lost that is

Yes, if that got you up and running, there is no way those files are gone....well, actually, if you sustained a harddrive failure...bad sector, it's possible.

But I doubt it....you may need to work to gain access to it, but the files will be there.

c:\Documents and Settings\{PROFILE}

There will be several folders in here

Administrator
All Users
your username
NetworkService
Default User
and I am betting your username with an extension of somesort, maybe 001, maybe something else.

okay - the files are not gone, I found them.

Here's what I have now. Under Documents and Settings there are two 'owners', Owner - the original user that was set up which is also Admin.
Owner.GMK.CKCHOLIUHPIO which is new.

I still cannot gain access to the system volume information folder, no matter what I try.

I am also now running into a problem where I can't get applications to run, it tells me that they are not setup for this user? (Not the exact error message)

Any ideas?

Kim

Windows XP is very User Driven.

Those programs have to be reinstalled. You wouldn't have had to do this if you had reinstalled windows into the same directory.

Please wait for another post, however, as there may be a way for you to get those programs running more easily. I can't think of one, but hope there is.

Good luck and congratulations on your progress thus far.

Problem is I figured that I was happy with where it was at and that I would just reinstall everything, but it's erroring out of the install process too. So I am stuck. The disc is fine because I used the same one to install everything on this laptop so that I could use it while the computer was down.

If all else fails, I have backed up all the files to the second drive in the machine, so I could wipe everything and start from scratch ... honestly the only reason that I am not doing this is because I am having alot of fun learning all this new stuff.


Thanks again
Zem

Hello all, please excuse the intrusion, but over the weekend I had exactly the same issue as described in this forum. I cannot start my laptop, I get the error message...

"System error: Lsass.exe

"When trying to update a password the return status indicates that the value provided as the current password is not correct."

...and then my machine restarts and tries again.

So glad to find out that there might be a solution. However, I do not have the XP CD that I need to reinstall the operating system, as it was preintalled at the point where I bought the computer.

Short of finding someone that does have this, are there any possible solutions? I'm a complete novice at this sort of thing, so if anybody does have any advice, the simpler it is to execute, the more I would appreciate it!

Cheers
OP

gerryf

What you said! I detest reinstalling over a mess and not getting down to the cause.
I came to this board because I'm currently attempting to repair a machine that will not load even into safemode before it restarts. I'm using the PE disk, a great tool btw - I'm on the C: drive and searching for the admin password. Any more advice you have along these lines I would certainly appreciate and I'll be happy to post any info from the downed machine you might need. This is enough to give a girl a headache.

Thanks!
Kydwyn

I have the exact same problem with my wifes laptop. Though I do have a boot disk cd. But when I select the "R" option to get to the recovery console it asks for the password. There is no password, when we click enter without a password it tells us incorrect password. It gives us 3 attempts then we have to go back to windows and the same problem. Is there a password we can use to get in? Is there some kind of anti virus boot disk that we can use to get rid of the "Worm" preferably that doesn't use the floppy as the laptop does't have one.

Kushty

Crap, I see several posts after I last saw this one.


PLEASE PEOPLE, start your own thread!

Things get desperately lost when you do this...

Hi Guys,
I was getting a lsass.exe error on boot. I managed to boot to the Command Prompt using the Windows CD and then ran Check Disk (chkdsk /p). It reported that there were errors and they had been repaired. I rebooted and things seem to be fine. I will check my drive again and back-up, but it seems ok for now.

Hope this helps someone.

Problem - solved!!

Oh hello,

excuse if I haven't read all the posts to this topic - so I don't know if it has already been solved.
I have found a solution, which worked on my laptop.

The error is:
1)"System error: Lsass.exe --- When trying to update a password the return status indicates that the value provided as the current password is not correct."
2)The recovery console asked for an admin password and don't lets you in.
3)Safemode and "restore at last good config" don't work.
Well. The computer is completely locked.

The solution which worked at mine:
1)you need a second laptop and an external USB Harddrive case.

2)take out the HDD from the computer affected and connect it to the second computer.

3)best thing to do is to backup all the "MyDocuments" data from HDD to the second computer.

4) on the (faulty) HDD navigate to /windows/system32/config and rename the file "system" to "system_faulty"

5) on the (faulty) HDD navigate to /windows/repair/ and copy the file "system" by pressing "Ctrl+C"

6) on the (faulty) HDD navigate back to /windows/system32/config and paste the "system" file here

7) Put the HDD back into the original Computer and startup

7a) at this stage you come to a screen, which asks you to log-in user BUT you are not able to log-in and you will get the error message that "the windows activation cannot be validated" (or something like this)

8) Place the XP Recovery CD into the CD drive and startup the computer

9) if asked, chose to start from CD

10) You will get to the XP Setup screen, where you chose to "Install" Windows

11) on next screen chose "R" for "repair"

12) Windows is now repairing the system. Don't panic !! That looks like a complete new setup, but it is not.

13) After finishing. Your system should be up and running again with all user settings etc.

It worked on my laptop which is running WinXP-SP2.
I had to buy one of this 2.5" USB external HDD cases to connect the drive to another computer. Having spent 20£ on it was worth the investment.
That saved me the time to configure the system with all kind of software...

All the best
Stefan

Sorry, I posted it as a new thread instead!

my new thread here at "geekstogo"

// Kim

This post has been edited by KiAnKo: Sep 22 2006, 07:41 AM

Working Solution! - Without swapping HDD, re-installing windows or losing data.

Hi folks, I recently had trouble with the registry in Win MCE. - Missing '....config\system' on start-up.
I couldn't use the recovery console as Windows was not detecting my RAID NTFS HDD.
I followed the MS instructions.... which created the new problem "lsass.exe, password not valid, reboot).

This is what worked for me.

Requirements:
1) System Restore enabled in windows.
2) NTFS Dos Pro and a Boot CD/Disk - Preferabbly Hiren's Boot C (which is loaded with all the apps you need). Hiren's Boot CD (http://thanki.tk or torrentspy.com)
3) Don't use the system.bak file located in windows\repair.
4) Don't assume that either of the _regis~1, ~2, ~3 or ~4 files in a RP\Snapshot folder are the registry files you need - they are not.


Steps.
1) In your BIOS, set 1st boot device to CD.
2) Reboot with Hiren's Boot CD (or similar).
3) Load NTFS DOS Pro. (in the NTFS Ext2Fs Tools menu on the Hiren CD). You can skip Checkdisk
(use pro instead of regular NTFS as it lists long file name details)
4) Once loaded, the 2nd last line of text indicates the new temporary drive letter of your HDD, in my case D:
5) switch to D:
6)i) You will probably have short file and folder names displayed instead of long when you 'dir', however the full name appears once you are in the directory.
6ii) type (without quotes ' cd system~1\_restor~1\rp95\snapshot '
(RP = restore point, the higher the number the more recent the rp. if this doesn't work for you, try a lower/older number).
7)type ' dir/p ' to list the files in the directory. (use /p, not /w for this)
8) Look through the text (file details) on the right to find ' _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM '. Look across to the left, this is the file size (which should be fairly large, eg 5,365,760 in my case). To the left again is the actual file name, in my case ' _r62e7~1 '.
9) You may need to tap the space bar again to finish listing all the files.
10) Once at the command prompt, type ' copy _r62e7~1 d:\windows\system32\config\system '
11) Overwrite = Y
12) Reboot (CTR+ALT+DEL)
13) Load windows.... sucessfully hopefully.

If this doesn't work for you, try;

A) Reload NTFS PRO, go back to the same RP\snapshot directory and copy the following files (copy the actual file name, not the details text).

_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_DEFAULT

copy (overwrite) the above files to their corresponding file in the config directory (step 10). eg _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTARE copy over ' software '

Above are all the files that Microsoft recommends you overwrite..... however MS caused my lsass loop in the first place!

B) Try copying the _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM from another restore point directory.

Thank you to ealier contributor's in this thread who pointed me to the restore point directory, I would still be stuck if not for your posts. Previous methods in this thread may work for other people, just not me with my setup.

I solved my lsass issue last night, after stressing out for a day. So I thought I'd join this forum just to ad the process that worked for me. If the above steps help even 1 person then I'm happy.

- Good Luck.

Hi subtle...

Thank you for taking the time to register and post the solution you used to resolve your problem. I'm sure it will help others.

Hey, um.... uh..... what happened to gerryf? he hasn't posted since october 23rd? Sorry, this is kind of a side comment, nothing to do with the thread.


-OCM770-