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
    2010-09-14T15:08:01+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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  3. Anonymous
    2010-09-04T18:19:26+00:00

    I too was facing the same problem with the usb internet connection - huwaei. with the errors 711 and 1068. tried a few solutions from the net for a while but no joy. finally I was lucky to get to this page and renaming the rtbackup folder worked for me too.

    However I too could not rename it in safe mode thru 'cmd'. what I did was booted to windows 7 normally and used windows explorer to browes to the folder WMI and tried to rename the rtbackup folder, yet got access denied. but when I tried to enter the folder 'rtbackup' windows gave me a warning message something like this - access denied, click continue to gain permanent access to this folder - after clicking on continue i was able to rename the folder and restarted and was able to resolve the issue successfully.

    Thanks  a lot for the solution!

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