ntuser problem copying?

[Don]

trying to move everything on the hard drive to an
external hard drive. In documents and settings I get the
message (can't copy ntuser it is being used by another
person or program. close any programs that might be using
the file and try again) I closed all the programs in the
startup menu but it still does not work.
Thanks for any help Don

 

[Kelly]

Hi Don,

Options to consider:

Boot into safe mode and log in as Administrator. Copy ntuser.dat from
%windir%\repair (or otherwise)to "Documents and Settings\[your user id]".

Look in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList and find the profile you want to change and
then change ProfileImagePath to the ntuser.dat folder that you want to use.
You must manually copy or move the ntuser.dat file there.

Added info:

How to Copy or Remove a User Profile
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_logon.htm#usercopy

How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307545

Good luck!

--
All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com