My Computer's Acting Up....

March 6, 2006 11:03 AM

Help! My computer has gone crazy!

I recently packed up my computer to go on a trip. When I got to my destination, I was surprised to turn it on and learn that lots of stuff had gone back to the factory default settings. My desktop background was gone, Firefox settings gone, Start menu configuration, etc.

Is there any explanation for this?

posted by matkline to computers & internet (3 comments total)

Sounds like your profile got munged. Were you on a network with a roaming profile, perhaps?
posted by Malor at 11:05 AM on March 6, 2006

Not as far as I know. I've noticed two other things as well. The computer goes a lot faster, and iTunes doesn't work.
posted by matkline at 11:10 AM on March 6, 2006

The profile is the set of files where your user-specific settings and data are stored. Something in it can become corrupt, and Windows will create a new default profile. Your old data is still there. Open Windows Explorer and go to c:\documents and settings\userid\ You'll see that there's another entry called c:\documents and settings\userid.000\ That's your new profile. You can copy favorites to the new profile. Anything that was on the desktop is in a desktop folder. Do a search for bookmarks.* and you'll find any firefox bookmark files.

Outlook Express saves email in a sub-, sub-, sub-folder - search for files named Outlook to locate it and save the *.idx files. There may be more files needed to back up OE email.

In the new drive, develop good habits for where to save data, so you can back up easily. I have a c:\download folder that is handy, and I keep my data in the c:\Theora folder, not where MSoft wants it. Way easier to back up.

Itunes and other software may not be in startup for the new profile, which would explain some speed boost. There may have been some junk in the old profile that slowed the laptop and caused the corruption. This is your laptop's gentle way of telling you to Back Up Your Important Stuff.
posted by theora55 at 12:08 PM on March 6, 2006