Something wrong after a cancelled defrag session... Help

Ok. I'm facing a really big problem now and it's rendered by laptop inoperable. It all started last night, it was the first time that would defrag my 160GB hard drive. I expected it to finish overnight but when I woke up, it was only at 55% and it was "compacting files". I was in a hurry and I really needed the laptop today so I didn't think anything would go wrong and I stopped the defragging process and shut down my laptop normally through Windows. Then just a while ago at school, just after inputting my password and logging in, something about "...cannot load locally stored profile..." popped up and now I'm stuck with a window saying it's personalizing my IE because it couldn't load my profile. I'm guessing the damage was done from the cancelled defrag. So I tried to boot into safe mode and tried defragging again, this time making sure it would finish, but at around 10% it crashed with a BSOD saying that Windows has shut down to avoid damaging the computer and stuff like that. It ran the check disk analyzer during reboot and my hard drive seems to be ok. So it can't boot into safe mode but when I boot with my profile, I just get stuck with a window saying it's personalizing my IE. I've searched high and low on Google but I couldn't find anything linking that "cannot load locally stored profile" problem and cancelled defrag sessions.

Any suggestions on how to fix this? Unfortunately, I never bothered with having a 'system restore point' because I never encountered a problem before as grave as this.

Any help will be appreciated.

 

There are alot of links for this issue. Unfortunately it looks like the only solution is to create a new account.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/812339

 

I already made a new account and when I load the new account, the same windows appear stating the same problem.

 

It sounds like the hard drive could be dying. If you get a BSOD when defragging it isn't a good sign.

If you have a Windows disc, try a repair install. Boot from the disc, but choose repair instead of install.

 

So did you STOP the defrag or KILL it? Obviously, the file system is severly damaged here. At this point I would suggest you consider the OS hosed. Anything you do to fix it is going to be putting a bandaid on the situation and you will NEVER be able to assure yourself it is totally fixed. It might appear to be fine and then a day, a week or a month latter you discover something else that appears strange. In my opinion you should cut your losses now and reformat the partition and reload the OS.

I know that is not the answer you are looking for, but you are just playing with fire when you try to recover from such a low level failure like this.

Regarding:

You have no restore point if, and only if, you specifically turned off system restore.

Gary

 

@ ScuderiaConchiglia

I didn't kill it. I clicked the stop button then I closed the defragging utility in Windows. And yes, I did turn off my restore point.

I can still access my files and I'll probably just back them up, reformat and reinstall everything again. Bah... Stupid defragging utility. That was NOT supposed to happen!

@ ttupa

I only bought this hard drive a month ago. This problem only started ever since that incident wherein I stopped the defragmentation happened. I can still access Windows, but I can't access it throught safe mode because it gives me a BSOD with some stuff written on the screen about running a disk check (which happened during the next reboot).

Anyway, thanks for the help. I'll keep you posted if I find a solution or if matters get worse.

 

The very fact that you get a BSOD when you boot in safe mode, means you are living on borrowed time. You really should consider backing up your documents and reinstalling the OS. I would NOT try doing a repair of any sort. I would only consider a reformat. The file system was damaged when the defrag was terminated. A repair will not fix that. It might mask it, but it will not fix it.

Gary

 

When it BSODs can you record the STOP error? That may help diagnose the problem. Unfortunately, what Gary said is probably the best option. Do you at least have a backup of some kind? Because at this point making one may be a painful process.

 

God... I feel really stupid. Everything's back to normal now. It's as if nothing happened...

Apparently, by some miracle, I actually have a system restore point, the latest being 4 days ago when I installed forceware drivers. I do remember disabling the system restore long ago... Seems like I got lucky this time.

Anyway, I'm still taking extra precautions and I'm backing up my data right now. I'll do some observations for the next 3 days. I'll post back if I encounter some problems.

Thanks again for the advice and help. I appreciate it very much.

 

What defrag tool was this? Most of them use the Windows defrag API, which should not cause a problem like this, unless the system was forced to power-down unclean. Also could be that when you shut down the system it was still defragging the last file in the background, and windows killed the process because it was shutting down.

 

System restore always creates a backup whenever you (un)install a program or driver.

 

And I would consider turning the System Restore on and leaving it on.

 

Can I get an "amen", brothers and sisters?

Gary