Windows logs off immediately after logging in

After upgrading the hard disk on my laptop to a bigger capacity, I ran into an issue where Windows logged me off immediately after logging in. After reading a number of posts online and a couple of attempts in vain, finally found the one that explained the origin of the issue.

Here is the link.
http://www.troublefixers.com/windows-logs-off-automatically-while-login/
"Guti" response on Sep 7th, 2009 is on the mark.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188 - Problem as stated from Microsoft Support

The question thereafter is how do you fix the registry key when the system does not let you log in. There are a number of articles that state how to access the registry remotely and you try this and that and the clock goes by without making any progress due to any one of the following.

• your system may not be on the network


• you may have turned off "Remote Registry" service from starting up.


• cannot seem to get remote registry access working


• in my case, the laptop was not even "pingable".

Here is what I did to fix that and mine is Windows XP.

• put the old drive (smaller) back in my laptop and booted it up.


• put the new and bigger hard disk back in the USB enclosure and connected t to the laptop.


• located the registry file :\windows\system32\config\system.


• took a copy of this file.


• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256986 - Registry and associated files
• used a binary file editor such as "TextPad" to open this file.


• moved all references such as \DosDevices\C: to \DosDevices\X: (Pick an unused drive etter as appropriate for your laptop). There may be more than one occurrence of this string in the file and you need to replace all of them.


• moved all references such as \DosDevices\E: to \DosDevices\C: (E was the drive letter assigned when the bigger hard disk enclosure was connected the first time).


• saved the file and then replaced the old hard drive with new hard drive.


• voila!