Log In User Name/Icon disappeared

[Aijaz Akhtar]

In one of the laptops of another Director in my office, all of a sudden Windows crashed in a peculiar way. It boots in the normal way, but then goes to the Log in screen, but there does not appear any user name/icon that can be clicked to log into. The same is the case when booted in all possible safe modes (except command prompt). Any suggestions how that can be recovered? Unfortunately this is a Compaque machine and the recovery CD insists on formatting the hard disk that has lot of data. That of course, I can back up through a live Linux CD. But I would prefer a solution without going for the factory setting recovery. All Win XP Cds we have do not offer the 'repair' option.

[sakumar79]

Can you attach the hard disk as a slave to another system? You will then be able to backup the files and reinstall the OS if necessary.

Usually, if you reinstall WinXP over itself, you should be able to get back to working condition. Still, I would recommend a backup of your data before trying it...

Arun

[Vishal Gupta]

Did u try pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del when Welcome screen comes?

It switches to classic logon box, where u can type username & password to login into windows...

[swatkat]

Yes, press and hold CTRL-ALT-DEL buttons. This will display the login dialog box. Here, type the username and password and log into the system.

But, this type of problem can occur IF the local user accounts are deleted somehow from the System. In this case, you have to log in using the above mentioned method but providing Administrator name and password (These are specified during installation).

If its Windows XP Home edition, you cant login using Admin account in Normal Mode. So, you have to boot into Safe Mode (F8 ) and then press and hold the CTRL-ALT-DEL keys to bring Login dialog box and then provide the Admin user name and password.