How can I get my WINXP user setup back?

October 1, 2008 4:12 PM

I just installed WINXP SP3 using my Admin setup, then came to my regular user setup, attempted to login, got a message stating to the effect of "Windows cannot load local user settings" and proceeded to log me in with plain vanilla XP, as if I'd never put any programs on it, as if I'd never made changes to any of the settings, as if I'd never personalized my whole puter. This would be a huge PITA, to set up again, I've been months of personalizing this machine, all my bookmarks are lost, EVERYTHING IS GONE. HELP !?!?!?

I'm dying over here. How can I get my WINXP setup back, as I had it prior to installing SP3? In lieu of that, how many miles is it from Austin to Redmond; I ask because I'm will drive there and beat someone with a crowbar if this cannot be resolved.

posted by dancestoblue to computers & internet (10 comments total)

I had this happen once with my XP SP3 install on my MacBook; I freaked out, started yelling and trying to kick things ... and then I restarted and it all came back. Seriously, no snark whatsoever. Have you tried restarting?
posted by limeonaire at 4:25 PM on October 1, 2008

Your description of the problem is a little muddled.

Is this a new installation of Windows? Or just an update to SP3? Have you tried logging off and back in with your regular user account?

Look under c:\documents & settings\ to see if your profile is there.

Sorry, I can't offer more advice without a better description of the problem.
posted by wfrgms at 4:38 PM on October 1, 2008

DOH !!!

Yeah, I'd restarted, but I did so again, all the way down, cold start, pulled the plug et all, and now, for the time being at least, all is 'well.' (Setting crowbar back into tool chest....)

Amazingly, oddly, it has also sortof somehow trashed my LCD monitor -- the signal to it dies, and then the on/off switch doesn't work, I can't switch from VGA to HDMI to S-VIDEO etc and etc; I pulled the plug on the LCD and IT works again; this has happened twice now, out of maybe a total of five cold restarts.

Is my condo haunted?

I'm going to ask the mods to take it down IF I CAN START AND STOP RELIABLY A FEW MORE TIMES.

Thanx, limeonaire.

Peace out.
posted by dancestoblue at 4:47 PM on October 1, 2008

And on review, thanx to wfrgms also...

Wish me luck over here please...
posted by dancestoblue at 4:48 PM on October 1, 2008

On top of what wfrgms said you can:

Click Start
Choose Run
Type cmd
press enter
Type SET
look to see if its using a temp profile
posted by bleucube at 5:21 PM on October 1, 2008

I've found that once this happens once, it starts to happen more frequently.

Backup. Your. Stuff.
posted by bcwinters at 5:28 PM on October 1, 2008

Yay, glad to hear that worked so far.
posted by limeonaire at 5:28 PM on October 1, 2008

This happens because your local user's registry hive is either locked or has become corrupt. Using system restore sometimes helps, but in this case it probably won't because of the SP3 install being so recent.

This sometimes happens because of bad RAM or a bad device in the system that prevents the system from writing all remaining information to disk upon shut-down.

The file needing to be restored is called User.dat. It resides in your user's home directory and it is typically a hidden file. There are methods for pulling old copies of User.dat from the System Restore folder on your HDD and restoring it manually, but the description of that process is drawn out.
posted by tmt at 6:13 PM on October 1, 2008

bleucube, I just walked through your suggestions and it does appear to have my profile, and not a temporary or default ie:
USERNAME: FREDMCMURRY
USERPROFILE:C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\FREDMCMURRY

bcwinters, you're damn straight that it's time to back up everything off this machine. It's a fairly fresh install of XP, maybe four/five months, been good about all updates, updated today with SP3 and it got exciting.

limenaire, you ain't the only one who said "YAY!" when I found I could see my 'stuff' -- I was one happy camper.

tmt, the only file I can find (thus far) in my FREDMCMURRY home directory that is not hidden, it's called ntuserdat.dat -- is this what you were talking about? (I am embarrassed to say that I don't know how to see hidden files)

One thing that is surely different -- on the Admin side of C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\FREDMCMURRY there are only a couple of folders and they don't contain much, there is not an application data folder at all. I thought that they would reflect the same contents, since the one has Admin rights to 'see' the other, why wouldn't it see everything that's there?

So, ..... I don't know as of yet .......
posted by dancestoblue at 8:16 PM on October 1, 2008

dancestoblue;
Yes, that is the file that is probably corrupted.
You can show hidden files by clicking on Tools -> Folder Options, Click on the View tab, select the radio button for "Show hidden files and folders", then uncheck the box for "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)".
posted by tmt at 8:36 PM on October 1, 2008