My user profile is corrupted!!!

[SupremeRuler99]

With the recent spate of technology blowing up in my face, this was the straw that broke the camel's back.

When I turned my laptop on and logged onto my user account it took slightly longer than normal. When it finished loading, all that my normal account looked like was what the guest, or an empty users account looks like. When I logged out and logged back in again a message appeared that said that it was unable to log me in, most likely because my profile is corrupt. It went on to say that it would log me into a temporary account with which all settings would be lost everytime I logged out.

I found my accounts documents, but I cannot open them. For example, all Word documents just open up a blank Word screen.

What has happened? Is it possible to fix this?

The only thing that I can think that could have caused this was when I was in a hurry to turn off my laptop and rather than do the normal shut down procedure, I simply held the power button down until it turned itself off. Surely this wouldn't do it?

My account is the Owner/Admin account, there are also two other 'restricted accounts' and the guest account.

Any help or advice would be GREAT, I'm very desparate, almost to the point of tears!

 

[KSoD]

The only thing i can think of is to log onto one of the other account and transfer the docs toa external HDD. The repair your install. If you cant get to the other account then go to the temp account. You can see them but not view them correct. then transfer them to a removable media and repair. If repair dont work then try a fresh install. A quick power down can do it. Since when you shut down it saves your settings and all that so a quick shut down can corrupt your data.

 

[SupremeRuler99]

how do I repair an install? Is there a possibility it could be a virus of some kind?

 

[baldygb]

If your using windows xp home edition reboot into safemode and the Administrator logon will appear above the default owner logon. The password is usually blank unless you changed it and go to docs and settings and copy everything in your profile except ntuser.dat to a temp folder on the root drive. Delete the corrupt profile under advanced system properities and then logon in owner to create a fresh profile and then copy the contents from your temp folder to the owner profile overriding all. I dont know what causes this but i am currently looking as several users where i work have experienced this problem.

 

[brady]

You can simply rename your local profile from an alternate admin account. Naming convention will be : (accountname) change it by renaming it to : accountname.old.date.
Then log off your admin account. Then log back in with your normal account. Things will look different, all you need to do is "copy" ( NOT CUT ) your Desktop/My Docs/Favorites over to your newly made local profile.

This is a good way to fix a lot of issues.

 

[SupremeRuler99]

Thanks for all the help. Turns out that all that was needed was to perform a System Restore Point! I did, backed up all my stuff and then formatted and reinstalled my OS.