Duplicate Windows XP accounts after reinstall of Win XP

K

kingvdom

I had to resinstall windows XP to fix a printer problem (although the
reinstall has created a whole knew set of problems...but that is for another
post). I assumed all my old data would be deleted during the installation
and backed up all our files. During the new installation setup I created two
user accounts for my husband and I using the same names as the in the
original XP installation: "Valerie" and "Rob". Now I notice that in
Documents and Settings, there are the old folders "Valerie" and Rob" and new
ones "Valerie.ourdesktop" and "Rob.ourdesktop" (where "ourdesktop" is the
current computer name). There are also two "All Users" and two "Default
Users", with ".windows" distiguishing the (what I assume are the) latest
folders. So, my question is, can I just delete the older folders? (as they
appear to still contain all our old files and are thereby taking up disk
space)
Thanks!
 
S

Shenan Stanley

kingvdom said:
I had to resinstall windows XP to fix a printer problem (although
the reinstall has created a whole knew set of problems...but that
is for another post). I assumed all my old data would be deleted
during the installation and backed up all our files. During the
new installation setup I created two user accounts for my husband
and I using the same names as the in the original XP installation:
"Valerie" and "Rob". Now I notice that in Documents and Settings,
there are the old folders "Valerie" and Rob" and new ones
"Valerie.ourdesktop" and "Rob.ourdesktop" (where "ourdesktop" is
the current computer name). There are also two "All Users" and two
"Default Users", with ".windows" distiguishing the (what I assume
are the) latest folders. So, my question is, can I just delete the
older folders? (as they appear to still contain all our old files
and are thereby taking up disk space)
Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
S

Shenan Stanley

kingvdom said:
I had to resinstall windows XP to fix a printer problem (although
the reinstall has created a whole knew set of problems...but that
is for another post). I assumed all my old data would be deleted
during the installation and backed up all our files. During the
new installation setup I created two user accounts for my husband
and I using the same names as the in the original XP installation:
"Valerie" and "Rob". Now I notice that in Documents and Settings,
there are the old folders "Valerie" and Rob" and new ones
"Valerie.ourdesktop" and "Rob.ourdesktop" (where "ourdesktop" is
the current computer name). There are also two "All Users" and two
"Default Users", with ".windows" distiguishing the (what I assume
are the) latest folders. So, my question is, can I just delete the
older folders? (as they appear to still contain all our old files
and are thereby taking up disk space)
Click to expand...

Sounds like you did a parallel installation.

My suggestion - since you say you backed up your stuff already - is to go
through with your original plan. Clean installation.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
 

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