Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
Name: DerbyDad03
I seem to have lost the user profiles for 2 users on one of my systems.
Here's what I did and here's the current problem. I don't know if they are related, but just in case they are...
I have three accounts on a XP Home SP2 system - one has Admin rights, the other 2 do not.
Under the account with Admin rights, I upgraded SpyBot from V1.4 to V1.6. I then ran a scan, which found 2 tracking cookies and nothing else. I let SpyBot delete those cookies.
I then logged off of that account and tried to log on as one of the other users. I got a message saying that it couldn't use the profile and it ended up building a new profile for that user, under the same username.
I logged off of that account and logged back into the account with Admin rights. Under C:\Documents and Settings I can see the folder for the other user (username.computer name) and it looks like everything is intact.
I then tried the other non-admin account and it built a new profile without even giving me the warning message. The folder for that account is also still in C:\Documents and Settings.
Is there any way for me to re-connect those folders to the users so that their account will look like they did before this problem occured?
My daughters would really appreciate it!
Thanks!
If copying the folders doesn't work
try this:use the admin account and navigate to control panel > user accounts
Now delete one of the accounts (remeber the exact log in name)you will be prompted to save the users' files....... answer "yes".
Reboot and then navigate back and create a new user account using the exact same log-in name. This should re-create all the user profiles and reinstall the saved data of the old account to the new account!
If it works as it should then do the same thing to the other account!
Now if there happens to be 2 user folders being saved because of the updated profiles then you must examine both folders and determine which is the one that you wish to restore.....rename the other one to something "old" (but do not delete it. That way if you erred then you can still retrieve the "old" folder.) then repeat the delete of the user account/ restore user account and that folder should be back to where it should be.
Definition of a Liberal:
He has never had to fight for his Freedom
He is only good at enjoying it!"IF YOU DON'T STAND BEHIND OUR TROOPS, PLEASE, FEEL FREE TO STAND IN FRONT OF THEM
0 
"I then logged off of that account and tried to log on as one of the other users. I got a message saying that it couldn't use the profile and it ended up building a new profile for that user, under the same username."
That has never happened to me, and I've never heard of it happening to anyone else since I started answering questions online in 2002.
I can't think of any reason that would happen other than the data in those profiles was corrupted somehow.
Check your hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostics.
See the latter part of response 1 in this:
http://www.computing.net/windows95/...(thanks to Dan Penny for this link:)
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm...If you don't have a floppy drive, you can get a CD image diagnostic utility from most hard drive manufacturer's web sites, but obviously you would need to make a burned CD, preferably a CD-R for best compatibilty, on another computer if you need to.
0
Thank you both for the prompt responses.
I've copied the folders for one of the users and that seems to have worked except for a few items:
1 - The desktop does not have the same background. I know that that is not a big issue in and of itself, but it tells me that the account is not exactly the same as it was before. I don't know what else has changed. Any ideas as to what my daughter is going to have to reset?
2 - The account now has a different name. Let's say it was Dog. I created an account named Dogs and copied the folders into that. I'm guessing there is no way to change the name back to Dog without going through the whole copy thing again, right?
Another Question:
If I choose to use the "delete user-create user" method, will the desktop settings and everything else be the same or will it be just as if I copied the folders to the new profile?
Thanks again.
0
re: "it ended up building a new profile for that user, under the same username."
I'm may be a little confused on this point, so let me explain.
Let's say one of the user names was Dog and the other was Cat. Let's say the computer's name is Da_Pets.
Under C:\Documents and Settings I have these forlders for those users:
Dog.Da_Pets
Cat.Da_PetsNote: the Log-on screen and the User Accounts control panel has always known these users as simply Dog and Cat.
Each time I logged on as either Dog or cat, it created a new "temp" profile under the name Dog (or Cat). I didn't realize until after I posted that these were temp profiles.
OK, so now I created a new user named Dogs - with an "s". Before I could see the Dogs folder in C:\Documents and Settings, I had to log on as that user. Once I did that, I logged back on as Admin and copied all the folders (but not the 3 ntuser files) into the Dogs folder. I was then able to log on as Dogs and things seemed pretty much OK.
I don't quite understand why the old folder names had .computername after the user name, but it has always been that way on that system.
0
Lurkswithin:
"Now delete one of the accounts (remeber the exact log in name)
you will be prompted to save the users' files....... answer "yes"."Have you actually tried doing that?
When I deleted a profile, a message popped that said in a too brief message - "Deleting a profile will delete all the data associated with the profile - are you sure you want to continue?" or similar.
If you answer Yes or whatever signifies yes, the profile name is deleted, but so is all the data contained in it!!Unfortunately, the message box is small and people often don't bother reading it.
.........
"Now delete one of the accounts (remeber the exact log in name)..."
"Reboot and then navigate back and create a new user account using the exact same log-in name. This should re-create all the user profiles and reinstall the saved data of the old account to the new account!"DON'T DO THAT!
I know someone who did, and he, and I when I later looked at his computer, found Windows DOES NOT re-load the same data when the name is the same!!(name of user) in this = original name of the user.
DO NOT change the name in C:\Documents and Settings\(name of user), though I doubt Windows will let you do that, and
DO NOT delete the user,
unless you have copies of EVERYTHING after C:\Documents and Settings\(name of user)\...... elsewhere!When you delete the user, or change the name there, though I doubt Windows will let you do that, for built into XP security reasons,
EVERYTHING listed after (name of user)\ in
C:\Documents and Settings\(name of user)\
will be DELETED, as well as the (name of user) folder itself, NONE of what is deleted will appear in the Recycle Bin, and it is difficult to get anywhere near all of what was deleted back, even if you use an undelete program right away!You CAN change the name in Control Panel - User Accounts for (name of user) without losing the user profile data, but that only changes the name in a few places - the User profile name, the logon name, and a few other places - the changed name is essentially an alias for the original (name of user) - you will still see C:\Documents and Settings\(name of user)\..... and all the data in it will still be there, rather than in C:\Documents and Settings\(new name of user)\...., and you will also see a new entry in My Computer in that profile
- (new name of user)'s Documents, instead of
(name of user)'s Documents(new name of user)'s Documents has duplicate copies of all the stuff in .....
(name or user)\My Documents\....You CAN create a new user, and copy the files from C:\Documents and Settings\(name of user)\...... to it, and then delete the (name of user) user profile.
Just DO NOT delete (name of user) BEFORE you do that.
0
"Each time I logged on as either Dog or cat, it created a new "temp" profile under the name Dog (or Cat). I didn't realize until after I posted that these were temp profiles."
Huh? I don't think so.
"I don't quite understand why the old folder names had .computername after the user name, but it has always been that way on that system."I don't understand under what circumstances Windows does that either.
On some computers I've seen
C:\Documents and Settings\(name of user)on others
C:\Documents and Settings\(name of user).(computer name)on others, both
C:\Documents and Settings\(name of user.(computer name)
and
C:\Documents and Settings\(name of us~1) where the name is chopped off to 8 characters with ~1 being the last two, even when the original name had 8 characters - this one has only a folder \Locals~1.There's one more situation I've seen, but I would have to look my notes.
In any case, if there is more than one folder at C:\Documents and Settings\ for the same user, only one has all the subfolders and data in it.
0
I said: "Each time I logged on as either Dog or cat, it created a new "temp" profile under the name Dog (or Cat). I didn't realize until after I posted that these were temp profiles."
To which you replied: "Huh? I don't think so."
Which prompts me to ask: "Why don't you think so?"
Each time I logged onto the either of the users whose profiles were screwed up, I would get 2 messages.
The first would say "Windows could load the profile" and the second would say "Windows could not find the profile and will create a temporary one and that all settings would be lost after logging off" (more or less..)
Now that I've created new users and moved all but the ntuser files over to the new profiles, things seem to be back to normal.
What's is interesting is that deleting the original users via the Control Panel, did not delete the username.computername folders.
0
"The first would say "Windows could load the profile" and the second would say "Windows could not find the profile and will create a temporary one and that all settings would be lost after logging off" (more or less..)"
OK, that clears that up.
I've never seen that myself, or heard of that either. That is not normal Windows behavior.
In order for two profiles to have to be reloaded, I would think there would have to be damaged or corrupted data on the hard drive where the data about the C:\Documents and Settings\ folder and subfolders was stored, or elsewhere.
Run the diagnostics on the hard drive(s) to make sure your hard drive(s) isn't(aren't) starting to fail.
Was the computer by any chance recently exposed before your problem started to some event, such as a power failiure, or a lightning strike near where you are, or a power supply failing?
0
I assume you knew that I meant to say ""Windows could not load the profile" not "Windows could load the profile". Sorry about that.
As far as I know, there was no event that caused physical damage to the system. I did, however, discover during this whole process that the hard drive is just about completely full. In fact, I had first tried copying all the folders from one profile to another but couldn't due to lack of disk space. That is why I moved them instead.
I think it's time to do some serious cleaning up of the drive on that system.
Thanks for the help.
0
Tubesandwires,
You are right in what you were saying except that the data files, pictures and music are all sayed in a folder named simply as the user name that was deleted. The folder is stored on the admin's account desktop....this folder contains the saved personal data and there is also a hidden desktop folder encluded with I thought held the original desktop settings as well. IT DOES NOT....my mistake as when I played with this a ways back on having account issues The user didn't have any different settings than what should be stock windows XP settings. and I just realized that the installed programs were "all user programs" and would install on any use's desktop...
because of that the switch worked ok on several times that I have actually done it...
I appologize for my assumption that it would work with any desktop settings.
Definition of a Liberal:
He has never had to fight for his Freedom
He is only good at enjoying it!"IF YOU DON'T STAND BEHIND OUR TROOPS, PLEASE, FEEL FREE TO STAND IN FRONT OF THEM
0
Maybe this applies to you --
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/288...
Disk Quota Default Setting Prevents Logon Request
0
I will look into this when I get home, although I'm not sure that that could be the problem.
I was able to continually log in to the Admin account (which, of course, may have had different settings) but more importantly I was able to create the new accounts and log into them without deleting anything from the disk.
Since I created the original users as well as the new users by simply using the User Accounts control panel, I wouldn't think the disk quota setting would have been any different.
If the original users couldn't log on because of disk space issues, I would think the new users would have had the same issues, especially after I moved all of the files from the original profiles to the new ones.
However, I will have a look, so thanks for the suggestion.
0
lurkswithin
I have only have had the one experience with my friend's computer mentioned in response 6.
The message you get when you choose to delete a user is one I had not seen myself until I went to his place, several days after he did that (he's 90 miles away in the country, I'm in the city), and tried deleting the useless user profile he made.
He had been trying things in the meantime, but he was certain all the personal data had disappeared immediately after deleting the the user and then using the same name to make another one, as I recall immedately after that. I tried using an undelete program, and another one that claimed to be able to fix deleted or damaged image files, but by that time was only able to recover a very small amount of what had been lost. It is his companion's computer and she was furious with him for having lost all her emails, and picture attachments to them she could not easily replace.
She uses Outlook Express - all the user specific data from that is by default in C:\Documents and Settings\(her user name)\..... including in \My PicturesSince then, she won't let him touch her computer, and he insists she at least save a copy of the pictures in emails she gets to CDs. They're both seniors. He's pretty good at figuring out how to fix things when they go wrong, but he didn't see the message box you get when you choose to delete a user, or if he did he clicked too soon.
It could very well be there originally was a folder containing the deleted user's settings on the Administrator's desktop, or somewhere else on the computer, but by the time I got there I could find nothing of her settings anywhere, hidden file or not, Administrator or not.
It makes sense to me that XP would delete that stuff for security reasons, and I haven't found or heard of anything since that would go against that belief.
......DerbyDad03
I didn't notice your mistake - I was not being sarcastic - I just said that because you had provided more detail.
Strange things happen when the partition Windows was installed on is too full - at the very least Windows slows down a lot and you get a lot more hard drive activity even for small tasks. Sometimes there isn't enough free space left to do much of anything - e.g. Defrag requires at least 8mb of free space in order to run in Win 98SE, but at least it generates an error message saying why it can't run.
On my Win 98SE computer, if the free space is less than about 800mb of the ~8 gb partition Windows is on (I have 6 partitions on two drives), everything in Windows slows down, and that's despite the fact I have the Windows swap file on another partition.By all means make some more free space.
But if I were you I would still run the hard drive diagnostics.
0
Tubesandwires -
re: "I was not being sarcastic"
I didn't think you were - but now I see how I could of thought you were, given my typo. :) No problem...we're on the same page.
I will look into the diags although the girls aren't really happy with me right now. "Everything was fine until you ran your little spyware scan!"
It was just my luck that the drive was full at the same time. As you said "Strange things happen when the partition Windows was installed on is too full" but they don't see it that way.
They love me when they mess up their system and I fix it, but, boy oh boy, if problems occur after I do something on it, I'm the bad guy.
Kids!
0  |
 |
 |
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
