Have I a schizophrenic setup?

[Robert J. Lafayette]

I noticed in my setup, under C drive, "Documents and Settings" that I
several identities.

I use two identities at start-up:

"Bob Administrator"- limited to Administrator,
and 'Robert J. Lafayette' for general everyday use, with corrupted
administrator abilities,

hence I created 'Bob Administrator.

And when at start up these two identities appear:

"Bob Administrator"
and

"Robert J. Lafayette" (not Robert Lafayette without the "J")



yet, when I open the Documents and Settings folder off my C drive I see
several identities:

Administrator
All Users
Bob Administrator
Default User (shaded)
Guest
owner
Robert Lafayette

and a file:
hpothb07.dat


All pertinent document files,
My Documents for example are in a folder
called 'Owner',

and not Robert J. Lafayette (with the J to match the identity)
That folder, a Robert J. Lafayette folder does not exist.

You see, I am planning to format my HDD and reinstall Windows and programs
and have a clean registry and when I do a copy of Documents and Settings
onto the C drive, to reinstate software, I want to get it rights insofar as
users is concerned.

Is there a necessary or required remedy?

That is, to minimize what may be a minor problem?



Thank you
Robert

 

[John John]

I noticed in my setup, under C drive, "Documents and Settings" that I
several identities.

I use two identities at start-up:

"Bob Administrator"- limited to Administrator,
and 'Robert J. Lafayette' for general everyday use, with corrupted
administrator abilities,

hence I created 'Bob Administrator.

And when at start up these two identities appear:

"Bob Administrator"
and

"Robert J. Lafayette" (not Robert Lafayette without the "J")



yet, when I open the Documents and Settings folder off my C drive I see
several identities:

Administrator
All Users
Bob Administrator
Default User (shaded)
Guest
owner
Robert Lafayette

and a file:
hpothb07.dat


All pertinent document files,
My Documents for example are in a folder
called 'Owner',

and not Robert J. Lafayette (with the J to match the identity)
That folder, a Robert J. Lafayette folder does not exist.

You see, I am planning to format my HDD and reinstall Windows and programs
and have a clean registry and when I do a copy of Documents and Settings
onto the C drive, to reinstate software, I want to get it rights insofar as
users is concerned.

Is there a necessary or required remedy?

That is, to minimize what may be a minor problem?

If you are formating the drive and reinstalling Windows then you will
have to reinstall all your programs again. DON'T copy the complete old
profile folder and subfolders to the new profile folder! That will only
create a complete mess of your new profile. Instead you can run the
File and Settings Transfer Wizard on the installation you have now and
have it save the files and settings to another location (a second
partition, hard disk or burned to a CD) then after you do your new
installation you can transfer them to your new profile. Or if you don't
care about other settings you can save your data files only then copy
them to your new installation. Pay attention to your emails, depending
on which email program you use you should do some research on how to
properly backup and restore the email archive.

John

 

[Robert J. Lafayette]

OK Thank you.

I suspect it will be best to have a clean install, with files and settings
transfer... everything.

I have studied the OE 6.0 save and backup formula and feel comfortable I'll
be able to retrieve current and archived emails.

Have a 250G external hdd and have saved / plan to save just prior to format,
'documents and settings' to access important documents etc., lost in the
format piece by piece and as you point out stop the mess I may have created
already.

PC is 4 years, and have not done a format in 3.8 years.

It is time.

Thanks again.

Robert

 

[John John]

You're welcome. Satisfy yourself that all your important files are
properly backed up to your external drive before you format the disk.
Good luck.

John

 

[John John]

Oh yeah... I forgot to mention this in my earlier post:

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/162786

Will come in handy if you get Access Denied messages when you try to
access files on the external drive after you do the new Windows
installation.

John

 

[Robert J. Lafayette]

Thank you again, this article
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421


is interesting and helpful,

the other is about Windows NT.
Do I need it to refer to?

Robert

 

[John John]

It also applies to Windows XP. I posted it for background information.
At a Command Prompt do: cacls /? and you will see.

John

 

[Robert J. Lafayette]

Thank you.

Reformatted HDD all is well,

Robert

 

[John John]

You're welcome.

John

Thank you.

Reformatted HDD all is well,

Robert