Vista - Login Process Initialization Failure Error Message - HELP!

Greetings all,

A friend of mine called me tonight saying he can't get Windows Vista
Home Premium to start on his laptop. All he gets is a black screen with
an error message -

"Interactive logon process initialization has failed. Please consult the
event log for more details."

He didn't receive a Vista DVD so he can't run a startup repair or
anything else - he can't even get into 'Safe Mode'

I suggested he find someone with a Vista DVD and try a startup repair,
or, worse comes to worse, take it back to the place where he bought it
(still under warranty)

Can any gurus out there help us get this guy back up and running again??
I did a google search of the error message - an exercise in futility!

Thanks in advance for any and all replies!



Ray

"Athanasian Creed <><" <athanasian_creed@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:O9whX0W#HHA.4736@xxxxxxHow about this, boot the system, start tapping F8, when the menu appears, I
believe there's an option for "Last known successful boot or login" or
something similar. If that fails, have him boot again, tapping F8 as
before, at the menu, select "Safe Mode." Once in Safe Mode, have him try
using System Restore to take his setup back to a time prior to when this
began, Start Men\All Programs\Accessories\System Tools\System Restore.

--
Michael Solomon
Backup is a PC user's best friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

Michael Solomon wrote:Thanks Michael for the quick response!

Unfortunately, i had him try that and he couldn't even access 'Safe
Mode' Tapping F8 did nothing.

Any other suggestions (other than the 'last ditch' ones i gave him??)



Ray

"Athanasian Creed <><" <athanasian_creed@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OrH$FHX#HHA.2004@xxxxxxIf he can't get into Safe Mode and he has no disks, I'd suggest calling the
manufacturer's tech support, they might have a suggestion or a means of
dealing with this type of situation.

--
Michael Solomon
Backup is a PC user's best friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

Today, I faced a similar situation. I tried everything from safe mode,
restore from a good place, boot from the disk, and nothing works. I called
Dell since I have a new Inspiron 1521 model. They told me I need to reformat
hard disk and loose my data. If I need to back up my data, then I need to
pay a third party to do it.

I found away to solve this problem.
1) First I boot up to a C:\ prompt. This does not invoke Windows. Thus, I
did not face this issue.
2) Then, I attached an external harddrive using USB.
3) From C:\ prompt, you try to access the external hard drive. You may have
to guess the drive name. It can be E:\, F:\ or G:\.
4) Then you use "copy" or "xcopy" to copy files & directories that you want
to back up from C:\.
5) Once you have back up everything from C:\ drive to external drive. You
are ready to reformat your hard drive.
6) Of course, you have to go through the entire new installation and copy
files from external drive to your system.

For me, I have about 3 GB worth of data and it took about 2 hours to do the
whole procedure above. It is painful especially if you have a lot of
applications that you installed after getting the computer.

I hope the information helps people that want to get their data back before
reformating the hard disk.

I would be grateful to know what causes this fatal error and what I can do
to prevent it from happens in the future.

Sincerely yours,
Quoc

"Michael Solomon" wrote: