Windows cannot load locally stored profile

I've read Steve's advice to others regarding this subject, and I've followed instructions given at the links he provided, but the problem still persists for me.

There are two users on this computer. I've never received the message when logging on to my account (knock on wood!), but Gary has gotten the message virtually every single day (at least once a day, sometimes twice) for the last 2 weeks. A week ago, I did a clean installation of WinXP Home on this machine, thinking that would take care of the problem once and for all ... NOT!!

This is the exact message:
“Windows cannot load the locally stored profile. Possible causes of this error include insufficient security rights or a corrupt local profile. If the problem persists, contact your network administrator.â€
Followed by:
“Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log offâ€

I've gone into Safe Mode, deleted Gary's old user account and created him a new one (always an Administrator account); and gone into C:\Documents & Settings and deleted the various user folders bearing his name there, as well as the 'Temp' user folder.

I've never transferred any of the settings, I just start from scratch each time, so how can his user profile possibly be continually corrupt?

When it happened again yesterday, I just hit the power button and forced the computer to turn off before Windows was able to log him in with a temporary profile. Turned on the computer again afterwards, and his profile loaded without any problem!

Any ideas?

 

Presumably you’ve been here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151

The only other thing is to try a chkdsk from the Recovery Console.

 

Yes, BurrWalnut, that was one of the links in Steve's earlier posts. As I said, I've never bothered copying any of the old settings, thinking that would steer me clear of corruption issues. The first 10 times or so, I deleted his old account and created a new one in Normal Mode - then I read somewhere about having to do it in Safe Mode. When I did it in Safe Mode, his user account/profile (are the terms interchangeable?) worked for about 36 hours, which was significantly longer than when I recreated his user account in Normal Mode - could just be coincidence, I don't know.

chkdsk from the Recovery Console? I don't think I have a Recovery Console, unless it's something that's inherently a part of WinXP. Would running chkdsk as directed in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265 accomplish the same thing?

Steve, as of right now, the only folders under C:\Documents and Settings are:
All Users
Default (which is kind of 'ghosted out' - I have things set to show hidden files/folders)
Gary
Rebecca

When I first thought to look at user accounts under C:\My Documents and Settings (after maybe 5-6 re-creations of Gary's user account - I had deleted the user account each time (under Control Panel > User Accounts), but I hadn't thought to check under Docs & Settings for residual stuff), there were a total of 8 folders there, rather than the 4 I have now. One was called Temp; as I recall, the others all had Gary's name in them somewhere, but with additional letters/numbers tacked on to the end. Any time I've recreated his user account, I've always deleted the old one first, and then named the new one simply "Gary" again.

Addendum: I just ran chkdks from My Computer, as directed at the MS link above, and it came back saying "check complete ", or something to that effect. Nothing about any errors (I'd ticked "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors ").

 

OK, it hasn't happened again for 48 hours now. Wonder if I dare breathe a sigh of relief just yet...