Win XP assigns me new "user" folder - creates problem - how can I get it to use my old "user" folder

[t,mf2kg]

I took out the hard drive from my laptop to back it up to a hard drive
on my desktop PC. I had to change the ownership to be able to acces the
folders on the drive which I had put into a USB external box/enclosure.

When I put the drive back into my laptop after the backup, I run into
problems where Win XP Pro (SP2) does not use my old "user" folder but
decides to create and use a new "user" folder. The new folder it
creates and uses is "C:\Documents and Settings\users\user.pcname" where
it previously had used my "user folder" which was "C:\Documents and
Settings\users\user".

I have checked the ownership of the older "user folder" to make sure
that I have ownership of the folder are the files under it. I have
tried different things to get Win XP to use my older "user/home folder"
with no luck.

This problem means that my Outlook does not as previously, now I have
to register and startup my Outlook version, that my Firefox settings
don't work, my Quick Start settings don't work etc... HELP!!


Ted M.

 

[John John]

Make sure that the "EVERYONE" group has at least read & execute
permission on the C:\Documents and Settings\ folder. Maybe your profile
got corrupted when you did the copying. Are any errors recorded in the
Event Log when the computer starts and you attempt to logon?

John

 

[t,mf2kg]

I was not able to see any items in the Events log that could be related
to this problem so it does not seem to have anything logged from this
problem.

I will try to do what you suggested and allow EVERYONE to have read &
execute permission. In addition this suggestion makes me think that I
will look at the permissions on other 'user' folders and copy that on
to my "user/home" folder.

What I then plan to do is to sign in as the administrator and delete
the new 'user/home' folder that Win XP has created. I then hope that
Win XP will then automatically take me back to my original 'user'
folder which will get me back to the environment that I had taken many
months to customize ....

Thanks for the help

Ted M.

 

[t,mf2kg]

I set it up to allow EVERYONE to have read and execute permission but
it did not work.

I looked at another account and copied the permissions on that account
it had "Administrators, SYSTEM and account owner will full control on
the account. I did the same for my user folder.

I then changed the name of the new folder that Windows was trying to
use to some other arbitrary name.

Finally I changed my old user/home folder to the name that Windows XP
was trying to use. I did all this under another Administator account
that I have.

After all this when I try to log into my account - Win XP states that
is is loading my personal settings. After sometime it comes back and
kicks me back to the Windows login screen - so for some reason it fails
to load my personal settings and log me in...

HELP - it seems that I am getting no where with this problem....

Thanks for any suggestions and pointers...

 

[John John]

When this happens there MUST be something logged in the Event Log. If
the permissions are properly set I suspect that your user profile is
corrupt or the ProfileImagePath is incorrect. See quick procedure here
to determine if the profile is corrupt:
http://www.avid.com/onlinesupport/supportcontent.asp?productID=2&contentID=8214&typeID=
(Written for Windows 2000 but practically the same for Windows XP).

If the profile is corrupt create a new one and copy your data to the new
profile.

How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151

John

 

[t,mf2kg]

Thanks John,

I followed up on your suggestion and went to the Microsoft link to get
info on how to copy data from a corrupted user profile. However I was
not able to go to the first link you had sent in your reply which I
wanted to use to verify if my user profile was corrupted before I took
the other path since I see some potential problems - one of which is
that my disk capacity will not allow me to copy the files from my user
folder to the new account I create.

Can you send me the first link to see if my user profile is corrupted,
and can I suggest that you break it into two or more shorter lines so
that it won't be clipped by this messaging service we are using.

Thanks and Best Regards,

Ted M.

 

[John John]

http://tinyurl.com/y9pgyk

If you have a Windows 2000 user account that misbehaves, it may be due
to a corrupt user profile.

To determine if the profile is corrupt:

1. Create a new temporary account and assign it the same rights and
group membership as the suspect account.

2. Logon as the new temporary user.

3. Log off and log on with administrative privileges.

4. Open Control Panel / System / User Profiles.

5. Select the suspect profile and press Copy To.

6. Press the Browse button and select the new temporary account in the
Documents and Settings folder.

7. Press OK.

8. Press Change under Permitted to use and set the appropriate permissions.

9. Press OK.

10. Log off and log on as the new temporary user.

If you experience the same suspect behavior, the profile is corrupt.
[end quote]

Are new user folders created every time you log on? What is this "disk
capacity" buisiness that you speak of? If your disk it too full for you
to create a new user then you have bigger problems than user profiles,
address that problem before anything else, otherwise, to use a well
known saying, fixing profiles while the drive is nearly full is like
moving the deck chairs on the Titanic before it sank!

Look in the Event Log for clues, logon problems are always logged.

John

 

[t,mf2kg]

Thanks John for your patience and help with this problem.

My laptop is running Windows XP Pro.

I have more than 10% free space on the laptop disk that I am
encountering problems with. When I mentioned disk capacity is that I
cannot copy all the files under my "user" folder to a new user since I
have a lot of folders and files under "My Documents" and I don't have
space on the disk to duplicate it.

Thanks and Best Regards,

Ted M.

http://tinyurl.com/y9pgyk

If you have a Windows 2000 user account that misbehaves, it may be due
to a corrupt user profile.

To determine if the profile is corrupt:

1. Create a new temporary account and assign it the same rights and
group membership as the suspect account.

2. Logon as the new temporary user.

3. Log off and log on with administrative privileges.

4. Open Control Panel / System / User Profiles.

5. Select the suspect profile and press Copy To.

6. Press the Browse button and select the new temporary account in the
Documents and Settings folder.

7. Press OK.

8. Press Change under Permitted to use and set the appropriate permissions.

9. Press OK.

10. Log off and log on as the new temporary user.

If you experience the same suspect behavior, the profile is corrupt.
[end quote]

Are new user folders created every time you log on? What is this "disk
capacity" buisiness that you speak of? If your disk it too full for you
to create a new user then you have bigger problems than user profiles,
address that problem before anything else, otherwise, to use a well
known saying, fixing profiles while the drive is nearly full is like
moving the deck chairs on the Titanic before it sank!

Look in the Event Log for clues, logon problems are always logged.

John

Thanks John,

I followed up on your suggestion and went to the Microsoft link to get
info on how to copy data from a corrupted user profile. However I was
not able to go to the first link you had sent in your reply which I
wanted to use to verify if my user profile was corrupted before I took
the other path since I see some potential problems - one of which is
that my disk capacity will not allow me to copy the files from my user
folder to the new account I create.

Can you send me the first link to see if my user profile is corrupted,
and can I suggest that you break it into two or more shorter lines so
that it won't be clipped by this messaging service we are using.

Thanks and Best Regards,

Ted M.