Help! My owner account (where most of my files are) has been magically
changed to "account unknown" under the System Properties/Advanced/User
Profiles. I "see" the "Account Unknown" listed, but I am unable to access
it. I tried signing in as the administrator, but no luck. I checked Windows
help online, but no luck. I called Sony Vaio support, (support?), no luck.

I am running XP Home Edition SP2 will all updates.

I have found out that the files aren't gone, according to online readings,
but getting to them is another matter. I'm a minister and all of my
sermons/funerals/baptisms/etc. are connected with the "Owner" profile. Yes,
I know, back up... I have the hard copies, but that's not real helpful.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Did you try an earlier restore point date ?

"Just Me from Ohio" <Just Me from (E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message news:A5224B5C-2864-4D8E-9452-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Help! My owner account (where most of my files are) has been magically
> changed to "account unknown" under the System Properties/Advanced/User
> Profiles. I "see" the "Account Unknown" listed, but I am unable to access
> it. I tried signing in as the administrator, but no luck. I checked
> Windows
> help online, but no luck. I called Sony Vaio support, (support?), no
> luck.
>
> I am running XP Home Edition SP2 will all updates.
>
> I have found out that the files aren't gone, according to online readings,
> but getting to them is another matter. I'm a minister and all of my
> sermons/funerals/baptisms/etc. are connected with the "Owner" profile.
> Yes,
> I know, back up... I have the hard copies, but that's not real helpful.
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,

Are you able to logon as administrator in Safe mode?

How to start in Safe mode:
http://www.rickrogers.org/fixes.htm#Safe%20mode

If so, you can create a new user account and copy your old profile data into
it.

How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151

Note that one step not listed in the article is that after creating the
destination profile you must log into it once first to create the necessary
file structure before you do the copy procedure.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"Just Me from Ohio" <Just Me from (E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message news:A5224B5C-2864-4D8E-9452-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Help! My owner account (where most of my files are) has been magically
> changed to "account unknown" under the System Properties/Advanced/User
> Profiles. I "see" the "Account Unknown" listed, but I am unable to access
> it. I tried signing in as the administrator, but no luck. I checked
> Windows
> help online, but no luck. I called Sony Vaio support, (support?), no
> luck.
>
> I am running XP Home Edition SP2 will all updates.
>
> I have found out that the files aren't gone, according to online readings,
> but getting to them is another matter. I'm a minister and all of my
> sermons/funerals/baptisms/etc. are connected with the "Owner" profile.
> Yes,
> I know, back up... I have the hard copies, but that's not real helpful.
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Whatever happened also took away all my XP restore points. So, that's not an
option.

"bumtracks" wrote:

> Did you try an earlier restore point date ?
>
> "Just Me from Ohio" <Just Me from (E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> message news:A5224B5C-2864-4D8E-9452-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Help! My owner account (where most of my files are) has been magically
> > changed to "account unknown" under the System Properties/Advanced/User
> > Profiles. I "see" the "Account Unknown" listed, but I am unable to access
> > it. I tried signing in as the administrator, but no luck. I checked
> > Windows
> > help online, but no luck. I called Sony Vaio support, (support?), no
> > luck.
> >
> > I am running XP Home Edition SP2 will all updates.
> >
> > I have found out that the files aren't gone, according to online readings,
> > but getting to them is another matter. I'm a minister and all of my
> > sermons/funerals/baptisms/etc. are connected with the "Owner" profile.
> > Yes,
> > I know, back up... I have the hard copies, but that's not real helpful.
> >
> > Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
>
>

Tried creating the new user account as you said. The "copy to" in the system
properties/user profiles section is greyed out, so I am unable to click on it
to copy it.

I should also note that I have lost my restore points as well, so that is
not an option.

"Rick "Nutcase" Rogers" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Are you able to logon as administrator in Safe mode?
>
> How to start in Safe mode:
> http://www.rickrogers.org/fixes.htm#Safe%20mode
>
> If so, you can create a new user account and copy your old profile data into
> it.
>
> How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151
>
> Note that one step not listed in the article is that after creating the
> destination profile you must log into it once first to create the necessary
> file structure before you do the copy procedure.
>
> --
> Best of Luck,
>
> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
> Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
> www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
>
> "Just Me from Ohio" <Just Me from (E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> message news:A5224B5C-2864-4D8E-9452-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Help! My owner account (where most of my files are) has been magically
> > changed to "account unknown" under the System Properties/Advanced/User
> > Profiles. I "see" the "Account Unknown" listed, but I am unable to access
> > it. I tried signing in as the administrator, but no luck. I checked
> > Windows
> > help online, but no luck. I called Sony Vaio support, (support?), no
> > luck.
> >
> > I am running XP Home Edition SP2 will all updates.
> >
> > I have found out that the files aren't gone, according to online readings,
> > but getting to them is another matter. I'm a minister and all of my
> > sermons/funerals/baptisms/etc. are connected with the "Owner" profile.
> > Yes,
> > I know, back up... I have the hard copies, but that's not real helpful.
> >
> > Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
>
>

Hi,

Don't use the "copy to" function in system properties, instead open Windows
Explorer and copy/.paste between the user profile folders.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"Just Me from Ohio" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message news:BF59EF28-4317-43B4-8B73-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Tried creating the new user account as you said. The "copy to" in the
> system
> properties/user profiles section is greyed out, so I am unable to click on
> it
> to copy it.
>
> I should also note that I have lost my restore points as well, so that is
> not an option.
>
> "Rick "Nutcase" Rogers" wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Are you able to logon as administrator in Safe mode?
>>
>> How to start in Safe mode:
>> http://www.rickrogers.org/fixes.htm#Safe%20mode
>>
>> If so, you can create a new user account and copy your old profile data
>> into
>> it.
>>
>> How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile
>> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151
>>
>> Note that one step not listed in the article is that after creating the
>> destination profile you must log into it once first to create the
>> necessary
>> file structure before you do the copy procedure.
>>
>> --
>> Best of Luck,
>>
>> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
>> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
>> Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
>> www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
>> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
>>
>> "Just Me from Ohio" <Just Me from (E-Mail Removed)> wrote
>> in
>> message news:A5224B5C-2864-4D8E-9452-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > Help! My owner account (where most of my files are) has been magically
>> > changed to "account unknown" under the System Properties/Advanced/User
>> > Profiles. I "see" the "Account Unknown" listed, but I am unable to
>> > access
>> > it. I tried signing in as the administrator, but no luck. I checked
>> > Windows
>> > help online, but no luck. I called Sony Vaio support, (support?), no
>> > luck.
>> >
>> > I am running XP Home Edition SP2 will all updates.
>> >
>> > I have found out that the files aren't gone, according to online
>> > readings,
>> > but getting to them is another matter. I'm a minister and all of my
>> > sermons/funerals/baptisms/etc. are connected with the "Owner" profile.
>> > Yes,
>> > I know, back up... I have the hard copies, but that's not real helpful.
>> >
>> > Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>>
>>