Backing Up User Profile

[Guest]

I am using Win XP Home Edition. My computer is not connected to a network.
When I booted my system a few days ago the screen displayed a message that
the user profile was corrupted. A new "temp" profile was created.

Since them I've learned a lot about c:/documents and settings/<user_name>
and how to create a new profile, etc.

I do not want to have to rebuild my profile again. It took a lot of time to
reconfigure the profile. Is there a way to back-up my newly created profile?
Is these a way to back up NTUSER.dat such that if the profile is ever
corrupted again it would be possible to quickly restore its.

Also, at the advice of several "experts" I've turned of Sustem Restore to
help reduce the affects of virus infections. Is that a good idea? If Sysem
Restore is activated can it be used to quickly repair/restore a corrupted
profile?

Thanks

 

[Guest]

Read this KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151

In the step - Copy Files to the New User Profile - copy the files from your
good profile (rather than the corrupted profile) to the backup location
(rather than the new profile). Then you'll have a backup handy at all times.

 

[Guest]

Whoops! I didn't see the System Restore question at first.

System Restore is a valuable tool (and I hate it - it never works right for
me) to backup your system. Here's a KB search on it (with lot's of good
articles):
http://support.microsoft.com/search...alse&query=system+restore+xp&x=0&y=0&srch=sup

Also, here's a good site from one of the MVPs:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/tips.html#WhatsRestored

That being said, System Restore can be used as a storage point for malware
attacks - but that's after it's already on your system. And, the fix for it
is to simply turn System Restore off. That'll delete your restore points and
the malware along with them. Here's a link about accessing the System Volume
Information folder:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309531 That's where
your restore points reside.

 

[Rock]

I am using Win XP Home Edition. My computer is not connected to a network.
When I booted my system a few days ago the screen displayed a message that
the user profile was corrupted. A new "temp" profile was created.

Since them I've learned a lot about c:/documents and settings/<user_name>
and how to create a new profile, etc.

I do not want to have to rebuild my profile again. It took a lot of time to
reconfigure the profile. Is there a way to back-up my newly created profile?
Is these a way to back up NTUSER.dat such that if the profile is ever
corrupted again it would be possible to quickly restore its.

Also, at the advice of several "experts" I've turned of Sustem Restore to
help reduce the affects of virus infections. Is that a good idea? If Sysem
Restore is activated can it be used to quickly repair/restore a corrupted
profile?

Thanks

I suggest you get a drive imaging program and save an image of the
complete drive on an external drive or DVD. That way if something goes
wrong you can restore the drive image and be back running in a few
minutes. Restores can also be done of individual files and folders.

Programs that do this are Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image, Terabyte
Unlimited's Image for Windows, and Terabyte Unlimited's BootItNG.