Too many users shown?

[Guest]

Where can I find a quick tutorial on WinXP's file structure? In particular,
how many users are generally accommodated on a single-user system? Here's
why I'm asking. My OS 'crashed' a month or so ago, and I had to take the
computer in to a shop to pull document files off the hard drive. The shop
then reformatted the drive, reinstalled Windows (I think the old and the new
are on there!) and, finally, put the document files back. Everything is
there under My Documents at the top of the tree, but when I go to My
Computer/Local Disk (C/Documents and Settings, I see 9 separate 'users,'
each with bits and pieces of what was originally in my My Documents section.
When the new Windows installation was registered, it was done using 'My Name'
(a substitution for the real one here). But here is a list of the users
shown: 1: Administrator, 2: Administrator.MY-NAME, 3: All Users, 4: All
Users.WINXP, 5: Default User, 6: Default User.WINXP, 7: MY, 8: My Name 8:
Owner. Number 7 (My Name) seems to have a My Documents file identical to the
one that shows up under My Documents at the top of the tree. What would
happen if I deleted all the others user folders? Or, can I rename the other
user folders to see if everything works okay, and then delete them after a
couple of weeks if nothing backfires? Very confusing.

 

[george]

Where can I find a quick tutorial on WinXP's file structure? In
particular,
how many users are generally accommodated on a single-user system? Here's
why I'm asking. My OS 'crashed' a month or so ago, and I had to take the
computer in to a shop to pull document files off the hard drive. The shop
then reformatted the drive, reinstalled Windows (I think the old and the
new
are on there!) and, finally, put the document files back. Everything is
there under My Documents at the top of the tree, but when I go to My
Computer/Local Disk (C/Documents and Settings, I see 9 separate 'users,'
each with bits and pieces of what was originally in my My Documents
section.
When the new Windows installation was registered, it was done using 'My
Name'
(a substitution for the real one here). But here is a list of the users
shown: 1: Administrator, 2: Administrator.MY-NAME, 3: All Users, 4: All
Users.WINXP, 5: Default User, 6: Default User.WINXP, 7: MY, 8: My Name 8:
Owner. Number 7 (My Name) seems to have a My Documents file identical to
the
one that shows up under My Documents at the top of the tree. What would
happen if I deleted all the others user folders? Or, can I rename the
other
user folders to see if everything works okay, and then delete them after a
couple of weeks if nothing backfires? Very confusing.

from the usernames present on your system I can at the very lease tell you
that the shop *did not* reformat your drive (as they have told you?)
They *did* in any case reinstall XP.
Why can I say that?
The old Administrator account was still there when the new (from reinstall)
was created, hence the suffix MY-NAME
The same is true for All Users and Default User.
Since they already (or I should say, still) existed they were recreated with
a suffix.WINXP.
So essentially the non-suffixed accounts are your old accounts and pretty
useless for all purposes and intent.
Your current new accounts are the ones with a suffix.
You can of course 'salvage' stuff from them, like maybe actual things you
had on the old Desktop or so.
As you say you can try and rename them and keep around for a little while.
Getting rid of the new suffixes can be done, but it is a real hasstle to
achieve.
Not for the faint of heart.

george

 

[Guest]

Thanks, George, I may well go ahead and do that, trusting that by renaming
the folders they will be made 'useless' by any vestige of the previous
Windows installation. If all works well for a couple of weeks, I'll delete
them, with the option of reinstalling from the Recycle Bin if suddenly things
grind to a halt.

 

[Guest]

Jim.... Far be it for me to say this but, I would march back to the shop and
demand that they carry out the work they said they were going to do. Were
you charged your hard earned money for this? What you have just described is
a re-installation of XP by someone who hasn't got a clue what their doing....
You might have well have gone to the local zoo, thrown your PC in to the
Chimps enclosure and asked them if you could have it back in a week... oh,
and probably have to bung them a hundred in the process...

Stand up for your rights and get what you payed for!!!

Big Liam

 

[Guest]

Liam: You are dead right, of course, but a couple of factors make me
hesitate to do this. First, I'm not sure the guy said he would reformat my
hard drive. As it happened, a lot of the programs I had previously installed
could be accessed under the new installation and didn't have to be
reinstalled, even though these programs do not show up on the Add/Remove
Programs list under Control Panel. Programs that I had the CDs for I did
reinstall, just to get them into the Registry, I guess, but some could not be
located, so I am grateful that they showed up! Secondly, so much of what I
had been doing recently had not been backed-up on CDs, but was vital to
ongoing business. Thus my gratitude in the guy's ability to save the entire
My Documents file overshadowed any frustration over his perhaps not doing it
quite the right way. (Not unlike stepping on a nail... it feels so good when
you get off it.) The version of Windows he put back on was NOT from the
Restore Disk that came with my system, so even the legitimacy of this Windows
installation is suspect. Hey, I'm glad it's working and it was worth the
$125 charge for about 4 hours of his time.

 

[Guest]

Jim... Please read my earlier reply to your posting in the lighthearted way
it was meant. As someone who used to direct the production department of a
medium size PC retailer, it really gets to me when I hear stories like the
one you have told. There are some decidedly dodgy people out there who still
capitalise on the lack of knowledge that some people have of situations like
this.

I don't mean to sound patronising to you my friend, this is aimed squarely
at the ineptitude of the guys at the store you took your computer to.

I sincerely hope you manage to get your problem sorted... Don't hesitate to
get back on here if you need further advice... While not being an expert
with XP, I do know a little about the configuration of hardware...

Good luck my friend...

Big Liam