And the story of the lone account is repeated. Windows can suffer from "corrupt profiles" which means no Windows user runs their PC with a single account. We have our account and a backup admin account to recover with.
Here's what Microsoft writes about the corrupt or locked profile.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14039/windows-7-fix-corrupted-user-profile
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Question
Windows 7 disabled user account
I’ve recently tried running Windows 7 Home Premium on my Lenovo ThinkPad T60. And upon clicking the user icon, it now displays the following error message: “Your account has been disabled. Please see your system administrator.”
That occurred yesterday after, during startup, the startup menu opened and I chose the option of SAFE MODE.
As the only registered user of this PC, my user credentials are specified as the administrator.
How can I fix that problem and re-enable my own user access to Normal Mode?
The platform of this PC is a 32-bit NTFS.
--David
Discussion is locked
11 Posts
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Clarification Request
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Answer
Clearly something is wrong. You shouldn't come into the menu to choose Safe Mode only after pressing f8, not automatically.
Things to try:
1. Login into your spare admin account (see the post above), if you have one.
2. Restore your latest image, if you have one.
3. System restore after booting into the recovery console from the Windows 7 install disc
4. Back to factory conditions (reinstall Windows).
When all is fine again, note the precautions #1 and #2 to prevent this situation.
Post was last edited on November 18, 2016 2:06 PM PST
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When I was running Win 7 (home premium), I tried to reboot it using only the Restart command and the Shut Down command of the Start menu of Win 7. But neither worked, so I chose the option of the power key and 3-minute RAM clear session. But when I later hit the power key to try starting it up again, it automatically opened the startup menu without me pressing anything like a F8, F10, F12, Del, or even the ThinkPad key. And after choosing the Safe Mode option, it proceeded to start up without any need for a logon.
Could connecting that laptop's internal HDD (in a 2.5" HDD enclosure as an external drive) to my Gateway NetBook (running Win 10) and letting a malware detector scan that external storage possibly re-enable administrator access to that drive's Win 7 OS?
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I don't have the setup disk for Win 7, because 7 Home Premium was pre-installed (and didn't come with the setup disk) when I bought that refurbished ThinkPad (T60) on eBay during the Spring of 2015.
I've recently tried running Win 7 with an 80GB internal 2.5" HDD in the bay, and it starts up okay. But upon putting the 120GB drive into that bay, the Win 7 logon keeps telling me that the admin account is "disabled" and I can't even start it up as a Guest user.
--David
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When you turned this PC on, it would have prompted to make the restore media. try going to the makers site for restore media. As we say here, "you only lose what you don't backup".
Dafydd.
Post was last edited on November 18, 2016 6:22 PM PST
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Would it help (and be safe) to format the 120GB drive (while it is connected as an external HDD) and later copy the entire contents of the 80GB internal drive (which has Win 7 and starts up without a logon screen) to that 120GB while each is in an external usb enclosure, using the file manager of my Gateway NetBook's Win 10 to activate the Copy/Paste procedure?
--David
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If it starts from the 80 GB drive, and doesn't start with the 120 GB drive, clone the first to last using one of many existing cloning programs. The file manager of the 80 GB drive isn't the right tool. No need to format it first.
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Would that cloning let the contents of the 80 overwrite the corrupted files/folders of the 120?
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I just found out that I can't have both of those drives connected externally at the same time, because I have only one compatible interface for the enclosures.
So would it help to, using Win 10 (with or without a cloning utility) on the Gateway NetBook, save the contents of the functional 80GB HDD to a new folder on Win 10 and later try to paste those contents to the 120GB drive after replacing the 80 of the enclosure with the 120. IOW, could the copying and pasting be performed in 2 separate sessions?
--David
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...or would the functional drive (in the internal bay with Win 7 running on it) be able to copy its own contents to the external 120 (of the usb enclosure)?
--David
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Drives don't clone. Programs clone. And, for example, Acronis TrueImage can clone the drive it's runs from (often, a free license comes with a new disk). But there are more, like Aomei Backup.
Have a look at https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+clone+software
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