Account profile inaccessible

[Tim Yates]

Hi,
After having to shut down the computer via the plug, I
started it up again to find out (after sitting ten
minutes waiting for the account to load) that XP couldn't
find my account profile. All of the other accounts on the
computer work, but I am left to wallow in the default,
uncustomizable "TEMP" user.
The only measure I can think up is to back up all the
D's and S's, delete my account, and restore all 25 G's
(which happens to take 90 minutes to copy*) Does anyone
here have a _better_ idea as to how I might do this? Thx
(perhaps for nothing) in advance.

*The thought going through my head right now:
Why can't MS learn from ext2/ReiserFS and make a
faster file system?

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Copy a User Profile:

Open System in Control Panel. On the User Profiles tab, and under Profiles stored on this computer, click the user profile you want to copy, and then click Copy To.

In the Copy To dialog box, under Copy profile to, type the location for the new profile, or click Browse to select the path.
Click Change to open the Choose User dialog box, click a new user from the Names list, and then click Add. The new user name will appear in Add Name. Click OK to add the user as a new user profile on your computer.

Note: You must be logged on as an administrator to the local computer to copy user profiles. To open a Control Panel item, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click the appropriate icon.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811151
How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile