Something went wrong after I added new hardware...

[mjs]

I just installed 2GB of additional ram, and installed a new HD at the same
time.

Both seem to have worked fine (they show up in the systems reports, and I'm
formatting the new drive as I type this), except for one small problem...
LOCAL USER could not be found when I booted back up. Smack in the middle of
the Welcome screen during the boot-up process, I was told the local user
account had a problem and that I'd be assigned a "temp" account, which was
virginal - no shortcuts, no automatic messenger sign-in... the OS was
untouched; save for the programs installed which were all still visibly
there (but the Start Menu program order had reverted back to before I
ordered it properly).

Also visibly there is my usual account. Let's call it "Charlie". I can see
it under Documents and Settings, along with "All Users" and - what's this? -
"Charlie.Machine", where Machine = name I gave the machine when I installed
the OS.

- All Users
- Charlie
- Charlie.Machine <-- Huh?

But when I go to USERS in the Control Panel, however, I see only "Charlie".

And when I hit Start Button, it tells me I'm "Charlie". But I'm clearly
not -- I must be "Charlie.Machine". How else to explain that I seem to be a
brand new user on my own machine even though I'm not?

How do I regain "Charlie" and everything inherent with that account? Even
Outlook Express asked me to re-enter this news account from scratch for me
to post this.

Help?

 

[Guest]

Hello,

you may try the following:

log on as admin ( it has to be a new user, don´t just give Charlie Admin
Rights )

rename Charlie.Machine to tt.Charlie.Machine

open regedit
go to key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
just click on the numbers ( S-1-5-21-789336058-484061587-725345543-1004 etc. )
on the right side you can see ProfileImagePath
if it states there Charlie.Machine change it back
reboot and try to log on again

If the Error persists you´re out of luck ... Win XP will give you a new
Profile again
To get the old profile path back for optical reasons you then can log on
again as Admin and rename all Charlie paths to T.Charlie and change the above
found Reg Key again. There should be no Charlie profile path.

When you log on again it will create the new profile und charlie.
Getting the stuff back:
Log off and and log on as Admin
Most of the Apps put their Info´s in
Documents and Settings\<profile>\Application Data
Documents and Settings\<profile>\Local Settings\Application Data
just look there and copy the folders to your new created profile but do it
one app a Time, because it doesn´t work with all apps ...

You may also copy Favorits, Desktop etc. from your old, now defunct profile

Greets

Alf Maier

 

[mjs]

I don't think you understand. It tells me I'm "Charlie" right now, but I'm
not. I'm this new profile it created when it somehow couldn't find "Charlie"
during a boot-up burp, and it's called "Charlie.Machine".

I don't like the idea of being under one name and having a phantom copy of
myself elsewhere on the machine that I can't even SWITCH USERS to... because
according to the users list, there is only "Charlie" and I'm currently using
it.

This means I wouldn't even be able to cleanly DELETE the two Charlie
accounts, since USER ACCOUNTS only sees one of them.

I have half a mind to reformat the HD and re-install the OS.

 

[Guest]

You are user Charlie with a new or temp profile. Here´s what happens when Win
finds your profile corrupt:

1. It creates a new profile dir with a Name like charlie.machine, in some
cases temp.
2. It redirects your profile path to the new profile ( which is empty & has
the settings of Default User)

if you navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList in the registry you will find that your GUID (
that are the long numbers under that key ) now points to charlie.machine.
Just go there and have a look. The only way to get your old profile back is
the way I described it . After you´re done you can delete the other profile
dirs ( i would keep them in case an old file you forgot to copy away lurks
there )

greets

alf maier

 

[mjs]

Hello,

you may try the following:

log on as admin ( it has to be a new user, don´t just give Charlie Admin
Rights )

rename Charlie.Machine to tt.Charlie.Machine

At what level? I don't see Charlie.Machine in the USERS list.

Do you want me to go in C:\Documents and Settings\etc.

And rename the Charlie.Machine folder THERE?

 

[mjs]

Tried renaming the Charlie.Machine folder, wouldn't let me (even though I
was on as Administrator).

Since Users doesn't see the temp user created, I guess reformatting is my
next step. Long live Windows.

 

[Guest]

Hello again,

the path to your User Data is stored in the registry. So you should start
regedit ( start menu -> run -> enter regedit ) as an admin and go the key i
mentioned above. The Behaviour of Windows in your case is quite normal.
Again, if you managed somehow to damage your profile, windows won´t touch it
anymore and make a new one. I does not rename the old one to give you the
satisfaction of a "clean" directory name. You must do this manually:

1. rename charlie to something like charlie.old ( please don´t just nuke it,
it can tell you about countless occasions where User where absolutely sure
the had moved anything and despite the fact they had gigabyts free HD Space
went on to "clean" their HD, Registry etc. and one day later they came to me
for their old stuff )
2. go the registry ( not as User / Admin Charlie, it must be a seperate
account ) and navigate to the key i described above -- you will find there a
value like charlie.machine --> rename it there
3. Restart
4. Log on as Charlie and the profile should be switched back

greets

alf maier