Lost my main User Account

[Guest]

I've been using my laptop for awhile with myself as the only account.

Then, today, my wife wanted to set up a User Account, so that she could have
her own desktop, etc. So, she created an account, and then it told her that
someone had to be Administrator, so she checked that and then created the
account. Of course, somehow it lost my account that I had set up, and now I
can't recover it. However, it knows that the account still exists, because
when I go to name a new account my old account's name, it says that it
already exists (but it doesn't show up as an account in 'User Accounts' or on
the 'Welcome' page.

Any idea how I can recover my previous User Account?

Thanks,

 

[S.Sengupta]

Logon to another account with admin privilege and run System Restore.
Choose the most recent restore point and SR should restore the user
hives.

Create a New User or Restore the User Profile
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q318011

HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q308421



regards,
ssg MS-MVP
pronetworks.org

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

One thing you can do is check the "Documents and Settings" folder and see
your profile folder is there. If it is, rename like johndoeold. Then
create a new user account, transfer the data from your original profile to
the new one. That I beleive is a quick and easy solution. You might have
to take ownership of the My Documents folder, but not sure.

Jeff