Cannot start windows event log service on Windows 7. Error 4201.__

Anonymous
2009-11-15T05:12:47+00:00

Cannot start the Windows Event Log service on Local Computer.  Error 4201: The instance name passed was not recognized as valid by a WMI data provider.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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Anonymous
2009-11-15T15:54:26+00:00

Hi Ramesh,

That did the trick.  For the record:

  1. Used msconfig to switch to safe mode boot
  2. Booted to safe mode
  3. ran cmd.exe as an administrator
  4. typed "cd C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\WMI"
  5. typed "rename RtBackup RtBackup2"
  6. Used msconfig to switch to normal boot mode
  7. Reboot and found event viewer working

Thank you! 

Rung

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Ramesh 181.7K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2009-11-15T06:53:44+00:00

Hi rung_windows7,

Renaming or deleting the following folder seems to work for some users:

C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\WMI\RtBackup

REF: Event log error 4201 - ERROR_WMI_INSTANCE_NOT_FOUND (a helluva great thread)

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Desktop Experience]

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-12-06T09:17:51+00:00

    It works for me

    I was able to rename C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\WMI\RtBackup

    from my normal login without safemode.

    Thanks

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-09-17T00:45:27+00:00

    I've had the same issue with the event viewer/log. However I have been using registry cleaning programs so I used restore registry feature to restore backup i'd made and after reboot the issue was fixed.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-09-14T15:08:01+00:00

    Here's what I did. I restarted Windows in Safe mode and changed the ownership of the whole C drive to the local machine administrators group. Once that finished, I rebooted and everything worked correctly. I do recall changing ownership to my domain account a week or so ago so maybe that did it?

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