Deleted User...oops

[Guest]

I deleted my husband's user name. I thought his files would all be saved to
a folder on my desktop...but they weren't! The folder is there but it's
empty. He had a lot of stuff that I have now misplaced. Please help me find
all his files! Preferably before he gets home from work!

 

[Eric]

I deleted my husband's user name. I thought his files would all be saved
to
a folder on my desktop...but they weren't! The folder is there but it's
empty. He had a lot of stuff that I have now misplaced. Please help me
find
all his files! Preferably before he gets home from work!

Did you check your recycle bin?

 

[Guest]

I did check the recycle bin. Nothing there. I also went to Explorer and
can't find anything there. I used the Search tool to find one of the files
and it didn't uncover anything. I tried to do a System Restore and it said
that no changes had been made.

 

[Guest]

How did you delete it? Did you went to "User Accounts" in the Control Panel
and choose "Delete this account? If you did, did you selected to delete the
user's files, too? Or did you go to C:\Documents and Settings\ and delete his
user folder?

 

[Eric]

I did check the recycle bin. Nothing there. I also went to Explorer and
can't find anything there. I used the Search tool to find one of the
files
and it didn't uncover anything. I tried to do a System Restore and it
said
that no changes had been made.

I haven't deleted a user lately so I couldn't remember what it does.
One possibility on delete user is that it leaves their folders there but
only that user can access them, and after adding the user back in, they
would be able to get to their folders.
If deleting the user actually deleted the folders in their profile, and
they're not in the recycle bin, you'll likely need to run a program to get
them back.
I tried an undelete program once I think worked well. I believe it was
called back2life. Check www.tucows.com.
Install the restore program to a different drive if possible. Anything you
write to the drive deleted files were on decreases your chances of properly
restoring them.

 

[Guest]

How did you delete it? Did you went to "User Accounts" in the Control Panel

and choose "Delete this account?

Yes.

Then I selected "Keep files".

 

[Guest]

In that case, have you tried recreating the user profile (with the same name)?

 

[Eric]

Yes.

Then I selected "Keep files".

If it kept the files, and you just can't see the files, you'd have to be
signed in as that user to get to them.
If you recreate the account with the same name, you should be able to get to
them under that name.

 

[Guest]

How did you delete it? Did you went to "User Accounts" in the Control Panel
and choose "Delete this account?

Yes. Then I choose "Keep files".

 

[Guest]

I went to User Accounts, selected "Create Account" and then entered the same
name but it just created a new account with the same name. No access to the
files. Is there a way to "Recreate" an account?

 

[Eric]

I went to User Accounts, selected "Create Account" and then entered the
same
name but it just created a new account with the same name. No access to
the
files. Is there a way to "Recreate" an account?

If you're creating accounts, I assume you have administrator access to the
PC?
If you're signed in with administrator access, you should be able to access
all files on the drive.

Are you sure you selected "Keep Files"? I'm not sure what exactly that's
supposed to keep. The only thing I'm aware that it might delete is the user
profile, and I always back that up before removing a user.

If the "Documents and Settings\username\" folders (My Documents, etc) are
gone, you'll probably want to try a "restore deleted files" program. See my
earlier post.

 

[Joe Grover]

Unfortunately not. Each user account is assigned a unique security
identifier. Creating an account with the same username will not recreate
this SID. This is why some versions of Windows would specifically state
when deleting a user, that recreating the user account with the same name
will not grant it access to the resources it had before--they will need to
be re-assigned to the new user account.

In your case, you should still be able to see his folder if you have the
proper priviliges under your account. His profile would be located under
C:\Documents and Settings\<hisusername>

This folder no longer exists or is empty? If it is empty, then the data is
likely gone (unless you purchase a data recovery application), but deleting
a user will NOT delete this folder if you told it to keep the files.

 

[Guest]

I think there were too many files to transfer so the program ended up
deleting them. I ran a file recovery program (thanks Eric) and the files
came up as broken links. When I open the broken link, the files are there.
Whew! Too many for us to recover but maybe I could convince my husband to
look at it as a chance to tidy up the hard drive?

Thank you for your advice. You really saved me!

 

[Rock]

I deleted my husband's user name. I thought his files would all be saved
to
a folder on my desktop...but they weren't! The folder is there but it's
empty. He had a lot of stuff that I have now misplaced. Please help me
find
all his files! Preferably before he gets home from work!

Restore the files from a backup. You should always have a full and complete
backup of important data. If you don't use this as an impetus to get a
backup solution in place. If you need help or suggestions with this post
back. Never make major changes without a current backup.