Please help--How to reattach profile to User directory?

[gonif]

Hi there, I'm in a fix and could use some help. A friend brought me
her PC because it had some Windows XP problems. While troubleshooting
it, I renamed her account's "usrclass.dat" file to see if Windows
would create a fresh one (the file seemed to be corrupt). Well, what
happened is that Windows instead created a whole new User directory in
"Documents and Settings" and attached her user account to it!

Now I'm stuck -- her account is now without any documents or any of her
custom settings. Her old User directory is still there in Documents
and Settings, so no data has actually been lost (we can access all her
documents, but of course all the custom settings, AIM profiles, etc.
are unavailable).

How do I reattach her User account to the proper Documents and Settings
directory?

In other words, at first her account was stored in
\Documents and Settings\heather

but now, although that directory still exists, her account is using
\Documents and Settings\heather.PC

"PC" is the computer name. "heather.PC" is the new user directory that
Windows created automatically for some reason. Is there any way to
make Windows point back to the original "heather" directory??
Thank you so much!

Jeff

 

[Nepatsfan]

You might want to try this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151

Nepatsfan

 

[gonif]

Thank you. I had read that article, but I think I got concerned with
doing that for two reasons:

1. The corrupt file would then be copied over to the new user account,
so we'd be back at square one.
2. Inside the User account directory ("Documents and Settings\heather")
there are all these directories with crazy windows names like
"{110B6FA0-0B26-4281-B2DD-4422241C63F8}". Is it ok to just copy those
to a new user account? I guess I assumed that those are kind of like
keys that Windows uses to link up settings with users, and so it would
be wrong to just blindly copy that.

If you think it's ok, then I guess I could create a new user account,
then follow the instructions in that link to at least get a user
account that has all her data and custom settings in it. Of course,
it will still have the corrupt usrclass.dat file. So then I could
delete the original user account, create a new one, copy back the
individual documents and favorites, and then just have her customize
everything over from scratch. That would give a clean user account.

Think that will work? Is there an easier way? Is there some other way
to reattach a user account to a user directory?

Thank you!

Jeff

 

[Nepatsfan]

Thank you. I had read that article, but I think I got
concerned with
doing that for two reasons:

1. The corrupt file would then be copied over to the new user
account,
so we'd be back at square one.
2. Inside the User account directory ("Documents and
Settings\heather")
there are all these directories with crazy windows names like
"{110B6FA0-0B26-4281-B2DD-4422241C63F8}". Is it ok to just
copy those
to a new user account? I guess I assumed that those are kind
of like
keys that Windows uses to link up settings with users, and so
it would
be wrong to just blindly copy that.

If you think it's ok, then I guess I could create a new user
account,
then follow the instructions in that link to at least get a
user
account that has all her data and custom settings in it. Of
course,
it will still have the corrupt usrclass.dat file. So then I
could
delete the original user account, create a new one, copy back
the
individual documents and favorites, and then just have her
customize
everything over from scratch. That would give a clean user
account.

Think that will work? Is there an easier way? Is there some
other way
to reattach a user account to a user directory?

Thank you!

Jeff

First off, I probably should have asked the nature of the problem
your trying to fix and what makes you think that the usrclass.dat
file is corrupt.

That said, here's what I see as your options.

1. Go ahead and follow the instructions in that MS article and
see if it clears up the corrupted profile. The only thing you've
got to lose is time.

2. Take a look at the suggestion Kelly makes at the bottom of
this discussion:

http://tinyurl.com/6ccx3

3. Create a new user account. This is my preference for a number
of factors. First, I'm not sure, but I think most personal
settings reside in the ntuser.dat file. Since that isn't copied
in the MS procedure you'd lose those customizations. Second, if
she's using Outlook Express, you're going to have to import her
email and address book from the old account. Third, AIM is an AOL
product. My experience is that AOL does not work well with
others. I think you'd end up having to set that up from scratch
anyway.

Those are the only ways I know of to deal with a corrupt user
profile. Also, you might want to post your original question to a
newsgroup which has a wider audience. Windowsxp.general and
windowsxp.security_admin might yield better responses.

Nepatsfan

 

[gonif]

Thank you Nepatsfan. I made a post to Windowsxp.general so we'll see,
but either way you've given me some good stuff to try.

The reason I think that usrclass.dat is corrupt is because the event
log shows two errors each time that user account logs in. The first
error says something about the registry failing to load because the
file is not in the right format, and the second error says that there
was an error accessing usrclass.dat..

Now that I'm thinking about it, I think I actually did follow the MS
steps for copying data from a corrupted user profile to a new one. I
think the result was that all the custom settings were removed (e.g.
all her shortcuts on the desktop, the wallpaper, startup sounds, etc.),
so it didn't seem to help much.

I just got ahold of my friend and she seems ok with losing some of that
stuff. Apparently, the login problem happened since the day she bought
the computer from Dell and she's been living with it all this time. So
that's a big relief; I was up til 3 am last night sweating it out with
this thing!

I'll go try your suggestions. Thank you again.

Jeff