to "Here's How" to get to the meat of it;

How To Perform a Repair Installation For Vista

hi george, done a little search on MS for you hope this helps, here's the link
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947215/en-us
this may help too but requires editing the registry, if done wrongly will screw up your computer completely! be very careful

another option maybe worth trying is to boot into safe mode & see if you can
create a new user account to log on as

I've just had this problem on my computer, and I just fixed it.
It seems to be caused by a horrendous bug in Vista that renames your User
Account Profile as a backup, and then creates a new user account with the
same name but with nothing in it.
I googled it and followed several bits of advice but none of them worked,
but I managed to fix it with a combination of ideas.
This is how I did it:

1. Boot up in Safe Mode. To do this, hit the F8 key while the computer is
booting, and then scroll down to the "Safe Mode" option and press enter. On
my computer the user account icon appeared, but bigger than normal, and I
clicked it and it loaded my desktop in safe mode. It came up with an error
bubble saying that my user account hadn't loaded properly, but i just ignored
this.

2. Click the Start Button and in the white "Start Search" space at the
bottom type "regedit" (without the quotation marks). This will open the
registry editor.

3. In the left-hand pane, navigate by clicking the little triangles next to
the following folders:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows NT
CurrentVersion
ProfileList

You should now have a list of folders all starting with S-1-5- and then a
number.
(You might need to drag the divider between the 2 panes of the window across
so you can read the whole folder name)
Look at the end of each name and you should see one with .bak at the end of
it, and there will be another one above it with exactly the same name but
without .bak at the end.
The one that's got .bak at the end is your old User Profile that Vista has
now made into a backup, and the one without .bak after it is the new empty
User Profile that Vista has created.
Just to check that this is the case, have a look in the right-hand pane for
each of the 2 folders and look at what's written after "ProfileImagePath".
For the folder with .bak at the end it should say C:\Users\ and then your
usual User Account name, and for the one that doesn't have .bak at the end it
should say C:\Users\TEMP.

What you need to do now is to rename the folders in the left-hand pane so
that the one with .bak at the end changes back to being the one containing
your proper User Profile and the new one without .bak at the end becomes the
backup. Do do this follow the next step:

4. Right click on the folder with .bak at the end and then click "rename",
and just change the ".bak" part to ".bk" - i.e. just remove the "a" from the
middle - (this is just to allow you to change the other one to have .bak at
the end). Press enter or click on some blank part of the screen for the
change to take effect.
Then, right click the one that doesn't have .bak at the end and click
"rename". Remove the .bak from the end and press enter or click anywhere on
some blank part of the screen to accept the change.
Then, right click on the one that now has .bk at the end, choose "rename"
and add the "a" back into the middle, so it now has .bak at the end. Press
enter or click on blank park of screen to accept the change.
Close the regedit window.

5. Click the Start Button and then "Restart". It should work now. Fingers
crossed. :)

Not only did this post bring my computer up and running again, but it gave me
back all my research that I have saved for my thesis. Looks like I will be
making a copy now. This post was VERY helpful.

also says you should set the RefCount and State back to 0. I notice
my RefCount is set to 3. Any idea what 3 means? Should I set it back
to 0?

I went through the process described below by Marek. I previously saved
all of the Word documents, but all of my MS Mail was gone after the
process. Does anyone know where to find it on the computer? I have
looked on the corrupt User Name, but cannot find it there.

The options in this tutorial may be able to help you. Be sure to also
check the yellow TIP box options at the top as well

just remember to restart at boot and (Vista) hold down F8 the entire
time until your little blue bar at the bottom has finished; then press
F8 again to enter boot options

[kalee1981]

Sorry, cat hit the enter button on the previous reply....

Marek's rename switch of the user profile registry entry worked flawlessly,
without any additional work required. The profle problem occurred on this
computer after the installation of the last Microsoft patch/security fix
update in October. Perhaps something in that update tries to backup the user
profile and does not finish it correctly. Just a guess. Thanks, Marek for the
2 minute fix.

I tried what Marek suggested, but when I rebooted and tried my old password, it gave me the same "User Profile Service service failed" message. What can I do next? I really don't want to loose all of my music, pictures, etc...Thanks!

THANK YOU Marek. Your steps were a lifesaver for me today. It worked in XP, with my profile degrading over the last few days... It's good to have a backup computer for troubleshooting too :)

Hey guys im new to the site but i find out some of this info is great
but i was looking for someone to help me.....

i had vista on my computer but i got that error "user profile service
blah blah blah." one of my friends told me to upgrade my computer to
windows 7. i did and it said it saved my info but when i go into the
folder it does not have any of my stuff. just has my user and folders
but no docs or images. did i loose everything or is their still a chance
i did not format my hd. thanks for any info

This is a separate issue and should have been posted as a "New Thread"
instead so that you could get better support on it. Just something to
remember for your next post.

Check to see if you have a "C:\Windows.old" folder. If you do, then
everything should be in that folder under the same C:\Users\(user-name)
folder. You might also see if doing a search on the C: drive for one of
the files or one of the file types (ex: *.txt) in it to see if they may
show up in the search results.

When you upgraded, it copied the previous installation into the
C:\Windows.old folder. Since you had a user profile error at the time,
it may not have copied over your user files though. Afterwards, it would
have formated your drive and installed Windows 7 on it with the folder
above.

It doesn't look good so far. Check to see if you have either the
*C:\$INPLACE.~TR* and *C:\WINDOWS.~Q* folders. If you do, look to see if
you user files may be in one of them as well.

If you had just deleted them in your old installation, it may have been
possible to recover them using a program like "Recuva" or "Shadow
Explorer". However, since you upgrade the OS and they are not in the
usual folders above, then I'm afraid that it looks like they are gone
for good. :(

First of all let me say, Thank you Marek. If it hadn't been for you I
dont know what I would have done. The only other comment I have is that
your step 4 kind of confused me so I did what I thought was right and it
works. Other than that I followed your directions step for step. My
changes are in all CAPS below:

4. Right click on the folder with .bak at the end and then click
"rename",
and just change the ".bak" part to ".bk" - i.e. just remove the "a"
from the
middle - (this is just to allow you to change the other one to have
.bak at
the end). Press enter or click on some blank part of the screen for
the
change to take effect.
Then, right click the one that doesn't have .bak at the end and click
"rename". ADD .bak TO the end and press enter or click anywhere on
some blank part of the screen to accept the change.
Then, right click on the one that now has .bk at the end, choose
"rename"
and REMOVE .bk FROM THE END. Press
enter or click on blank park of screen to accept the change.
Close the regedit window.

Again let me say thank you Marek. If I was wrong in doing any of this
somebody please let me know.

Your step by step instructions was really helpful in fixing this bug. Thank
you so much.

I also had the same problem and followed the steps you suggested and
the issue is now resolved.

Although this post does the work notice that step 4 above is messed up. The
main idea is: i) Go to the directory without extension and add (rename it) an
extension .bak. ii) Go to the directory with *.bak extension and remove it
(by renaming it). The following link has the correct steps

Many thanks indded.
I registered with the forum simply to thank you for your answer which
solved the problem quickly and easily.