Hello all,

In a bind, hope someone can help. I deleted the .sam file to get admin privis back and ended up deleting the user account that was on the computer as well. Is there any way to get it back or locate the files to copy into a new user account? Any help would be great!

Samantha

Do you mean the Documents and Settings for the user were deleted? Or just the profile itself?

Deleting the .sam file will not delete the previous profiles the machine. Profiles are stored in the "Documents and Settings" folder under the users name.

When you find the files you may find that it says access denied. If that occurs you'll need to "take ownership" of the folder using an administrators account.

When you delete the .sam, by definition you delete the user account database. Therefore, you delete all the user accounts. If you are talking about profiles, that is a completely different thing. What is your question? Do you just want to use the profile of a deleted user? If so, then Paul H's post is close to correct. You can also use the Profile tab in the Properties of My Computer to copy the old profile to a new location.

Clearly stated he deleted the sam file, not profile.

You will have to set the user up again, no way to recover it. The sam file is encrypted, you could undelete it but then would lose the new admin account you just set up.

Set the user back up with the same name etc. then copy the profile to the new account. Takes some work but can be done.