Lost Previous User Profile

[Guest]

Just re-installed XP, however, I lost all my settings and I believe I lost my
old user profile.

My question is, how do I get XP to find my old settings and restore it or
get XP to recognized all the programs installed on my hardrive w/o installing
all of them again?

Incidently, my restore point does not go back further than the last
installation date.

 

[johnf]

Did you do a new install or the other (correct) option "Repair/reinstall?
If you did the first , you've lost the lot, as Install overwrites everything
& gives you a new clean system.
Also you'll now have to download & install the full SP2 as well - which is
no big deal, just time consuming, as it's around 272MB.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Johnf for your reply, however I have another question? I did do a new
install and I understand losing the profile, but why do I have MS Office on
the hardrive but have to re-install when I double click the icon within
Windows Exploer? I have no icons, therefore I have locate every program
through Windows Explorer, but I keep being prompted to re-install each
program; anyway around that?

 

[johnf]

Probably because the new install has deleted all critical files related to
those programs, so the actual complete programs are no longer there, that's
why you're "prompted to re-install each program"

If that's the case, & none of your 'later-generated stuff" is on the drive
anymore, I suggest you format the drive to completely remove everything left
behind & reinstall XP from scratch (+ SP2) - (& unfortunately reinstall all
the other programs you lost) - DO NOT connect to the Internet until you have
all your AV/Spyware progs in place and up to date again.
IOW, do a clean install & start from scratch.

I suggest you read & follow the instrucions in -
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
which explains what's happened to you & how to do the install.