Why do I have 3 variants of the Administrator profile?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Martin C
  • Start date Start date
M

Martin C

Using WinXP Home SP2 with all updates, I have noticed that I have 3 versions
of the Administrators profile under the Documents and Settings folder.

This appeared quite a while ago, but I thought it was high time I found out
why it had occurred - although it does not seem to have any adverse effects.
The only reason is that I want to backup the C drive to a Ghost image, so
did not need to back up more than necessary.

The 3 profiles are :
Administrator
Administrator.OurPC
Administrator.OurPC.000

What is the difference?
The first has just Local Settings/Temp with nothing in it.
The second has ApplicationData, Cookies, Local Settings and Templates
The third has ApplicationData, Cookies, Desktop, Favourites, Local Settings,
My Documents, NetHood, PrintHood, Recent, SendTo, Start Menu and Templates

The last one seems to be the proper one, but why are the other 2 present. I
am sure they have not always been there, but I could be wrong.

TIA

Martin
 
Martin:
My sympathies. Sounds like you've got a corrupted user profile. If
it's important to you to clean up the machine,
you might start by doing a search in this ng of the terms "corrupt
user profile", and be prepared to spend a good
hour or so copying & moving & deleting & re-booting, plus probably
some trashing-around in the registry
(if you want to get things really clean).
Good Luck.
riprap. (been there--several times [:-D )
 
Martin C said:
Using WinXP Home SP2 with all updates, I have noticed that I have 3
versions of the Administrators profile under the Documents and Settings
folder.

This appeared quite a while ago, but I thought it was high time I found
out why it had occurred - although it does not seem to have any adverse
effects. The only reason is that I want to backup the C drive to a Ghost
image, so did not need to back up more than necessary.

The 3 profiles are :
Administrator
Administrator.OurPC
Administrator.OurPC.000

What is the difference?
The first has just Local Settings/Temp with nothing in it.
The second has ApplicationData, Cookies, Local Settings and Templates
The third has ApplicationData, Cookies, Desktop, Favourites, Local
Settings, My Documents, NetHood, PrintHood, Recent, SendTo, Start Menu and
Templates

The last one seems to be the proper one, but why are the other 2 present.
I am sure they have not always been there, but I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

[Courtesy Wesley Vogel, MVP]

If you lose Full Control permissions to your profile folder, in the
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings folder, Windows 2000 and Windows XP
will create a new one the next time you log on. The new profile is named:

UserName - if the older profile was deleted.
UserName.ComputerName - if the old profile exists.
UserName.ComputerName.000 - if UserName.ComputerName exists.
UserName.ComputerName.001 - if UserName.ComputerName.000 exists.

Above explains how the names are arrived at.

Below are some links on how to recover and/or remove what's not needed.

Duplicate profile folders exist under the "Documents and Settings" folder
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/restprofile.htm

How to rename or move a User Profile folder
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/userpath.htm

HOW TO: Restore a User Profile in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314045

How To Restore a User Profile in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324734

How do I recovery a lost local user profile?
http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBJ/tip4600/rh4631.htm
 
Thanks for the responses.
The problem is that the profile that is faulty is the genuine Administrator
profile, not one of the user profiles. Does this mean that the links given
below are of no use, as they all seem to be dealing with problems that exist
on user profiles. Or have I got this wrong?

Thanks
Martin


Rock said:
Martin C said:
Using WinXP Home SP2 with all updates, I have noticed that I have 3
versions of the Administrators profile under the Documents and Settings
folder.

This appeared quite a while ago, but I thought it was high time I found
out why it had occurred - although it does not seem to have any adverse
effects. The only reason is that I want to backup the C drive to a Ghost
image, so did not need to back up more than necessary.

The 3 profiles are :
Administrator
Administrator.OurPC
Administrator.OurPC.000

What is the difference?
The first has just Local Settings/Temp with nothing in it.
The second has ApplicationData, Cookies, Local Settings and Templates
The third has ApplicationData, Cookies, Desktop, Favourites, Local
Settings, My Documents, NetHood, PrintHood, Recent, SendTo, Start Menu
and Templates

The last one seems to be the proper one, but why are the other 2 present.
I am sure they have not always been there, but I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

[Courtesy Wesley Vogel, MVP]

If you lose Full Control permissions to your profile folder, in the
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings folder, Windows 2000 and Windows XP
will create a new one the next time you log on. The new profile is named:

UserName - if the older profile was deleted.
UserName.ComputerName - if the old profile exists.
UserName.ComputerName.000 - if UserName.ComputerName exists.
UserName.ComputerName.001 - if UserName.ComputerName.000 exists.

Above explains how the names are arrived at.

Below are some links on how to recover and/or remove what's not needed.

Duplicate profile folders exist under the "Documents and Settings" folder
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/restprofile.htm

How to rename or move a User Profile folder
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/userpath.htm

HOW TO: Restore a User Profile in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314045

How To Restore a User Profile in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324734

How do I recovery a lost local user profile?
http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBJ/tip4600/rh4631.htm
Click to expand...
 
Martin C said:
Thanks for the responses.
The problem is that the profile that is faulty is the genuine
Administrator profile, not one of the user profiles. Does this mean that
the links given below are of no use, as they all seem to be dealing with
problems that exist on user profiles. Or have I got this wrong?
Click to expand...
Rock said:
Martin C said:
Using WinXP Home SP2 with all updates, I have noticed that I have 3
versions of the Administrators profile under the Documents and Settings
folder.

This appeared quite a while ago, but I thought it was high time I found
out why it had occurred - although it does not seem to have any adverse
effects. The only reason is that I want to backup the C drive to a Ghost
image, so did not need to back up more than necessary.

The 3 profiles are :
Administrator
Administrator.OurPC
Administrator.OurPC.000

What is the difference?
The first has just Local Settings/Temp with nothing in it.
The second has ApplicationData, Cookies, Local Settings and Templates
The third has ApplicationData, Cookies, Desktop, Favourites, Local
Settings, My Documents, NetHood, PrintHood, Recent, SendTo, Start Menu
and Templates

The last one seems to be the proper one, but why are the other 2
present. I am sure they have not always been there, but I could be
wrong.
Click to expand...

[Courtesy Wesley Vogel, MVP]

If you lose Full Control permissions to your profile folder, in the
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings folder, Windows 2000 and Windows XP
will create a new one the next time you log on. The new profile is named:

UserName - if the older profile was deleted.
UserName.ComputerName - if the old profile exists.
UserName.ComputerName.000 - if UserName.ComputerName exists.
UserName.ComputerName.001 - if UserName.ComputerName.000 exists.

Above explains how the names are arrived at.

Below are some links on how to recover and/or remove what's not needed.

Duplicate profile folders exist under the "Documents and Settings" folder
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/restprofile.htm

How to rename or move a User Profile folder
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/userpath.htm

HOW TO: Restore a User Profile in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314045

How To Restore a User Profile in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324734

How do I recovery a lost local user profile?
http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBJ/tip4600/rh4631.htm
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

That is problematic. Does the original Administrator account work ok, can
you login to it in safe mode? How has it been used?
 

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