Windows XP "Documents and Settings" weirdness

[Dennis Q. Wilson]

Here's an odd thing. "Dennis" is the "Registered To" name of my
Windows XP computer, while the "Full Computer Name" is "Computer 99."

Until today, there was always a folder in Documents and Settings called
"Dennis" that contained all my, well, documents and settings. Today,
however, my customizations are all gone, reverted to the defaults, and
the same goes for the contents of my desktop.

The "Dennis" folder containing that info is still in Documents and
Settings, but now there's also a new folder called "Denns.Computer99"
(Dennis minus the "i"), which is presumably where my PC is now getting
its user data.

Does anyone have any idea what could have caused the switch? Tthere
are no references to "Denns.Computer99" in the registry. And how can I
get the operating system pointed back at the correct ("Dennis") folder?

Thanks to anyone who can give me a little insight.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Dennis,

Your "Dennis" user profile is corrupted. This was detected by the system at
logon, and a temporary one was created to replace it (Dennis.Computer99).
Once a profile is corrupt, there is little you can do to recover it, but
what you can do instead is create a new one and copy the old profile into
it.

How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151

Note that one step not listed in the article is that after creating the
destination profile you must log into it once first to create the necessary
file structure before you do the copy procedure.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Dennis Q. Wilson]

Hi Dennis,

Your "Dennis" user profile is corrupted. This was detected by the system at
logon, and a temporary one was created to replace it (Dennis.Computer99).
Once a profile is corrupt, there is little you can do to recover it, but
what you can do instead is create a new one and copy the old profile into
it.

How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151

Note that one step not listed in the article is that after creating the
destination profile you must log into it once first to create the necessary
file structure before you do the copy procedure.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

Worked great. Thanks again, not just for the fix, but also for helping
me understand what happened.