Xp user profile has reset and lost all data.

[Dano]

Well ok it's not as bad as it sounds as it's all still there just under a different folder in the Documents & Settings folder.

However, this appears to be at least the third time it's happened on this machine I have to fix as there are three user folders called <username><alphanumeric>, now I've only seen this once before after system restore messed up and I just manually copied all the data into the new profile folder and all was good again.

However, does anybody have any idea as to why this happens in the first place and are there any methods around that will restore everything back to how it was without having to manually copy all the data around?

System restore fails by the way so that's a non-starter.

Thanks :)

[JoeJe]

I only usually see this problem when the username has been changed and you sometimes have to manually change the folder name.

Did you change the username when this error happened?

[Dano]

Not that I am aware of, he said he just logged in one morning to find all his stuff gone, so I take it that a simple renaming will sort it all out then?

[JoeJe]

You can try it - it might work. I would actually have to see a screenshot to see the exact problem.

Does this problem happen on multiple user accounts? - Have you tried reinstalling windows?

[Dano]

You can try it - it might work. I would actually have to see a screenshot to see the exact problem.

Does this problem happen on multiple user accounts? - Have you tried reinstalling windows?

Appears to have happened on two accounts, once on one and twice on the other, no I've not re-installed windows, that's over the top in this instance as I'm pretty sure the incident was caused by him turning the pc off at the wall while it was in the process of shutting down.

Folder rename failed by the way, ended up just copying the data structure across and all is good.

Was just curious if anybody had seen this issue before and had a more elegant solution rather than brute force :)

[Iainm]

Is this a normal local account or is it a cached domain profile. The problem can be caused by corrupt registry , Normally logging on with a local admin account and swapping the 2 account names over works, You will need to rename the accounts identically, as it is Case sensitive. Alternatively, cut and paste the data from the old account to the new and delete the old one.

[Dano]

Local account, local administrator account has been disabled (leaving the corrupted account in question the only admin) and the machine only has two other accounts, both of which have been subject to the problem.

If it ever happens again I'll attempt to rename the accounts as you suggest.