Dell, XP Pro went kooky!

[golfguyy]

haha, Hi guys...

Have the Dell Dimension & XPpro, not really sure what the heck happened but
has gotten worse over the past say, week. It culminated in todays reboot to a
generic Dell screen and having lost my "local profile" as the mssg reads, so
it sets up a temp profile every time you boot, but you must redo everything
for that computing 'session'. You know, reset favorites etc...

I cannot 'find' all of my documents now. I sure it did not delete them but I
can't even find them in search. I DO get a shortcut for each, like about 1kb.

And as said, it discarded my local profile which I gather is the typical way
it boots, with all of my particulars for the past 4 years. Right now I can of
course use it for web and email, etc... such but thats about it. I was
contenplating a full system restore but thats a pain as you know.

I'm just wondering if anyone can point me in a new direction so can get on
the road to back to normal. :>) Thank when get time.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

haha, Hi guys...

Have the Dell Dimension & XPpro, not really sure what the heck
happened but has gotten worse over the past say, week. It
culminated in todays reboot to a generic Dell screen and having
lost my "local profile" as the mssg reads, so it sets up a temp
profile every time you boot, but you must redo everything for that
computing 'session'. You know, reset favorites etc...

I cannot 'find' all of my documents now. I sure it did not delete
them but I can't even find them in search. I DO get a shortcut for
each, like about 1kb.

And as said, it discarded my local profile which I gather is the
typical way it boots, with all of my particulars for the past 4
years. Right now I can of course use it for web and email, etc...
such but thats about it. I was contenplating a full system restore
but thats a pain as you know.

I'm just wondering if anyone can point me in a new direction so can
get on the road to back to normal. :>) Thank when get time.

What antivirus software do you utilize?
What antispyware/malware software do you utilize?
What does your backup schedule look like (and what do you backup to?)
Defragmention?
CHKDSK?
Disk Cleanup?
Downloaded and ran the hard disk drive manufacturer's disk diagnostic test?
Have you changed any hardware lately?
Updated any hardware drivers?
Installed any new software?
Hooked anything new to the computer?

What service pack is your Windows Xp Professional?
Is it 32-bit or 64-bit? (One would assume you would have mentioned if it was
64-bit, but thought I would ask.)

 

[Patrick Keenan]

haha, Hi guys...

Have the Dell Dimension & XPpro, not really sure what the heck happened
but
has gotten worse over the past say, week. It culminated in todays reboot
to a
generic Dell screen and having lost my "local profile" as the mssg reads,
so
it sets up a temp profile every time you boot, but you must redo
everything
for that computing 'session'. You know, reset favorites etc...

I cannot 'find' all of my documents now. I sure it did not delete them but
I
can't even find them in search. I DO get a shortcut for each, like about
1kb.

And as said, it discarded my local profile which I gather is the typical
way
it boots, with all of my particulars for the past 4 years. Right now I can
of
course use it for web and email, etc... such but thats about it. I was
contenplating a full system restore but thats a pain as you know.

I'm just wondering if anyone can point me in a new direction so can get on
the road to back to normal. :>) Thank when get time.

Power off, wait a few minutes, power on. Log in as Administrator, and
create a new user account. Log into that user account, and see if it
behaves stably. If it does, you may be migrating to a new account.

Also, clean up temp files etc - the free utility ccleaner (www.ccleaner.com)
does a good job of collecting the various tasks for this, in one shot - and
try running the User Profile Hive Cleanup utility.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6d-8912-4e18-b570-42470e2f3582&displaylang=en


If it doesn't fix the problem, or if the fix is only temporary, consider
that there may be impending hardware failure, including the hard disk. In
practical terms, this means you want to review your backups promptly.

If you look in Explorer with viewing hidden and system folders ON, you
should find the structures for your old user account, with your data in it.
You can also use the free search utility Agent Ransack from Explorer to
search the Documents and Settings structure for a specific file that you
know exists in your My Documents folder. It's generally much better (and
faster) than the Windows search utility.
http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/download.aspx

HTH
-pk