"user profile is not available"

I attempted to use the Recovery Disc to repair (restore) Vista Ultimate with an unusual set of symptoms that occured after my laptop awakened from sleep mode.

Vista came out of sleep with a black desktop and only a few icons; my "user profile is not available"; access to almost everything was (still is) being "denied," even after activating and using the "hidden" administrator account.

System Restore won't run to completion in any mode (normal, safe, Recovery Disc, Vista install DVD, via any of their menus or command prompts); chkdsk wont run to correct detected errors; sfc aborts mid-scan. Using the Recovery Disc or Vista install DVD, System Restore aborts and complains that system restore points are "missing" content or files (using hex references).

Any suggestions?

-- Also ran Lenovo's version of PC Doctor for this model laptop: All tests (quick and extended) PASSED, except for last-minute indication that "CMBIOS hardware failed test...," which seems like a false-positive result.

Thanks!

Hmmm

Sounds like you have some Windows corruption maybe NTFS file (dirty disk).
Poss due to User error/reg cleaners/Optimizers or malware

have you tried to run sfc /scannow from the RE enviroment using the vista disk, and dismounting the HDD to run a disk check also from RE?


If so, then your options are slim. Either restore from a Image, or reinstall from scratch.

There is another option though, and in the event you dont have a data backup, will enable you to retrieve the data.

Use this bootable partitioner, create a new partition, install Windows, then retrieve the data files from the corrupted Installation, then merely delete that volume, and expand the new Windows volume.

Esentially you will be dual booting.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/163304-dual-boot-using-free-partitioning-software.html

rive0108,

Sorry for my delayed reply...

First, thank you. A most appreciated and welcomed tool and tutorial, among many here! Your "dual-boot" technique may have worked; however....

Second, things went from bad to worse. Obtained a recover-to-factory-fresh set of discs from Lenovo; successfully recovered (for now)...to make a long story shorter.

Third, I would caution anyone with an OEM-customized operating system and hard drive configuration (especially a PC/laptop with IBM/Lenovo's embedded ThinkVantage Technologies) about using a generic "retail Vista" installation, recovery, or other PE/RE disk of this kind. Too many incompatibilities exist and are created at too many levels in the attempted recovery process, e.g., with the MBR.

Fourth, the backups that I created (albeit indicated as "successful") with Lenovo's ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery (R&R) tool over the past nine months, all failed when run from the various versions of R&R, whether R&R was hard-drive embedded (protected partition), a Windows program, or on the bootup R&R Rescue Startup disc. (Something very wrong about a backup application that creates a successfully "completed" backup that ultimately fails when needed.) As noted before, all Windows restore points failed to help, too.

Fifth, I've not used registry cleaners or optimizers but some undetected malware may have had a part to play, although none were uncovered by post-failure scans I could run. On the other hand, IBM/Lenovo's embedded ThinkVantage Technologies have not always played well with Vista, as I've read...

Thanks, again!