Is it possible to repair a corrupt user profile?

[Ryan Cabanas]

I have a user that has a corrup user profile. The only thing that
seems to be affected by this is the speed at which Word 2000 opens.
It is extremely slow. I've done a bunch of research online and found
some very good resources suggesting things to try. I've tried all of
them and none of them work.

So I tried logging in to the local machine as Administrator and
started Word and it started very quickly. I also logged in to the
machine as myself (on the Domain, which created a new profile for me
on her machine) and then I opened Word from my profile and it opens
very quickly as well.

So I've concluded that it's a problem with her profile. I don't want
her to have to reset everything by creating a brand new profile, so I
was wondering if it's possible in Windows 2000 Pro to "repair" a
profile. I couldn't find any information about this on Microsoft's
KB. Anyone know if this is possible? Thanks for the help.

Ryan Cabanas

 

[David H. Lipman]

The question is - what is corrupted ? A personal data file or the user's Registry ?

You could rename the profile such as...
C:\Documents and Settings\lipman to C:\Documents and Settings\lipman.bak

Then have the user re-logon which will recreate the profile. You could then recreate the
user's settings or copy (not move) the data from the old tree to the new tree such as...
copy C:\Documents and Settings\lipman.bak\Application Data to C:\Documents and
Settings\lipman
and do the same for (still using my example)...
C:\Documents and Settings\lipman.bak\Desktop to C:\Documents and Settings\lipman
C:\Documents and Settings\lipman.bak\Favorites to C:\Documents and Settings\lipman
C:\Documents and Settings\lipman.bak\My Documents to C:\Documents and Settings\lipman
C:\Documents and Settings\lipman.bak\Templates to C:\Documents and Settings\lipman
C:\Documents and Settings\lipman.bak\UserData to C:\Documents and Settings\lipman

Do NOT copy; "C:\Documents and Settings\lipman.bak\Local Settings" and "C:\Documents and
Settings\lipman.bak\Cookies"

Using the above copy process will make the new profile vitually the ame except the user's
Registry.

If you desire to copy the user's Registry as well, logon to the platform as yourself or
'administrator'.
(still using my example)...
copy C:\Documents and Settings\lipman.bak\NTUSER.DAT to C:\Documents and Settings\lipman

Dave

| I have a user that has a corrup user profile. The only thing that
| seems to be affected by this is the speed at which Word 2000 opens.
| It is extremely slow. I've done a bunch of research online and found
| some very good resources suggesting things to try. I've tried all of
| them and none of them work.
|
| So I tried logging in to the local machine as Administrator and
| started Word and it started very quickly. I also logged in to the
| machine as myself (on the Domain, which created a new profile for me
| on her machine) and then I opened Word from my profile and it opens
| very quickly as well.
|
| So I've concluded that it's a problem with her profile. I don't want
| her to have to reset everything by creating a brand new profile, so I
| was wondering if it's possible in Windows 2000 Pro to "repair" a
| profile. I couldn't find any information about this on Microsoft's
| KB. Anyone know if this is possible? Thanks for the help.
|
| Ryan Cabanas

 

[Ryan Cabanas]

Dave,

Thanks so much for your help and excellent reply!

I will definitely try what you've suggested. I do not know right now
whether the corruption has to do with the individual files or the
ntuser.dat file. My guess would be that it has to do with the
ntuser.dat file because this is the one that contains all of the
settings for the profile, correct? All the other folders that you
referenced in your example are just files, right? The ntuser.dat file
actually houses all the settings.

Too bad that there isn't a way to do a repair on the ntuser.dat file
because that just means that the user will have to go through the new
profile and reset all the settings, but hey, at least I know that this
will allow Word to open up quickly, which has really been bugging her.

Thanks again for the help. I'll post back with my results.

Ryan Cabanas

 

[Ricardo M. Urbano - W2K/NT4 MVP]

Dave,

Thanks so much for your help and excellent reply!

I will definitely try what you've suggested. I do not know right now
whether the corruption has to do with the individual files or the
ntuser.dat file. My guess would be that it has to do with the
ntuser.dat file because this is the one that contains all of the
settings for the profile, correct? All the other folders that you
referenced in your example are just files, right? The ntuser.dat file
actually houses all the settings.

Too bad that there isn't a way to do a repair on the ntuser.dat file
because that just means that the user will have to go through the new
profile and reset all the settings, but hey, at least I know that this
will allow Word to open up quickly, which has really been bugging her.

Thanks again for the help. I'll post back with my results.

Ryan Cabanas

Ryan, FYI, ntuser.dat houses the HKCU part of the registry. It is
loaded dynamically when someone logs in and is one of the many things
that sets NTx apart from 9x.

 

[Ryan Cabanas]

Dave,

Okay. I had to delete the profile and then recreate it, like you
suggested. I exported her favorites and a few other shortcuts, but
that was about all. Now it's just a matter of working through all the
tiny details to get things back to the way things were, but at least
Word opens quickly now. Thanks.

Ryan Cabanas

 

[Ryan Cabanas]

Ricardo,

Thanks for the information. It all helps.

Ryan Cabanas