Hidden User Account

[poochbeast]

For whatever reason, this morning my computer would not boot into
Windows (XP Pro SP2). I couldn't even get it to boot into SAFE mode.
It would just hang. In desparation, I reloaded Windows XP from the
setup disc and instructed it to overwrite the C:\Windows folder.

During setup, it asked for my user name: "Paul-K". Upon completion, it
appeared that all of my original files were gone, including my
original My Documents folder. However, when I look inside the
Documents & Settings folder, I now see a new folder called
"Paul-K.XYZ" as well as my old folder "Paul-K." Apparently, the
operating system is using the Paul-K.XYZ identity and files which
contain virtually nothing. The Paul-K folder contains all of my
original documents and settings.

I tried logging out from Paul-K and back in as the Administrator, then
deleting the Paul-K.XYZ folder...hoping it would force the system to
select my old Paul-K folder. Unfortunately, when I logged back in as
Paul-K, it just created a new Paul-K.XYZ folder.

How do a recreate the file associations to my old Paul-K identity and
folders, so that I can restored my original desktop and gain easy
access to all of my old My Documents files as well as my Outlook.pst
file, etc. etc?

 

[Nepatsfan]

In

For whatever reason, this morning my computer would not boot
into
Windows (XP Pro SP2). I couldn't even get it to boot into
SAFE mode.
It would just hang. In desparation, I reloaded Windows XP
from the
setup disc and instructed it to overwrite the C:\Windows
folder.

During setup, it asked for my user name: "Paul-K". Upon
completion, it
appeared that all of my original files were gone, including
my
original My Documents folder. However, when I look inside the
Documents & Settings folder, I now see a new folder called
"Paul-K.XYZ" as well as my old folder "Paul-K." Apparently,
the
operating system is using the Paul-K.XYZ identity and files
which
contain virtually nothing. The Paul-K folder contains all of
my
original documents and settings.

I tried logging out from Paul-K and back in as the
Administrator, then
deleting the Paul-K.XYZ folder...hoping it would force the
system to
select my old Paul-K folder. Unfortunately, when I logged
back in as
Paul-K, it just created a new Paul-K.XYZ folder.

How do a recreate the file associations to my old Paul-K
identity and
folders, so that I can restored my original desktop and gain
easy
access to all of my old My Documents files as well as my
Outlook.pst
file, etc. etc?

You can skip this first part if you're not interested in why
you're in your current predicament. Early in the installation
process there's a screen where you can hit the R key to perform
a repair installation. That's what you should have done.
Instead you chose to install Windows XP into C:\Windows,
ignoring the warning that it already contained an XP
installation. What that effectively did was remove any ties
that existed with your old user account along with most of your
old programs. What it didn't do was delete any of those now
orphaned folders. When you told your new XP installation to
create a user named Paul-K it looked in the Documents and
Settings folder, saw that there was already a folder named
Paul-K and, since it couldn't use the same name, simply added
the name or your computer to the folder. That's how you ended
up with the Paul-K.XYZ folder containing your current profile.

The best you can do now is to copy the files and folders from
your old account into your new profile. You'll have to log on
with the Administrator account to accomplish that task. Follow
the procedure in the "Copy Files to the New User Profile"
section of this article.

How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/811151

As for your Outlook file, check out the information about
importing a .pst file in this article.

How to manage .pst files in Outlook 2002 and in Outlook 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;287070

If that doesn't help, post a question in the Outlook newsgroup.

Good luck

Nepatsfan